Cheapest shop for a wheel bearing
 

Hi I'm new and just joined this forum. I did a search but couldn't really find a relevant thread. So I figured I would just ask. I have a 96 integra se thats basically stock except for wheels,k&n and radar. I just took it for an alignment and the shop said I need a front wheel bearing. They wanted $350 to install one front bearing so I politely told them to put my car back together and left. They quoted me $160 for the bearing and 2 hours labor. When i checked the local auto parts store I found the bearing was $89. Needless to say I wont get anymore work done there. I figure one bearing should be about 1 hour labor. So any suggestions for a good and fair shop to get this fixed?

What most shops do it quote you for the "premium" part and charge it to you at retail plus 10%... Say if the list price is $200, they charge you $240 even tho they only payed mabye $120 For the part. They make there money with part mark-up. Shops dont like to use economy bearings/parts because they may wear out pre-maturly and they will not do warranty work with cheaper parts. The labor includes doing the work to the "book" which is a manual telling shops how many hours they can charge. This quote includes cleaning of the tools and putting them away when the job is finished.

Check out some of the sponsors, most should give you a bit of a break for being on Revscene. If not, the next best place is the dealership. Can't go wrong with OEM parts, and techs that know what they're doing :)

Not to be a dick but under what experience do you feel a bearing should be one hour labor?

Two hours is fair assuming some minor complications (you do have a 13 year old car after all) but yes the price they gave you for the bearing was steep.
FYI driving on a cooked bearing is very dangerous I personally have experienced catastrophic wheel bearing failure twice (bad luck I guess). Its not pretty.

2 hours is about right, or maybe on the higher side of average. This car, the knuckle needs to be removed, then press out the hub through the front, undo the snap ring, then press out the bearing through the back. 99% of the time the inner race of the old bearing sticks to the hub and will need to be chiseled off, so the hub can be re-used. Install is in reverse order. I can't see anyone wanting to do this for one hour. I think our shop charges roughly 1.5 hr per side
$89 for a bearing is about right. Odds are any wheel bearing you buy will be NSK or some other made in Japan part which (i'm almost sure of) is OEM

Thanks for the input now I feel better .