2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Got bad news after service call at MAG

It's cool to mention other places, M/A doesn't operate in a vacuum. While a site sponsor may not have the Rock Auto price for the most part site sponsors offer intangibles such as install assistance and relationship building you just don't get from the price is our feature type vendors. It's up to the individual to put a value on such things.

 

A few words of advice from someone that has replaced all 4 wheel bearings with OEM wheel bearing units.

Buy the bearing that is already pressed into the mounting housing and sold as a complete unit. You can always buy cheaper parts but its not easy to press everything together if you don't have the proper tools. Yes Timken makes excellent bearings but they are not easy to install in a Mini.

If you contact one of the vendors here you can get the OEM ones for well under 200 easy.

I paid 240 for a pair of OEM wheel bearings at the dealership. Dealership service is expensive and I never use then for service work.

BUT you really should try to be friendly with the parts counter guy because he can really help and most will drop prices and price match other MINI dealership on-line prices.

Shop around for OEM parts and do the job yourself.

 

Eminiparts which is a vendor on here I think has a special on bearings.

 

A picture of the rims you have now will help people see what you need.

You can also try looking here on M/A Classifieds or the NAMeless site wheels section.

 

I would contact Wheel Medic here in C'bus and have them take a look at it. They have fixed a couple of mine on the Countryman and done a great job.

 

I did them in pairs just because I did not want to the same job four different times.

eMiniparts will be able to provide you with the parts you need at a decent / fair low price.

 

There are also companies out there that'll repair your bend. Structural integrity won't be the best but its an option.

Also what Dave said... Pictures bc itll help identify the wheel and some people have spares lying around bc they switch to lighter after market wheels.

 

Have the dealership mark the damage on the wheel, get an estimate for both a new wheel and a repair and then compare that to getting some nice new wheels.

You need to consider the warranty aspect in regards to doing the work yourself, the dealership will have a warranty on the bearing repair.

 

have you checked rockauto.com for the bearing? Or is posting outside parts sites rather than sponsors as taboo as suggesting other forums in addition to this one?

I checked Rock Auto for you. Anywhere from $70-165 depending on brand preferences. I personally don't see the point in spending $200+ on a wheel bearing... Been working on cars my whole adult life and owned more cars than I can count not including all the cars I've worked on for friends and customers. I've never had a parts-store-grade wheel bearing wear out within an unreasonable amount of time.

Double edit because I can't wait for the "It's not OEM or from one of our vendors" people shunning cheaper parts, the $150 front wheel bearing on Rock Auto is Timken. And if anyone here wants to say Timken doesn't make a quality bearing, they had better not work on their own cars....

 

Suggesting sponsors is nice....mentioning other forums is okay too...no one here is paranoid like over on the Sewing Site. For me when it comes to OE parts, eminiparts has always treated me right both with price and service.

 

Oh I'm not saying not to buy from a vendor. I didn't mean to come off that way (especially in my overly cynical tone that I normally have). Just putting it out there ahead of time because every forum I've been on with a heavy paying-sponsor presence seems to practically ban people for offering other options on parts.

In the end, it will be up to his budget and skill level. If he's going to do it himself and wants to save as much money as possible, I'd spend $70 on Rock Auto and get into the garage. If having OEM grade parts is important, but still he wants to do it himself.... well I'd still go with the Timken on Rock Auto for $150 lol.

 

Are you planning on doing it yourself or having a shop do it? Honestly, for dealership prices, $400 almost sounds reasonable if the price would cost you $200 yourself and then paying a shop to do the work, you might actually surpass that $400 total cost. If you're doing it yourself, definitely snag the part cheap from somewhere other than the dealer and have at it. I don't have experience with MINI wheel bearing/hubs specifically, but they aren't going to be much different than any other car with that style hub, and it's really not a hard part to replace.