Hi All

Just put my Brava into my local garage and they've said that the knocking noise I've been hearing is due to the passenger side wheel bearing, and luckily not the driveshafts. Just bought one on shop4parts.co.uk for £21+VAT (Halfords where I work wanted about £50!).

Anybody had any experience with replacing this? I've been told that my pads should be replaced along with the discs!

Thanks

brakes make no difference to replacing the front wheel bearing.you will need to get a garage with a press to push out the old one and put the new one in but after that its simple reassembly of the strut etc

Thanks custard boy, what a response time!

With regards to the brakes, they basically said the pads are almost gone, and that the discs are slightly warped and that they have rusted on the outside or something!

They said 3 hours @ £27+VAT per hour to do it all, and I really do trust them, so I suppose its not all that bad . . .

discs and pads are not a hard job if your handy with the spanners.if your planning to do the wheel bearing then you can do the disc and pads no probs.

as for garage prices i couldnt really say as i avoid them as much as i can

DAMN IT! Car went in today, garage took it all to bits and fitted the new bearing. Apparently, it all went on ok (new pads, discs fitted, bearing fitted, brake fluid flushed and replaced), but now the ABS light is on and they don't know why - they've said the bearing is probably the wrong one, but on shop4parts.co.uk it only lists one for the 1.2! AHH! They want another 2 hours to take the old one out, plus I've had to get one VOR'd from FIAT at £40+VAT. Thats £100+VAT more now!

could be an air lock maybe?
althoughi once had an abs light come on in an old cavvy sri after doing the brakes. couldnt find a thing so drove it around for a couple of days and it went out.
could only think i logged an error while it was up in the air and it somehow cleared the memory as it never came on again.

dont see how the wrong bearing could affect the ABS as it doesnt have anything to do with the ABS AFAIK unless they have some special system ive never seen

Spoke to Chris at Sidwell St FIAT (head of parts) and he said something about the "ABS Ring" you get in the bearing kit? :S

Just checked my ePER DVD and it says there is a difference between them - its the same one fitted to me mum's Stilo funnily enough. Oh well.

Just sent a p****d off message to shop4parts.co.uk, lets see what they say. Their listings should say for NON-ABS vehicles only.

Do you reckon the car needs to have the ABS system reset once this has been sorted or will it just sort itself out??

Thanks (esp. to you Custard Boy! )

well if its a faulty/non compatible sensor ring then it should just clear as soon as it gets the correct signal.
dont understand how the garage could have fitted it if it didnt have the sensor ring.cars ive had its been on the outer CV/hub and not part of the bearing kit. but i would expect the garage to see they were not the same before fitting

As would I! He apparantly was very apologetic about the situation, but he did have to phone FIAT to ask them - makes you wonder really . . .

*UPDATE*

shop4parts.co.uk have admitted that the part has been mis-described, and have offered me a full refund (£25) plus £100 towards the labour and new bearing (I need to send them a copy of the invoice to show that it needed to be done).

Rather impressed! New bearing is coming from FIAT tomorrow so my poor baby should be back on the road tomorrow!

hats off to shop4parts on that. must admit they have never let me down on parts but at least they seem to have made amends on there error

I'd have to say that, working in the trade (kind-of), I was very impressed with their resolution. I shall keep using them in the future.

Bit of a laugh (well rather irritating actually), ordered the new bearing from FIAT on Wednesday night on VOR (Vehicle Off Road), and was told it'd be in on Friday. I asked Chris at Sidwell St to take it to Moores Motors (where I am having the work done), a 20 mile drive, but he said he'd deliver it free in the morning, so my car would be ready in the afternoon. Phoned Moores to arrange pick-up to be told no bearing had turned up! Phoned Chris - he'd forgotten to mark it for delivery!

Good thing is that he's only charging me cost price for the bearing, taking £30 off it!