I require a new wheel bearing (nearside rear) but have been quoted £200 as the bearing hub is a one piece appearently.
Can this be done at home on the drive or is it a fairly technical swap?
any guides?
oh yeah..the car is a croma eleganza 150 diesel (55 plate)

Fiatcromahull said:

I require a new wheel bearing (nearside rear) but have been quoted £200 as the bearing hub is a one piece appearently.
Can this be done at home on the drive or is it a fairly technical swap?
any guides?
oh yeah..the car is a croma eleganza 150 diesel (55 plate)

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Sure is a wheel brg noise, thought i had one gone, replaced the tyres and is all quiet, was an horrendous noise.

I believe so. Tech at independents drove it and said it was so no reason to disbelieve him. I wasn't sure myself at the noise which is loudest between 30 and 40mph

Fiatcromahull said:

I believe so. Tech at independents drove it and said it was so no reason to disbelieve him. I wasn't sure myself at the noise which is loudest between 30 and 40mph

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It could be brg, but i had the same diagnosis, how are your tyres ?, try changing front to rear to see if that changes noise. Will be sure then.

Do worn bearings normally get warm? I don't know, but if they do you could go for a drive without using the brakes and see if one of the hubs is warm after.

This is how I found my squealy brake pad, not sure if it applies to worn bearings though.

Cromas are known for tyre noise at the rear, especially as the tyres wear down. I confess I thought I had the same problem once - but turned out to be tyres.

How many miles has the car done? what sort of mileage?

Did your mechanic jack the car up and look for excessive play in the bearing? This is the only way of knowing for sure.

The bad news is that they are not cheap from FIAT as they have the ABS sensor built into the hub. The good news is that it is also a GM part used on the Vectra and Signum - so many aftermarket alternatives available. e.g.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REAR-WHEEL-BEARING-HUB-KIT-ABS-SAAB-9-3-1-9-TID-/390268266457#ht_4377wt_905

The relative part numbers are:

VAUXHALL 93170611
FIAT 5174 9115
GENERAL MOTORS 93170611
OPEL 1604 314
SAAB 93 170 611
SAAB 24 421 906

It is not a big job so well within the bounds of a competent home mechanic (have a go and save yourself £150 - tokens for BoozeBuster from your saved money for the advice gratefully received ). That said your local garage should be able to do it within an hour or so.

Attached show part and process

you dont test a bearing by going for a drive you jack car up and feel for play

only 35000 miles.
I will swap the front wheel with the rear and see how I go.
Thanks to all

The way rear wheel bearings were diagnosed initially (years ago) was by driving round a bend in each direction, to either load or unload the wheel, and if the growl altered you could tell which side it was. A growling bearing would rarely have any play in it.

Fiatcromahull said:

only 35000 miles.
I will swap the front wheel with the rear and see how I go.
Thanks to all

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Then unless you have been using it for sprint racing or carrying hods of bricks around everywhere the bearings should be ok.

I'm afriad I can't agree with Keithglos, unless a bearing has excessive play in it there should be no reason to replace it.

From having a previous car that ate wheel bearings (a Montego :yuck, I learnt that you can be sure that it's not the one you think the noise is coming from.

My rear tyres are starting to roar more now - it must be tyre wear related as said by Radlet. I did think the bearings were done when we first got it.

Step 1 though: check the tyre pressures are OK - the required pressures are pretty high, or at least they are with 18" wheels, not sure about the others. The tyre fitting place didn't believe me when I said it needed 38psi in the front.

Doofer said:

From having a previous car that ate wheel bearings (a Montego :yuck,

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I borrowed a Montego v6 estate for a short while. It was shod with Pirelli's on the front but some cheap slide and glide tyre on the back. That plus the long wheelbase made it an absolute hoot in the wet (well for a front drive car anyway).

Other than that it was dreadful :shakehead:

I've got to stick up for Keith at this point in that on older cars with taper roller bearings etc, when the bearing ran dry the rollers often got pitted and this would give a 'rumble' but without any play. On modern machinery the materials and lubricants have improved to the point where the bearing will wear and develop play without excessive noise - when the noise eventually develops (usually due to there being so much play in the bearing that the dust seals are no longer effective) it's easy to feel the play in the wheel.

In this case, I would be surprised if it wasn't tyres - search for "Vectra-C drone", it's a common problem due to the rear suspension having too much negative camber, and some tyres are more prone to it than others.

HTH.

DoIDon'tI said:

I've got to stick up for Keith at this point in that on older cars with taper roller bearings etc, when the bearing ran dry the rollers often got pitted and this would give a 'rumble' but without any play. On modern machinery the materials and lubricants have improved to the point where the bearing will wear and develop play without excessive noise - when the noise eventually develops (usually due to there being so much play in the bearing that the dust seals are no longer effective) it's easy to feel the play in the wheel.

In this case, I would be surprised if it wasn't tyres - search for "Vectra-C drone", it's a common problem due to the rear suspension having too much negative camber, and some tyres are more prone to it than others.

HTH.

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Even for a dry bearing the best method is a visual inspection, where again you will feel the dryness or the metal surfaces grating. Driving the car alone cannot reveal whether a bearing has gone.

Well I've been keeping quiet for a while regarding my Croma's life.

Well after many months of increasing drone / vibration (I can detect stuff many fail to hear/feel) I now need a new off-side front wheel bearing.

For the record/reference: replacing at 53K miles. Not very good in my opininion.

Only replacing the O/S to start with but can't but help think the N/S will require doing soon.

Anyway.

You have to replace the whole hub assembly.

OEM kits such as FBK976 cost around £140 and include the hub, three new bolts and driveshaft end nut.

Fiat hub P/N:51748680 today costs £173.91. To this you have to add 3 bolts a £2.50 each and a hub nut at £6.00 (bolt/nuts prices approximate).

Optional for either OEM or Fiat is the outer dust hub cap. Fiat price is around £6.00.

What really bugs me is why a wheel bearing is wrearing out at 50K miles. No excuse, not funny and a little worrying.

I can't but help think that cars are being made with bits to last just over 5 years / 60K miles. Out of manufacturer warranty costs and into owner's pocket expense.

Despite the gripe I was expecting worse (drive shaft / CV joint / shaft bearing or gearbox outer diff to shaft bearings).

So, fingers crossed the old Croma lives on to fight another day.

Watch that you dont remove the white plastic carrier for the ABS sensor or you wont get any ABS / Hill Holder/ Etc when mine was done they found that it had been removed and replaced wrongly. There was no positive location or sketch to show it !! had to order a new bearing ! While driving between bearings it took almost 10mins for all the warning messages to cycle through the screen . Its quite an important piece of kit to the whole running of the car.

The hub replacement that was used was a complete hub with integral ABS sensor ring.

When the old hub assembly was removed (with difficulty) the ABS sensor ring became detached.

Based on my experience then one should replace the whole hub assembly complete with ABS sensor ring. Will cost you around £140 from OEM suppliers and £190 from Fiat.

Point to NOTE! Fiat supply the hub at £174 to which you have to mounting bolts and hub nut, totaling £190. OEM supply hub, 3 mounting bolts and driveshaft end nut as a complete kit for £140.

My removed hub was internally stamp FAG and GM.

I replaced with a Firstline Firstline FBK 976 part.

Inside the Firstline box was an FAG box with FAG 805150 part.

So I got the full Fiat parts for £50 less than going via the Fiat original parts route.

this rear hub is a pain in the arse, 16mm nuts 3/8 short socket is too short 3/8 deep socket too deep (bit or arb in the way) and i can't find 1/2 16mm socket.
Nuts are meant to be 3 stage tighten, torque (60 Nm) then angle twice ( 60 deg then 15 deg) but there is no way a dial gauge is going to fit in the space

Anyone found any problems with front wheel bearings yet?Mines seems to have developed a droining sound from the front?Its now just turned 70k.

Some have in the past, I recall some posts from a couple of years ago.

A quick search should pull them up for you. As I recall they are a GM part.