97 legacy front wheel bearing/hub assembly

[Cpm590]

Planning to change a front wheel bearing on my subaru wagon. Wanted to know if you get a hub assembly will the bearing come as part of the new assembly. Was thinking that it may be better to replace the whole assembly and not have to deal with pulling the bearing and pressing the new one. Any info would help a lot, thanks.

[johnceggleston]

the best solution, in my opinion, is to pull your hub assembly and take it to a shop or a ma chine shop, and have them press the bearing in.

i did this last summer and the bearing and the labor to press it in was right at $100.

i think i got the bearing at wholesale cost since i bought it from the shop who pressed it. (fisher auto parts or federated )

 

a complete assembly, (housing, bearing, hub, lug studs?, ball joint? ) if they sell them, is probably going to be expensive.

 

another solution is to buy a used one from http://www.car-part.com . ($35 ?)

look in a southern state that does not have snow or rust and look for a cheap one.

have it shipped to your door.

swap it in for your bad one and save the bad one. (i've done this too.)

if / when the new / used one goes bad, have a bearing installed in the old one and install it. (less down time.)

Edited October 9, 2013 by johnceggleston

[Cpm590]

I've found hub assemblies online for around 35$ and wheel bearings for around the same. I have access to a press but its about 30min from my house. Was thinking I could get that all set and ready for when I do the replacement. Try to keep the amount of time my car is up on blocks taking garage space to a minimum. Keeping the old one is def a good idea and will do that. Thanks for the info.

[Mikevan10]

I thought that having access to a press was helpful but that replacing these bearings (even if you have a press) is tricky and/or required special tooling.  Otherwise guys like Johnceggleston would change their own.