[driveseeker]

My daughter took her 2006 X3, with c. 170K miles, to a small shop in a small town out west, for a droning noise. Diagnosis: replace left rear wheel bearing for $134 parts, 285 labor. She said OK, then things got more interesting. They said the axle was rusted so badly that it would be damaged removing the nut, and likely need to be replaced, bringing the total cost to $1,200.

It's the only shop in town, which is 1,500 miles from me, so I wanted to ask: does this pass the smell test?

Many thanks for any thoughts.

[denNorske]

Originally Posted by driveseeker

My daughter took her 2006 X3, with c. 170K miles, to a small shop in a small town out west, for a droning noise. Diagnosis: replace left rear wheel bearing for $134 parts, 285 labor. She said OK, then things got more interesting. They said the axle was rusted so badly that it would be damaged removing the nut, and likely need to be replaced, bringing the total cost to $1,200.

It's the only shop in town, which is 1,500 miles from me, so I wanted to ask: does this pass the smell test?

Many thanks for any thoughts.

require pictures, and have them deliver the old part directly to you or something. If they are trying something fishy, they wouldn't go as far showing you incorrect pictures.

Whenever I feel something ain't right such as when i just had changed my brake pads, they tried telling me the pads were worn out and had to be changed. when i asked for pictures their excuse was thei had confused me with someone else...

Give that a try

[driveseeker]

Interesting story and good idea. Thanks. We may try that. I'm mainly curious as to how likely it is that a wheel bearing assembly could be so rusted on that removing it would break the rear axle.

[Scout10]

Originally Posted by driveseeker

Interesting story and good idea. Thanks. We may try that. I'm mainly curious as to how likely it is that a wheel bearing assembly could be so rusted on that removing it would break the rear axle.

So are they saying "IF" axle is damaged beyond safe re-use during
disassembly, the additional is $XX.00.

YOU want Before and AFTER pix are required and the faulty part goes with
the owner.

flip side is delay in decision will also delay repair if they are isolated.

[peete]

Seems a little high. The drive flange should be replaced as well from my experience.
It can be a pain to R&R a rear wheel bearing but the shop should have the proper bearing tooling. Nothing is BMW specific. They should use a regular hub puller to get the drive flange off of the axle then just press out the bearing from the housing. Rust should not appreciably increase labor.
For that quoted price you could get the dealer to do the job. Then it has a warranty and any dealer will honor it.