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Replacing rear wheel bearing/hub

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by fatdawg, Mar 28, 2014.

  1. fatdawg

    fatdawg Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2007
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    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    I thought I'd share, my rear wheel hub was very bad, wheel wobble when shook about a width of a quarter (found by the tire shop during tire purchase).

    Shops were charging $450-$600 to do the work, however the part by itself is a bearing / hub combo, no need to separate the two, the dealer price for the part is around $250 and the OEM grade from Autozone was $90.

    I didn't want to fork out that much money to do the work that looked simple, I was just concerned about the hammering to get the hub off the car.

    Wow! I was surprised how easy it was to remove this, just 4 bolts in the back of the drum brake, maybe I got lucky with no rust on the hubs, I was able to remove the hub with no hammer, I didn't have to remove the drum brake pads, everything just shimmied out. I found installing the hub back was more difficult, but by installing the bolts and using the bolts to pull in the hub was the trick (make sure you everything is lined up so you don't strip the thread).

    After all is done, it took me about 1 hour. The hub was bad it was difficult to turn, maybe my MPG will go up now that I have replaced that.
     
    #1 fatdawg, Mar 28, 2014
    PriFi and krmcg like this.
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2008
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    Location:
    Green Valley, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Congrats on your success. Which hub did you buy?

    If the Autozone part, is it possible that part was slightly larger than the original, thus requiring you to use the bolts to pull in the hub?
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Mar 28, 2014
  3. fatdawg

    fatdawg Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2007
    131
    55
    0
    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Its the Autozone part, you can find it on eBay for "instore" pickup. The fit is just fine, it was just lining up and trying to push and keep the hub in the drum was just difficult.

    Overall, with 190k+ miles, this and the navigation display was the only 2 major issues I've had. Not bad!
     
    #3 fatdawg, Mar 28, 2014
  4. Hjeff

    Hjeff Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2013
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    Location:
    Texas
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Just replaced both rear hubs on my 08 today. It took less than 15 minutes each, but I had a puzzle about idiot lights. (My wife says that if it's idiot proof, I can crack the code).

    The ABS, ! and Brake lights were lit on the dash. I asked a parts store guy to reset the codes (he said he couldn't), so I disconnected the 12v battery.

    I wanted to see if the sensors in the new hubs were bad, so I reconnected the old ones. No change.

    While I was under the car, I noticed one of the new hubs had a bent terminal where it plugs in. Maybe it was bent from the factory, but I could have bent it installing the wire. I straightened it with a screwdriver, and was annoyed that it didn't fix it. The lights were still on.

    Oh well, I'll drive it anyway. About 1 block down the road, the idiot lights went out. I was in business!

    As best as I can tell, the quality of the hubs from Detroit Axle (under $60 total on Ebay) is good.

    I can not see how this is a $600 job, even if parts are 4x. It is no harder than an oil change, and you don't have to get under the car.
     
    #4 Hjeff, Jun 28, 2014
    SFO likes this.
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