Wheel bearing bad...

If the mechanic diagnosis was first a bad tire then decided it was the bearing...change your mechanic first. If you have a bad bearing, it is best practice to change both sides at the same time because the other one is going to fail soon after. Brake pads can be measured...so that is a no brainer. Cost is relative.

 

welcome! how many miles on her? if it's premature, i would just do the one. if not, makes sense to do both, but not absolutely necessary if finances are a consideration. the price sounds about right. all the best!

 

2005 in signature.

 

do you have the maintenance history of the car, to know if the other bearing has already been replaced or not?

 

Wheel bearing on a Prius isn't any different than a regular car, so any decent mechanic should be able to do it regardless of prior Prius experience.

 

As long as you determine which front wheel bearing is bad, it's not necessary to replace both sides at the same time.
You can get thousands of miles out of the other side before it needs replacement - if it ever does.

No "machine" is required to diagnose a bad bearing. Most of the time when a bearing becomes noisy,
it's usually loose. That's what happened to the driver's side front wheel bearing on my 05. The way to tell if it's loose
is to raise the wheel off the ground and see if the tire moves when you try to move it in and out at the 12:00 and 6:00 positions.
It's obvious when it is loose. It shouldn't move at all.
The passenger's side front wheel on mine did not move at all when I checked it when I was replacing the
driver's side bearing.

Seems too early for brakes on your car . My car has 242K miles - original brakes - still work well.

 

Brakes can be all over the map. Simple check of pad thickness will cut to the chase. If they're only 2~3 mm I wouldn't put it off. Beside pad replacement, it's good to periodically pull the pads, relube the caliper pins.

 

llg...as you already know, because you are a woman you will get taken advantage of disproportionately with car repairs and service by many. The first thing you need to do dump tire boy and find a reputable Mechanic and/or Dealership...so start there. You will get varying opinions here on PC based on you posts so far, but it's all conjecture until you find out "for sure" what is wrong with your vehicle. Stating you are a new Prius owner with a 2005 vehicle @145,000 miles means the car is used. While the Prius is very reliable, it does not run on magic. Even with recorded history...you really know nothing about how it was used and maintained.

 

call a toyota dealer for a quote on replacing a wheel bearing. you can also look for triple a rated mechanics. 3 hours sounds reasonable.

 

That would "assume" the problem is a bad wheel bearing.

 

he checked it with a 'machine'.

 

Yea...same one he checked her new tires with...his money machine.

 

My right rear went in late 2010. I only replaced that one. It was another three years before I needed the left front in late 2013, and I haven't had to replace either of the remaining two yet.

I found it difficult to tell which bearing. The right rear eventually got bad enough to feel the problem with the corner jacked up, spinning the hub by hand. The left front just got louder and louder on the road over a period of months, but never gave any detectable sign when spinning it by hand, measuring temperature after driving, nothing. The only thing that positively identified it for me was a ChassisEar (a box with several contact microphones you can stick different places in the car, then drive and listen to them selectively). I put one pickup on the suspension near each wheel, and then it was really easy to hear that the left front was the noisy one.

So, sometimes, a "machine" can be useful for this stuff.

-Chap

 

I just replaced my drivers side and it was about an hour and a half of fun. The best way to tell if a bearing is bad is to go to an empty parking lot and make a hard turn to the left or right for a long time and if the noise gets much quieter, is the bearing. My car is a 2006 with 158,000 miles.