Carrier Bearing replacement question

Took my Tacoma to a tire ahop yesterday, sounded like it needs a new wheel bearing. But it is also shuddering when I accelerate so something else was obviously happening.

They test drove it, said yeah, I was right about the wheel bearing but more importantly the shuddering was caused by a bad carrier bearing, so basically when I accelerate the drive shaft is kind of flopping around in the bearing, it needs replacement. He even put my truck on the lift and showed me what a normal carrier bearing looks like and let me see what my carrier bearing looks like. Sure enough, that's metal on metal, I'm no mechanic but I can tell that needs to be fixed.

The nearest place to repair it is the local Ford dealership, about 30 miles away. The nearest Toyota dealership is 60 miles through the mountains, almost a 2 hour drive.

The Toyota dealership quoted me a price of $1200 for the carrier bearing (parts and labor).

Ford Dealership quoted me $270 for the carrier bearing (parts and labor).

This is such an insane difference I called the Ford dealership back and asked them to double check that everything was correct with their quote. He said it's possible the carrier bearing replacement requires an entirely new drive shaft, so he checked with the parts manager and they decided that no, it just needs a new bearing for $90 and $180 labor.

I'm still a little uncomfortable with it. Does anyone know about this repair and can offer some advice to put my mind at ease?

 

Just found this thread below, seems the Ford dealership is correct and the Toyota dealership is either stupidly overcharging or a bit crazy. Given that they want $590 to fix the wheel bearing issue... Bahahahha thanks but I'm actually going to let a Ford dealership fix my Tacoma.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replacing-carrier-bearing.260283/page-11

 

Maybe upgrade the CB with something better. Just an idea.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...uy-iedls-polyurethane-carrier-bearing.421410/
https://www.iedls.com/?a=Power_Train#Our_Difference

 

carrier bearing is a 1 hour job TOPS

1200 bucks no friggin way no how

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-replacing-carrier-bearing.260283/

 

Bethes I feel your pain. I took my '03 Tacoma PreRunner to the Dealership for a tire balance and asked them to check the Universal Joints. I explained that I wasn't aware of any issues, just more of a check due to the age/miles on the truck.
Service rep comes to me in the lobby and quotes about $1,700 to replace the entire drive shaft!!! He said it's hard to tell if one is bad and if you replace one, you may have to replace another and so on.
What killed me was how he just acted like it was no big deal to spend that amount of money, because after giving me the quote he said, "you want to go ahead wait on it while we do it?"
That was about 4 months ago and it's still running like a champ..........with the original universal joints

 

Literally laughed out loud.

 

I'm assuming the Toyota dealer was going to replace the whole shaft while Ford was just doing the carrier. I don't think there's any reason to do any more than the Ford dealer wants to do. Why Toyota would quote that is beyond me unless they expected you to balk and the service writer could then come in with a lower alternative that you would bite on.

Not at all defending the dealership on this but there's some truth here. When you have one bad u-joint the others have probably been beaten up with the resulting binding or out of balance, so you might as well replace them all and rebalance the driveshaft when it needs to be done. This is something you can have done WAY cheaper than $1700, though. You don't have to replace the whole thing every time, they can be rebuilt.

 

That seems kind of unethical?

 

Totally agree with you in that if one is bad they probably all need to be done. It just threw me when he said they recommended replacing the entire drive shaft.
At some point I'm going to take the drive shaft to "Larry's Driveshaft" in Springdale, AR which is located about 20 minutes from here. They will replace all the universal joints and balance for much less.

 

Totally unethical.

 

I had my entire drive line rebuilt for under $300. New ujoints, new center support bearing and re-balance the shaft.
FYI...if you are talking about the center support bearing in the middle of your drive shaft, there is a part for a Ranger or Bronco II the has the same inner diameter of the Tacoma center support bearing. I know others have used it. It is a different design than the Toyota/Dorman part, maybe better? I have been using one since April this year when I had my drive line rebuilt. No problems since then, vibrations (caused by lift) virtually gone and lees expensive than the OEM part. It's not 100% plug-n-play; you will need a mounting bracket/piece of steel to mount it to the Tacoma. I will try to get a picture of how mine is installed later today.

 

Even the replacement cost is seriously high. I had a rear one made up and it was about $350, although he reused parts. Flanges for example and my carrier bearing was still good. But new heavy wall tubing, slip spline, Toyota u-joints, welded, balanced, painted.

 

you can do it yourself tons cheaper...

 

Do you have a part number for the Ranger/Bronco II carrier? Pics of the mounting bracket would also greatly be appreciated.

 

Sorry, no part number. Pics to follow later.

 

The reason why the yota dealer is so expensive is they will NOT replace / dismantle / re-assemble the u joints for what ever reason. So the price was for a whole driveshaft replacement.

I just went and replaced my CB with a ford ranger bearing from inland empire driveline supply (big ole thread on this). And its MUCH better.

also repalced the center u joint while i was there as it was already half way out of the driveshaft.

Cost of CB was 73 bucks, u joint (exact spicer replacemanet) was 23. Nothing is pressed on as far as the CB goes, so its all real easy to pull off.

 

hope this helps. Can't get under the truck anymore than that in my work clothes!

 

My drive shaft does not look nothing like the one in the link for the first gen. I dont have a flanged where the carrier bearing is. How do I get the to shafts apart?

 

Custom? So the write up with pictures is not stock?