Recommendations for shop to do wheel bearing press work

Hello TW! I am hoping someone from LA/OC area of California can recommend a solid shop that knows how to properly press front wheel bearings???

I actually have most of the tools to do the job but I only have a 12ton shop press and I have read many accounts of people needing a 20 or even 40ton press in order to get the old bearings out. If I can find a shop that people would recommend for this work that will do the press work for less than $150 for both sides then I would definitely be interested in just paying a shop to do the press work. If it’s going to cost more than $150 I may just opt to upgrade my HF shop press to the 20ton pneumatic press….

Thanks in advance for any info! If there is anyone who is local to LA/OC area that has access to a heavier duty press and would be willing to lend me an hour of help to press the bearings I would be more than happy to compensate you for the time/help!

 

Find a coupon and upgrade to the 20 ton press. Throw your 12 ton on Craigslist or FB marketplace.

 

Get the HF 20t press. Just did this job on one. Was easy work for the press. Supporting the spindle is the hardest part because of it's shape.

 

$150 is very reasonable
(.5hr for each) with spindles removed and brought to shop

cash talks to a mechanic 100%

 

honestly this was the backup plan…. The thing is I just don’t really use the shop press enough to justify doing that, but I suppose since i already have the bearing separator and the different sized pressing plates…. Might as well.

 

Last time I paid a machine shop to press bearings in a Camry the guy charged me $25 each side. It took him less than 30min to do them both…. Honestly I feel like $100 is fair. $150 was the absolute max I would pay a shop…. Any higher than that and I would just go pay for the 20T press at HF and do it myself… it’s not rocket science.


Edit: this was 10+ years ago, next time I needed to press bearings I bought the 12t shop press, which worked ok for the fwd bearings in a passenger car, but it even struggled with those…. So I know it aint going to cut it for the Tacoma bearings….

 

Yeah man totally agree

Last time I needed to do the same as you
Tipped a mechanic $40 (8yrs ago)
He wasn’t going to charge me, but wanted to (in case I needed the same for different corner)
That amount just won’t work presently

I’m fact, some shops in my area are freaking $240hr……and they would laugh in your face if you were to bring your own parts(they wouldn’t make $$ on markup/making up their own price)

 

I don’t take any of my vehicles to any “mechanics”. I was talking about taking the spindles to a machine shop. The only mechanic I have ever really trusted to do competent work and not try to screw me died of a brain tumor and after getting ripped off by the dealership I just resolved to fix my vehicles myself. Only things I pay shops to do normally is tires/alignment and to evacuate AC system if I need to repair an AC system (although last year I fixed 3-4 ACs for friends and family and I almost bought a cheap setup for evacuating ACs, but $1000 was a bit much for something I will use maybe a handful of times, so I worked out a deal with a local shop to evacuate the AC and refill it after I rebuilt and vacuumed it down real good for $150 + the cost of any missing refrigerant that was not in the system due to leaks…. It was a fair enough deal…

 

$240/hour is absolutely insane…. Maybe I should open my own shop and just fix cars for a living… then I could just buy the special tools when needed and write it off my taxes…

 

I may just have been lucky, but I did my bearings with a 12ton HF press. I have an 03 California truck and it pressed them out and in fine.

 

You know I was thinking I might just give it a go on the 12 ton press… I think as long as I can get the old one out… the new one should go in easy, I can stick it in the freezer for a bit to cool it down and shrink it a tad!