Wheel Bearing Replacement Cost Calculator

The Forester tops the list at 32 complaints, most on 2015-2017 models, at a median of 61,683 miles. The Outback follows with 25 complaints, and its failures come much earlier, at a median of 36,573 miles. For the Outback, the peak years split between 2015 and 2020-2021. The Crosstrek has 14 complaints, mostly 2016-2018 models, at a median of 40,000 miles. The Impreza and Legacy also appear on the list.

If you own an Outback under 40,000 miles and hear a hum from one corner, you are well within the range where other owners reported this failure.

All 11 C-HR complaints fall in one model year, 2018. No other model in this data has that concentration. A 2018 C-HR owner with bearing noise is reporting something other owners of the same year also filed.

One in ten complaints came at 3,600 miles or less, and a quarter came by 14,000 miles. At those mileages the car is nearly always still under factory warranty. Owners reported bearings failing at 2,000 miles on a 2015 Honda Odyssey and at 7,500 miles on a 2015 Subaru Outback. A 2015 Honda Accord owner wrote: "Dealership diagnosed faulty wheel bearing and replaced it under warranty on Feb 13, 2017 at 22,600 miles."

The median is 40,000 miles and 90% of complaints came by 94,000 miles. A low-mileage failure is a warranty question before it is a repair bill.

Median failure mileage by model year falls from 49,100 on 2015 models to 12,750 on 2019 models. Part of that drop is simply that newer cars have fewer miles on them. Either way, a newer car with bearing noise does not need high mileage to have a genuine bearing failure.

The CV axle appears in the same complaints at a lift of 20.7, the strongest link of any part. Strut work (lift 14.4), brake rotors (11.5) and brake calipers (11.2) follow. All of these parts sit at the same wheel hub. So a bill much larger than the calculator's single-bearing figure may include work on these parts, not only a bearing overpriced at a high rate.

Owners reported paying a median of $1,000. For one front bearing, the calculator gives $240–$430 with budget aftermarket parts at $120/hr. For one bearing with dealer OEM parts, it gives $340–$700. The owner quotes show why the gap exists: most describe pairs.

For a pair, the calculator gives 2 front bearings at $435–$785. At a $175/hr shop, one front bearing runs $323–$568.

Among complaints that recorded speed, the median speed at failure was 45 mph. Only 1% of these failures happened while parked, and 6% of owners needed a tow. Noise was the top symptom, in 36% of complaints. Most owners hear the bearing well before anything else happens, so the noise is your chance to fix it before it becomes a highway failure. Owners also reported 11 crashes and 8 injuries.

Recall 24V911000 covers certain 2024 RAV4 and 2025 Lexus NX vehicles. On these, the bolts holding the front brake caliper and the wheel hub bearing may be loose, which risks wheel detachment. Recall 21V812000 covers 2021 Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport and Passat vehicles whose front wheel bearing bolts may have been tightened incorrectly. Recall 19V879000 covers 2019 Jetta GLI, Golf Alltrack and Golf GTI front bearings that may have been machined improperly. On any of these models, check the VIN for an open recall before paying for hub work.

Bulletins cover noise rather than failure. Dodge bulletin 02-007-26 covers front wheel bearing clicking on the Charger. Lexus bulletin L-TT-0321-22 covers a roaring noise from the front of 2019-2022 ES models. Audi bulletin A402237202431811 covers a clicking noise from the wheel bearing on the Q7, Q8 and RS Q8.