Replacing front wheel bearing

I am a disgruntled owner of a 6 yo Voyager (Town and Country I believe in
US). At this stage it is costing me a small fortune in replacments.

I have a front bearing ready to go soon and I am informed that the
replacemnt part is a whole hub/bearing assembly at exhorbitant cost.

Does anyone know if the bearing can be separated from the hub with a view to
pressing a new bearing into it. Or is it annealed in or somehow fitted to
make this impossible. I have a mind to taking the bearing out, reading of
the number and getting it's replacment from a generic bearing supplier.

I am especially keen to do it at a cost more in line with other cars as it
is reasonable to expect that the opposite bearing will go soon also. $500
buck save twice is fairly substantial, expecially after having to spend
nearly 7 grand to replace the transmission last week after a lousy six years
of town driving!

 

My condolensces on the tranny and (now) the bearings. I'm afraid I bit the
bullet and replaced the whole hub/bearling assembly after being told the
bearings were unservicable. One would think the hubs would be servicable if
they required your old worn units be traded in to be remanufactured, but
they do not. Perhaps someone else knows better.

My curse in life has been to fall in love with Chrysler vans and Panasonic
phones, the former's transmissions break early and often while the latter's
keypads go dead with only moderate use. My '96 Gr. Caravan has seen 3
transmissions in it's day and, on my grandparent's grave, I swear I won't
pay for another.

I hope those Downunder dollars are worth less than Uncle Sam's, because $7k
for a tranny is well over twice what one might expect to pay here. Also the
hubs (which are quite easy to replace) can be obtained in the US for around
$150, though the dealer's parts desk wants over $200.

 

What the heck are you doing to that thing to have 3 trans go?!
Larry

 

I keep wondering what it is I do to cause this otherwise wonderful piece of
machinery to self destruct... not once but twice. Maybe one can do the
tranny service too often. Every 15k is about once a year. Heaven knows the
tranny's just getting used to the new fluid when it's suddenly drained and
replaced!

Maybe it's the abuse exacted by the dealer's technicians. They never have
the same tender loving care of an owner's hands.

Maybe it's the "too normal" type of driving we do... you know... driving the
kids to school, grocery shopping and the like.

Ok, so I'm a little defensive here. I just don't buy that our '96 Gr.
Caravan has finally discovered the thing that all our other cars and vans
couldn't... that we're abusive, tranny busting drivers!

 

David,

Sounds like you have the dealer technicians do the trans service. Are they
actually dropping the pan and replacing the filter every 15K miles as you
suggest in your post or are they doing something else, like the transmission
"backflush" through the trans cooler lines?

(I've never heard of anyone before who drops the pan, cleans it/magnet,
replaces the filter, and fluid every 15K miles! I do mine every 30-36K
miles and people thought I was obsessive...)

Bob S.

 

Every 15k, the pan is dropped, the fluid drained and the filter replaced.
It's refilled with Mopar ATF+3. At least that's what I thought I was paying
for. I never actually watched them do it. I've never heard of a
transmission service that was anything other than that (backflushing??)...
well band adjustments, but that doesn't apply to the 4 speed..

I've done it every 15k because that's what the maintenance schedule
specifies! For me, that's about once a year.

 

I do mine at 18 to 20k. I've never had a problem other than the one my 99
had when it grenaded at 150k but it truly was my own stupid fault for buying
a POC filter from China. Otherwise it was just fine. I replaced the trans in
my parents 91 only because it was slow going back to first and would
sometimes "bump" and scare my mother who at 80 doesn't need to be. So
something has to be going incredibly wrong for you. Teenager in the house?
Neutral drops? Etc. Not sure but your exp. ain't normal.
Larry

 

I've always thought your experience was the abnormal one! You've had great
luck with your 4 speeds and poor luck with your 3 speeds. My 3 speed lasted
225k miles before it self destructed and I was less regular with maintenance
on it.

I don't think I know a single owner of a minivan with the 4 speed
transmission from the early to mid 90's who's transmission hasn't been
replaced or rebuilt at least once with less than 100k miles (except for
you!). The 2nd gen. minivans have a better record. I know quite a number
of owners who haven't had transmission trouble and some who have. Don't
know about the latest Caravans.

My lastest thinking on this is from the mgr. of the tranny shop I went to
the last time around. He said the 4 speed was a fine transmission IN A CAR,
but inadequate for the heavier minivans (especially the extended version).
I also live in San Diego which is choc-full of hills and mesa's versus a
more easy going flat plain. That might explain more stress on the
transmission (and on my poor brakes).

 

My 93 when traded was fine at 136k miles and our 95 (we still have at 144k
is still working fine.
I also have many friends with never a problem on their 4 speeds either.

Terrain is no worse (actually easier) than New Yorks Adirondacks and the
Blue Ridge of Virginia where my homes are.
I also would have to disagree with your mechanic regarding the tranny being
over stressed in a van vs sedan. Now some of the smaller engines in the vans
I would agree with.

I personally think a lot of the issue is that owners often assume they are
getting a certain product/service when they are not. Many (and I have dealt
with several over the years) dealers do NOT use the ATF+3 that is required
unless you are sure to point it out to them. This is the first sure thing to
cause problems. I also know of a few cases where those that had problems got
the trannies replaced at the dealers recommendation only to have the problem
come right back. Turned out in both cases that it was the control module and
not the tranny at all. Now if you are on number 4 you are either driving the
hell out of it, or need to find a competent service center!

 

No doubt, but I don't think the bad reputation is ill deserved. The
experiences of ourselves and friends can't be the basis of proof, but I've
been in this newsgroup for a long time and the problems that consistently
pop up in this ng have statistical weight. One can list quite reliably the
common problems: 3.0 oil leaking, valve guide leaking, bendix-10 troubles,
4-speed tranny rebuilds and replacements, clocksprings, phantom wipers, fan
relays, etc. These are a small number compared to the things that could go
wrong and don't. These are the problems we see year in and year out here.

I can see that happening periodically, but I have a harder time believing
that the bad reputation is based on incorrect diagnosis or incorrect fluid
(by dealers???)nationwide! Maybe I'm wrong, but it requires one to believe
in massive and widespread incompetance.

Now if you are on number 4 you are either driving the

My van is on it's 3rd tranny. The original and two replacments. The first
time around was at 84k miles and it started dripping LOTS of fluid. It
drove ok, so I took it to the dealer and they pulled the codes and took it
for a road test. They said there were tranny fault codes and that the tech
heard bad things going on during the road test. They said they could tear
it apart, but that the tech was very certain of his diagnosis and it would
just be wasting money. They recommended a remaned mopar tranny.

I don't know a lot about trannies and having the van out of service was a
problem so I took their word. I paid about $2400 after begging for a little
relief on the price.

The second time was at about 145k and my wife got stranded 50 miles from
home. It was bucking and slipping so she stopped and called me for help.
We towed it to an independent shop and they opened it up. He showed me what
they found, it looked like one part had self destructed and caused
additional damage to numerous other parts and it would be cheaper to buy a
reman that to rebuild it. That was $2700. He told me that in his
experience that it wasn't just Chrysler minivans he's see's a lot of, but
also Toyatas and Hondas. In fact he had an Odyssey parked out front at that
moment. Both replacements came with Mopar 3/36 warranties.

Did I get ripped off? Who knows. It certainly wasn't that I didn't
maintain the tranny (or the van) or that I abused it.

 

Here in the states, you can get most any hub/bearing assembly in the
aftermarket. This means Chrysler has to lower their prices here to some
reasonable level compared to their competitor's costs + profit. But maybe
not over there. The bearings are not constructed in an expensive way at all.
$100 U.S. is more than they cost to manufacture. I haven't priced one at
Chrysler so I don't know what they sell for here. I just know I wouldn't
have to buy one at the dealer, I could buy it at a regular auto parts store.

 

Joe

Can you point me to any web sites or links to such? For the cost, it's maybe
worth my while to explore shipping them over myself if need be.

ciao
Colindownunder