Hi I have a 2006 min cooper making a loud humming whirring noise in front passenger wheel. My husband isolated to that wheel. He thinks it's a wheel bearing. Car has 109k. What brand should we look at for replacement. A Mini OEM part or is there another brand that would be better. Thanks.

 

I looked around a bit and couldn't find the wheel bearing by itself, but instead the entire wheel hub. This is more expensive but you don't have to pay a shop to press in a bearing.

Typically with car parts there are three price ranges- the cheap China brands, something decent at a decent price, and then the MINI OEM version which is significantly more expensive. I would go with the middle price range; I could find Timken(good) wheel hubs for ~$130. Cheapest I could find was $60.

 

(part #7 in the illustration above)

You can use www.realoem.com to find your part number, then search for your part number on the various vendors.

As mentioned, the MINI's don't have press-in bearings. It's the whole hub needing to be replaced. I think the last one I got was Febi, no problems with it so far.

Looks like Pelican has them from $112-179, and ECS $131 and up

Presumably the tires have been inspected, as that would be my first area to look.
If it's not the hub, it can be the axle/CV joint. It should be inspected and seen if the boot is ripped or showing some sign of leaking. If you do end up needing an axle make sure to get an OEM one (yes, expensive), or at least use a mechanic that will guarantee the fitment and will re-do the work with OEM. There was a time that the cheap aftermarket ones were known to be slightly smaller and may "pop" out.

 

More info here on the wheel bearings, watch as you are a 2006 , in late 2006 they changed the wheel lug bolt size on the wheel bearing.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ent-fault.html





Also watch the abs sensors on install. they tend to get bumped and break.

Done all four on my R52 before.

 

We ended up getting the OEM, our local dealer had the kit for only $190 so not much more than an aftermarket part. My husband fixed it last night and that was it. The tires were brand new and when he looked at the other areas (axle/cv joint looked ok. So my mini is back on the road.

 

Thanks for the update No more rumble.

 

Timken (good quality) wheel bearing/hub assemblies are about $100 from Rock Auto.

 

I would stay away from after market ones, I replaced the timkens ones 4 times (both sides twice) due to prematurely failed bearings. They lasted between 10-15k each and failed not by making typical bearing noise I always noticed excessive play rotating my tires or heard my brakes clacking in traffic, wilwood fixed calipers pad became misaligned due to the slop in the bearing.