Honda CR-V Wheel Bearing Cost

Any properly functioning vehicle needs all parts to be in their best condition, which means that investing in regular maintenance is an absolute must.

This much is true for parts like the wheel bearings, whose function is to make sure the wheels turn smoothly and without much friction on the road. If you’ve ever heard of hubs, note that these spin inside of the wheel bearings; thus, the bearings are essential. 

If you notice that your wheel bearings are emitting a strange sound, seem looser than usual, or that you have other issues related to steering or balance among your tires, you may need to replace your wheel bearing.

There are a plethora of issues that can occur if you don’t have a properly functioning wheel bearing, not to mention the fact that it could cause a wheel to pop off and make you crash your car. 

On average, the cost of replacing a wheel bearing for a Honda CR-V model is about $337. This cost estimate takes into account various factors, including auto labor costs in different locations, model years, and more.

The cost is inclusive of the prices for both labor and parts, where parts cost around $135 and labor costs around $202.

For this auto replacement job, labor takes up about 60% of the total cost, while parts take up about 40% of the cost. In this article, we’ll break down the costs associated with replacing wheel bearings specifically for the Honda CR-V model.

We’ll account for the different year releases of this car model, as well as discrepancies in the cost of auto work in different locations, and more. Read on to learn about the costs of this replacement job, as well as its long-term costs over the span of owning your Honda CR-V. 

Cost Breakdown for Honda CR-V Wheel Bearing Replacements 

While replacing a wheel bearing is a job in itself, note that there may be other associated repairs or part replacements you have to do if you have a bad wheel bearing on your Honda CR-V. For now, though, we’ll focus on the outright costs of the wheel bearing replacement specifically. 

It’s also important to note that prices will vary among different CR-V models on the market for various years since this model’s creation. In the below table, we’ll compare the average cost of a wheel bearing replacement for Honda CR-V models of different release years.

Honda has been releasing updated versions of the CR-V since the year 1997 when it first hit the market. It will also account for cost differences in different locations around the country, where auto labor costs differ.

Ohio was the state in 2020 where auto repairs cost the least in the US, while California was the state where auto repairs cost the most in the US. Idaho costs represent figures closer to the average US auto repair costs. 

One important thing to note about these figures is that they are averages based on costs for 1-4 wheel bearing replacements, but not everyone will need to replace multiple wheel bearings at once. These estimates may be more representative of more than one wheel bearing replacement. 

While you might expect there to be an outright trend in wheel-bearing replacement costs over the years, the results are a bit more muddied than that. Obviously, the much older models of the Honda CR-V require less expensive replacements.

This is obvious in the table above. However, costs do fluctuate over the years, and some earlier models actually do require more expensive replacements than newer models.

You will also notice that, in general, the cost of this auto job is more expensive in states like California than it is in states like Idaho and Ohio, for example.

Factors That Affect the Cost of Replacements

Number of Wheel Bearings You’re Replacing

One factor affecting the cost of wheel bearing replacement jobs is how many wheel bearings there are that need to be replaced. Obviously, each vehicle is going to have four-wheel bearings – one for each wheel.

You’ve got your two front wheel bearings and your two rear wheel bearings. If you need to replace more than one wheel bearing, your costs are going to start increasing overall, since the cost of multiple parts will add up. 

For example, when we look at the cost of wheel bearing replacement for a 2018 Honda CR-V, it costs an average of $948 to replace both front wheel bearings. On the other hand, it costs an average of only $506 to replace just one front wheel bearing (costs are based on Los Angeles prices). 

Front Wheel Bearings vs. Rear Wheel Bearings

Further, if you need to replace rear wheel bearings, as opposed to front wheel bearings, there could be cost discrepancies. For example, wheel bearing replacement costs for a 2005 Honda CR-V come out to an average of $431 to replace one front wheel bearing, whereas it costs an average of $708 to replace one rear wheel bearing.

Costs are again based on Los Angeles prices. We can see that in some cases, it may cost you more to replace a rear wheel bearing than it costs to replace a front wheel bearing on a Honda CR-V model. 

DIY vs. Professional Labor

One other thing that may affect the cost of a wheel bearing replacement is whether or not you replace it yourself. Although DIY labor is generally not preferred among vehicle owners, if you have the auto knowledge, you could replace a wheel bearing on your own. In this case, you would only need to pay for the parts. 

If you choose to take this route, you would be paying for the average cost of parts, which is about $135 in the US. Note that this is significantly less than the average when having a professional do the job for you – a couple of hundred dollars less. 

Lifetime Costs of Replacing Honda CR-V Wheel Bearings

Another aspect of repair and replacement costs that people want to know is how much money you’ll spend on particular jobs over a car’s lifetime. 

In the Case of Sealed Wheel Bearings

Most vehicle owners will be pleased to know that it’s not too common these days for a wheel bearing to go bad. This is because they are generally sealed wheel bearings, which last a long time. 

However, even sealed wheel bearings only last so long – generally up to 100,000 miles or so. If your Honda CR-V reaches that point and the sealed wheel bearing starts to malfunction, you’ll definitely want to get it replaced.

Given that most vehicles are estimated to last between 250,000 and 300,000 miles overall, we can estimate the lifetime costs of this replacement by counting every 100,000 miles or so. 

Overall, you shouldn’t have to replace a wheel bearing more than two or three times in the entire lifespan of a Honda CR-V. So at most, if you own the car from new until it reaches its end, you’d be paying about $674 (average $337*2) or $1011 (average $337*3). 

In the Case of Tapered Wheel Bearings (Non-Sealed)

However, not every vehicle has sealed wheel bearings. In some cases, you may have tapered wheel bearings, which don’t last quite as long as the sealed ones. The thing is, though, with regular maintenance, you can avoid replacing these and stick to repairs.

They should be looked at and maintained every 27,500 miles or so. 

Conclusion

A malfunctioning wheel bearing is nothing to neglect when it comes to vehicle maintenance. If left unfixed or unreplaced, this issue can ruin your vehicle’s suspension, and cause a wheel to fall off, among a myriad of other issues. 

A Honda CR-V wheel bearing replacement will cost, on average, about $337 (where parts total around $135 and labor totals around $202).

Note that the costs will fluctuate based on how many wheel bearings you need to replace, your location, the model year of your CR-V, and whether or not you’re replacing rear or front bearings.