after having another car ram the front left of my gen 2 I've noticed a hum/drone/vibration noise coming from that wheel and in the space of 10 days the noise has got really loud, it's quite embarrassing as evn my taxi customers are commenting on the sound, is it possible the smash could have damaged the bearings or is this just coincidence? Has anyone replaced the bearings and how easy is it?
most likely coincidence. some folks have needed to press the front wheel hubs out to change them. a slide hammer will normally do it on most cars.
Your second-generation Prius has what's known as a "generation 3 hub bearing assembly" in front (that's a bearing industry term, not related to the generation of Prius). That's a single assembly that attaches to the knuckle of your car with four bolts, and it includes the bearing and hub. References to needing a press or a slide hammer mean that sometimes you might need that much force to separate the old assembly from the knuckle after taking the four bolts out ... not that you can further press apart the hub-bearing assembly and replace its components separately. -Chap
As "Chap" above states it is indeed a complete hub replacement on the gen2 which includes the wheel flange and studs. The price of the hub it's self vary tremendously depending if you buy aftermarket or OEM from £50 to £150 "part only". The bearings cannot be pressed out and replaced. See Ebay items numbers, 231304694609 261049147495 John (Britprius)
it is the hub, but replacing the hub is much easier than pressing a new bearing, unless the hub is frozen into the knuckle in which case you still need to use a press.
