repair shop estimate $900 to replace the right rear wheel bearing in my 03 xjr. high cost due to "different design requiring a special press" requiring the work to be subbed. I suspect something amiss here. comments anyone?

 

Complete bull. Take it somewhere else.

It is no harder to do this than any other wheel bearing. I did this in my garage with a good set of punches and a normal everyday press to refit the races. And even to sub it out, unless they're replacing it with a 24ct gold bearing, $900 is just plain offensive.

You could buy the tools, new hub nut, press and bearing kit for a fraction of that and still have over $500 left!

 

I did this on a VDP by buying a used hub carrier and just swapping it out. The used carrier had a good bearing in it. Other than the hub nut, the job is easy and if you mark carefully, you won't even need and alignment. The part was less than $200.

A "proper" bearing job at a mechanic should be about $400. For my car in question, I had that done, but the replacement bearing failed multiple times, it turns out the hub carrier was bad. Replacing that solved the problem for good.

-Mike