Last time I visited my regular Renault garage, they had done the strut bearings on another Espace (incidentially one which I used to own
) just the day before. The mechanic - who is always ready for a chat - picked up the old ones from the garbage bin to show them to me. This car went in with steering problems, and when I saw (what used to be) the bearings, I had no problem understanding why!
There wasn't a single ball left in the bearing! The holder was almost fully gone from rust. No wonder it had steering problems!
So my recommedation would be to forget about the bearing specialist - get a pair of new bearings from any good supplier you can find, and fit those instead. The time you will save will make plenty up for the additional cost
These bearings are also used on Laguna, so they shouldn't be too expensive. In fact my garage had them in their local inventory as it's a common part to replace.
- Anders