OK, here's a real puzzle. I have a 95 Protege, and the front passenger wheel bearing has gone bad. No big puzzle there, they do that! So I took it apart, and what do I find inside?

* Remove hub from carrier - find a set of loose ball bearings (10mm dia?) in a plastic keeper - they ride in grooves in the hub and in the carrier. These seem to be in good shape
* Also, there is a sealed(?) ball bearing unit that is about 1 inch thick beyond this. It's pressed in, and the hub obviously pressed into the center of that. (this bearing is shot, grinds like a coffeemaker)
* There are seals - one on each side of the support.

I call up the auto parts place and get a new sealed bearing - BUT, when I get it home, it's is a HUGE bearing, about 2 inches long (twice what I need) and it's slightly too big in diameter. I return it, they triple check numbers and models etc. Nope, that's supposed to be the bearing.

Try the stealership.

I go to the dealership WITH the part in my hands. They can't figure it out either. They present me with the same huge bearing. This all appears to be OEM stuff on this car, one previous owner (just some nice middle aged lady) - the Carfax was clean, so no major repairs recorded. I seriously doubt it's got a non-mazda part there. Dealership has no clue what this thing is, but the support looks like the one in the exploded drawing, but it has some funky bearing.

Was there some sort of model change or recall I don't know about? The idiot behind the counter gave me bovine looks when I asked about recalls or upgrades. I can see how the big/single bearing might work better than this two bearing setup that's in there now. So what the <bleep> is going on here?

Manufacture date is 09/94 if that makes any diff. (and yes, we checked for 94 models just in case)

This thing is my daily driver and I need to either get it on the road or out of my life , so somebody clue me in. PLEASE!