Has anyone had any problems using the wheel bearing/hub combo from autozone on their race cars? I have a bearing going out on me, and will be replacing all of them. I was quoted around $45 per wheel, which seems pretty cheap to me. Any experience with them? I tried searching but it seems that it has been down for a couple days.

 

I went thru this a few month ago. Everyone i spoke to (with serious racing experience) said to just get the Honda factory parts.

The rears are easy; you just replace the whole hub, bearings, studs and all. On the front, you need a hydraulic press. When I say "need" I don't mean "it's easiest with". You NEED a press. quickest way to **** up your new bearings is to try and pound them in with a hammer and a block of wood.

If I had my own press and a spare set of hubs, I'd probably buy cheap-o bearings from autozone or pep boys. But since I don't, I played it safe with the Honda stuff. I put 300,000 miles on the first set as a street/track day car without any issues, so I figure the new ones out to be good for at least a couple of seasons if I don't hit anything. We'll see.

OT: I'd love to hear if the Harbor Freight presses are burly enough for this task. I'd like to be able to do this sort of stuff at home, but those front hubs took a LOT of force to get the bearings out. And that was on a really good press...

 

John,

We have a 20 ton HF press and those bearings come right out with it

 

Well ****, you're closer than the H-F store, anyway. I'll just come use yours. Might be kinda late, though. Will you just make me a key?

 

LOL

Well if you really need to use it give me a call on Monday. Darren used it on Saturday to do all his suspension busings. I'm gonna have to start charging

 

Thanks for the info.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well ****, you're closer than the H-F store, anyway. I'll just come use yours. Might be kinda late, though. Will you just make me a key?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can vouch for the quality of Derek's press. He made me do the work, but provided tools, water, and sparkling conversation.

 

Bosco, I don't know what gen civic you have, but the front hubs (and bearings) are known failure points on the EF civics and CRXes. They tend to crack and off goes the wheel.
I bought the OPM hardened hubs in hopes to have a longer-lived hub.

just an FYI.

 

Ya, I had one break on my CRX turn 12 at Nelson Ledges. Lucky I went straight off and the thin piece of metal on the stock calipers held the wheel on. Talk about a oh **** experience.

I have always used Factory Honda bearings too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Bosco, I don't know what gen civic you have, but the front hubs (and bearings) are known failure points on the EF civics and CRXes.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Its a 96 Integra. Do the integra's have the same issues?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bosco500 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Its a 96 Integra. Do the integra's have the same issues?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not as bad, but I would replace them every year as precaution. The enduro team I crew for has gone through 2 12-hr races and a bunch of sprint races and the bearings are still good. I ran my ITR on track last year almost 4,000 track miles and it had about 70k street miles on them as well and there was a bit of play in the driver side bearing so I replaced them both.

I'm going to do the bearings every year (front/rear) along with the lower balljointsand driveshafts; and the front hubs every other year.

 

I stick with Honda OEM rear hubs and OEM front bearings at this point. If someone were to just replace the bearings, I would use the exact brand and part # that Honda uses. The pn and mfg of the bearing should be visible on the side of the bearing.

There are lots of 'not so good of quality' bearings on the market that should be avoided...

 

Honda doesnt make any bearing!
Wherever you buy it, it will not come from and made by honda.
So you can buy the Same NTN bearing at your local jobber shop

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alex b20 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honda doesnt make any bearing!</TD></TR></TABLE>
:shrugg: mine came in a Honda bag...

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=720159

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alex b20 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honda doesnt make any bearing!
Wherever you buy it, it will not come from and made by honda.
So you can buy the Same NTN bearing at your local jobber shop</TD></TR></TABLE>

Correct! Honda actually buys from a few different manufactures for the 88-91 civic/CRX bearings (and probably any other bearing).

TOYO

Koyo

and NTN

While troubleshooting a problem with my street car (1991 Civic) I purchased 4 TOYO's, 4 NTN's and 4 Koyo's and had them all mic'd out, I.D....O.D

The most consistant tolerances were the TOYO bearings, but both the other bearings were very much within reasonable tolerances.

That being said....The bearing I prefer was the one that had the metal inner race as opposed to the plastic on both sides of the bearing. I *think* that was the TOYO, but I would have to double check.