Does hard driving eat our wheel bearings?
Jan 17, 2014, 10:08 AM
#1
Newbie
Thread Starter
Does hard driving eat our wheel bearings?
These cars are amazing, and made for tackling corners. I have had my car up at the dragon 3 times and would have had an absolute blast, if it weren't for a whining whirring sound that turned out to be my wheel bearings going bad.
On the first trip, I had driven a good amount up there and on the last trip down the mountain, I started hearing a whine sound, which I thought was the Tcase. After I got back on regular roads, the sound went away, and I was hoping it was a weird noise that wouldn't come back.
On the second trip, the same thing happened. The noise started happening after ripping around up there for a good while, but disappeared when I got back into normal driving.
On the third trip, the noise started almost as soon as I started up the pass. Every turn of the wheel sounded like a supercharger howling. I felt sick, because I still was unsure of the cause at this point. The sound then started occurring during DD (almost every time it made a left turn).
After researching a bit, I ruled out Tcase whine because it didn't match those symptoms. I suspected the wheel bearing, and the dealer concurred. So I recently had the passenger side hub assembly replaced, and so far the noise is gone. Awsome! BUT, if I go to the spring dragon meet, will this happen again? I love really driving my car up there but, I can't afford to replace expensive parts for a few hours of fun.
You guys who auto cross, and/or track your cars, has this been a problem for you?
On the first trip, I had driven a good amount up there and on the last trip down the mountain, I started hearing a whine sound, which I thought was the Tcase. After I got back on regular roads, the sound went away, and I was hoping it was a weird noise that wouldn't come back.
On the second trip, the same thing happened. The noise started happening after ripping around up there for a good while, but disappeared when I got back into normal driving.
On the third trip, the noise started almost as soon as I started up the pass. Every turn of the wheel sounded like a supercharger howling. I felt sick, because I still was unsure of the cause at this point. The sound then started occurring during DD (almost every time it made a left turn).
After researching a bit, I ruled out Tcase whine because it didn't match those symptoms. I suspected the wheel bearing, and the dealer concurred. So I recently had the passenger side hub assembly replaced, and so far the noise is gone. Awsome! BUT, if I go to the spring dragon meet, will this happen again? I love really driving my car up there but, I can't afford to replace expensive parts for a few hours of fun.
You guys who auto cross, and/or track your cars, has this been a problem for you?
Jan 17, 2014, 10:31 AM
#2
The amount of wear on the wheel-bearings depends on the true offset between the centroid of the contact patch and the center of the bearing. With OE wheels and tires, the true offset is very small, except when cornering hard, which shifts it positive (where "positive" places the contact patch to the outside of the bearing). So, it's not too hard on the bearings.
But if you swap in low-offset wheels, sticky tires, and then drive near the limit, you have a rather large (positive) true offset and, therefore, a lot of leverage on the bearings. This is a case where some high-school trig is useful. If you look at the shape of the sine curve, centered on 90*, you'll see that for plus-or-minus the first 15* or so, not much happens. But after that, the curve is pretty steep. What this implies is that, at first, a bit of true offset isn't that big of a deal, but, after that, it is a big deal. Problem is, you're already using up that first 15* or so with the shift of the contact patch to the outside in a turn. So any reduction in offset of the wheels is putting you into the steep zone.
tl;dr - on OE-offset wheels, these cars aren't that rough on wheel bearings; on low-offset wheels, such as +15 to run those 275s, you are wearing your bearings down in every hard corner
But if you swap in low-offset wheels, sticky tires, and then drive near the limit, you have a rather large (positive) true offset and, therefore, a lot of leverage on the bearings. This is a case where some high-school trig is useful. If you look at the shape of the sine curve, centered on 90*, you'll see that for plus-or-minus the first 15* or so, not much happens. But after that, the curve is pretty steep. What this implies is that, at first, a bit of true offset isn't that big of a deal, but, after that, it is a big deal. Problem is, you're already using up that first 15* or so with the shift of the contact patch to the outside in a turn. So any reduction in offset of the wheels is putting you into the steep zone.
tl;dr - on OE-offset wheels, these cars aren't that rough on wheel bearings; on low-offset wheels, such as +15 to run those 275s, you are wearing your bearings down in every hard corner
Jan 17, 2014, 10:57 AM
#3
Newbie
Thread Starter
The amount of wear on the wheel-bearings depends on the true offset between the centroid of the contact patch and the center of the bearing. With OE wheels and tires, the true offset is very small, except when cornering hard, which shifts it positive (where "positive" places the contact patch to the outside of the bearing). So, it's not too hard on the bearings.
But if you swap in low-offset wheels, sticky tires, and then drive near the limit, you have a rather large (positive) true offset and, therefore, a lot of leverage on the bearings. This is a case where some high-school trig is useful. If you look at the shape of the sine curve, centered on 90*, you'll see that for plus-or-minus the first 15* or so, not much happens. But after that, the curve is pretty steep. What this implies is that, at first, a bit of true offset isn't that big of a deal, but, after that, it is a big deal. Problem is, you're already using up that first 15* or so with the shift of the contact patch to the outside in a turn. So any reduction in offset of the wheels is putting you into the steep zone.
tl;dr - on OE-offset wheels, these cars aren't that rough on wheel bearings; on low-offset wheels, such as +15 to run those 275s, you are wearing your bearings down in every hard corner
But if you swap in low-offset wheels, sticky tires, and then drive near the limit, you have a rather large (positive) true offset and, therefore, a lot of leverage on the bearings. This is a case where some high-school trig is useful. If you look at the shape of the sine curve, centered on 90*, you'll see that for plus-or-minus the first 15* or so, not much happens. But after that, the curve is pretty steep. What this implies is that, at first, a bit of true offset isn't that big of a deal, but, after that, it is a big deal. Problem is, you're already using up that first 15* or so with the shift of the contact patch to the outside in a turn. So any reduction in offset of the wheels is putting you into the steep zone.
tl;dr - on OE-offset wheels, these cars aren't that rough on wheel bearings; on low-offset wheels, such as +15 to run those 275s, you are wearing your bearings down in every hard corner
!That is very good info, but when this issue started to arise, I was on stock wheels and tires.
Now my wheels are 9.75 + 20, so nothing absurd. Maybe I had a factory defect. But based on what I've experienced, if you drive your evo hard on mountain roads you're going to have a bad time. And I don't feel, based on its reputation, that the situation with my car is the norm.
Jan 20, 2014, 01:36 AM
#4
I recall reading that the Evo X bearing was different and more robust than the ones in earlier versions. Any truth to that? We have not yet had a problem though keep spares with us, jic. Running 10.5 w a 15 offset and 295s.
Update: By spare I meant hub with the bearing.
Update: By spare I meant hub with the bearing.
Last edited by Johnr352; Jan 20, 2014 at 06:35 AM.
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