Yeah this car has been my dream car since I was 16 and I did quite a lot to get it so when it comes to dropping money on it I have very little self control. But that being said it doesn't seem like these are for me due to their aversion to water and the car being a dd.

 

I agree with Dave on this... How much is too much at that point? You can build a low 9sec evo all day long and still run a/c , regular bearings, cv axles , etc etc... Cost in return to me is not practical.

 

Or if you research you will find Timken offers ceramic bearings that you can press into your oem hub. Get a bearing puller, measure out the correct size and order the correct ceramic bearing from them. These kits are expensive because they already did the work for you, but to be fair the ceramic bearings themselves are quite pricey anyhow.

 

Seemed like it was like ~$1000 in bearings alone.

I've never pressed apart the OEM hub so I could be wrong here. There may also be internal spacers that will determine bearing preload. They may need to be ground or replaced in order to adjust the preload to match the ceramic bearings?

You are paying a lot for the amount of labor and the insurance it's done right.

 

I have a hard time finding actual results from this. what i did find was the cars that get amazing gains were cars that needed the bearings replaced from old age or high miles.. the thing with bearing is the weight of the car is always pushing down on the top side of bearing race which is stationary. so races always wear at the top making them out of round. when your races are out of round they are costing you speed and acceleration. I know this to be true from replacing many wheel bearings in my lifetime. the races will always have one low spot. didnt think much of it till i started to do ceramic bearing research. I will be sold on them when someone comes forward who isnt out to make a buck on them. then I will reconsider.

 

Agreed.

 

I had the ceramic bearings + low drag seals. It didn't work out for me given the weather conditions where I live and the daily-driver status of my car. Gunk penetrated through the seals and almost all of the seals popped out. They are not held in as securely as stock, which I guess is what makes them low drag. At any rate I had to get them redone with stock seals and have been happy.

My main motivation for the bearings was because I was killing the stock bearings too fast. Every 2 years is too soon (for me) to kill the front bearings. I attribute this to the HIGH heat of braking during my road racing events (weekend track car). I do something like 3000miles of track abuse between free lapping and events on good size tracks (no autocross).

To Curt Brown's credit I was very fairly forewarned about the risk, but I tried the low drag seals because I was too curious. I am the owner of exactly zero current or former drag racing records, which is due to my mad drag racing skills. My usual passes turn out to be 14.xx @ 108 . What I can give you solid data on is mpg since I do the same 300mile stretch of highway at least once a month, and I track it carefully (again, curiosity, I can afford gas don't worry). Before the bearings my avg was 28mpg, my best 29.4. After low drag seals...30.x mpg average and 33 best. WTF. I've been trying to crack 30mpg ever since I owned my evo. They really are low drag, I'm sure this will translate to you being faster by whatever amount.

So yes, they work. And after I switched to stock seals I was back down exactly where I was before, so IMO any tangible advantage you get will come from those seals. Maybe just install them on your stock bearings? The seals by themselves are relatively cheap. Without any seals on the "hand spin test"® the ceramic and the stock wheel bearings spin just as freely. Obviously my hand and eyes were not precision calibrated, but just sayin'. I did have the brand new bearings and my stock dead ones side by side.

 

I have them. I also have videos of OEM, CBRE ceramic bearing and CBRE ceramic bearing with low drag seals. I can get them up tomorrow for anyone interested.

They are also 2 lbs lighter if anyone cares.

 

I would appreciate that. I was about to send mine in for the low drag seal upgrade. Would love to see if there is a difference.

 

i cant seem to find my OEM to CBRE ceramic videos. but i did find the one of the CBRE updated seals version. i hope this kinda helps you guys. im sure you know how tight a stock bearing is. trust me these things spin like a dream. they needed to be broken in still but fresh out of the box look at the difference.

 

Wow! What difference on the rears!

 

Hope this helps. Heres a video I shot showing my old worn bearing vs a brand new oem front wheel bearing.

 

These bearings will last forever and with the low drag seals will spin freely for a long time. I had a set done for a grand national and when I got them on I could spin the wheel and it'd spin for dang near a minute with the low drag seals. If/when my evo bearings go I will end up going this route but using the oem seals. If I get out to the grand national I'll get a video of the front wheel spinning to give you another idea of how they work. I also set the rear diff up with them too which requires zero lash and it sins smooth like butter too. They are expensive but worth it IMO.

 

I bought new bearings for my evo 1. I think I will have them cryo treated first before install. see if I cant find some of this low drag seal for my setup.

edit: wow . come to think there are quite a few "hub seals" on the car. transmission. tcase, rear end. gonna find low drag seals for all.

 

Yup, then maybe next time the evo breaks down it will be a lot easier to push to the garage.