Hey guys,

Just trying to gauge how often you guys are replacing your wheel bearings. I'm still on original 65k/9 year old bearings and have a good 5 years of autoX on them (I would say we are at least 1000 runs on the car by now).

Its a bit hard to tell if I even have any play by hand but on the drive home from the track today the tram-lining was at an all time high. Quite sketchy in the middle lane of I-5. I checked right before this event and couldn't find anything point to a bad bearing but sometimes hand forces just aren't enough to test them.

I'm guessing a few of you guys will just say, "time to replace them all!". Hoping to get a little idea of when they actually are worn and done.

 

There's no real time table, it all depends on heat, weather, and abuse. Mine were fine the weekend before an event, then just "went" in qualifying ending my weekend so I did all 4 and new whiteline ends at the same time since those boots were getting ripe. I'd say a good guess is every 2-3 yrs for preventative maint.

 

Interesting...I had my left front wheel bearings replaced under warranty last year with under 30K miles on my car. I've never raced it either. Maybe I just had a dud.

 

When you say it "went", I'm guessing it was pretty obviously bad? Like noise or slop?

Mine don't feel bad, I'm just questioning it from age.

 

we killed a pair of rear bearings. the symptom was lots of noise and a some slop when it had weight off wheels. no problems with the fronts.

i think the car had 4000 miles on it when the rear bearings went out. so maybe ~3000 autox runs?

 

I just replaced a rear. Only felt a little gritty. And only found it because I had the hub off for wheel studs

 

Was hoping you'd chime in, not sure anyone here has more runs on an Evo that you've manages quad driving. We'll if you havent killed the front then I wont change them just for the sake of changing them.

Guess its time to hunt down some other slop in the system.

 

it seems that the rear bearings go before the front. i did about 4 years of track on my evo and started getting humming noise during cornering. there were no play in the wheels at all, not that i could feel by hand with the car jacked up. replaced the front bearings and the noise was still there. then i replaced the rear bearings and the noise gone.

i'll be replacing my friends rear wheel bearing soon, also horrible noise during turns.

this is what my rear wheel bearing looked like.

 

i'll try not to understate just exactly how much noise the rear bearings were making but it was enough vibration to see in the rear view mirror, and hear over the engine noise on the videos. it was really loud. after several months (almost a year) of driving it like that we finally noticed that the rear wheels had a tiny amount of slop.

if you're trying to track down some suspension slop, i suspect you will not find it in the wheel bearings.

 

Great, thanks for the info. From my Talon I remember that the wheel bearings could not be felt when all assembled either but when we pulled the axle out the hub fell apart. (New owner under torqued the axle).

 

I replaced an original front wheel bearing (75k miles, maybe 150 auto-x runs) a few months ago due to play in it. I was checking everything over before a track day and noticed it had slop while in the air. There was absolutely no noise and all the others were fine.

 

I've replaced both my rears at different times. In fact it was Honda-Guy who noticed one of them was starting to growl when we were at the Glen.
I remember SCCA racer Marty mentioning rear wheel bearings were a regular maintenance item on his racer. I think he lost a wheel somewhere.


I've never replaced a front nor have any indication they are showing signs needing so.


Shoe

 

Unless you here a noise usually the bearings in any car will last. i just replace one on my car last year and it is an 2002 honda.

 

I have had both a front and a rear wheel hub fail on my EVO. The bearings did not fail but the hub face sheared off of the shaft taking the end of the axle with it. According to a friend who services world cup challenge cars, the most common failure on most of the front drive cars is the hub face sheering. It is the most common cause of hub failure and usually results in axle failure. The hubs are a usually replaced every few races.

I am planning to start replacing hubs every 3rd season depending on the number of events and drivers. My EVO is an ASP autocross car and about 12000 total miles.

 

just replaced passenger front, the noise was unbearable, like a grinding noise. almost 80k on the oem ones. dont race much, just mainly DD and a few autox here and there.