Rear Bearings Question
11-01-2011, 10:20 PM
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Rear Bearings Question I have an 01 Camaro SS w/ manual trans, I will be upgrading to Motive 4.10 gears next week and decided to replace the bearings while im in there. I was wondering if all bearings are made the same. I picked up some National brand from O'Reilly but was told Timken are "top of the line". Any truth to this or does it really matter? Thanks in advance
11-01-2011, 11:08 PM
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Bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit from Oreilly's.
The answer is a resounding NO....bearings are NOT all the same. Short answer, is that you want American-made, European, with Japan being last. This is, of course, a very general statement...but I will tell you that Timken USED TO BE a guarantee of quality....not so much any more. Much of their products are made in China or Brazil these days, and not what you're looking for. RA and heat treating of the bearings have suffered more than a bit in the cheap stuff. I have read somewhere that some folks have been checking heat levels ( a good indicator of RA and friction), and some of the China crap runs considerably hotter than a quality American or Euro bearing. These are folks that build CNC's and Mills, Lathes, etc....so I'll take their word on it.
The brands to look for are *** (European...don't laugh), Koyo, SKF (mostly), SOME Timken pieces (but you have to ask where they were made...not always easy)....and a few other brands. It's sad that so many products have been sent over-seas. Prices for a good bearing are often more than double of the China crap from what I've noticed....a price that I'll gladly pay if it means that my car will be more dependable.
I recently had some axles custom-built for my narrowed 8.8 (33 spline/Torino big bearing ends), and the guys that work for the company told me that they used to recommend sealed ball bearings over tapered as a general rule.....but the quality had gotten so crappy on the sealed ball bearings, that they were having a hard time finding a large supply of quality pieces.
Today, in fact, I was trying to source quality wheel bearings for my LSX Miata build.....and had to go with Koyo, as it was so tough to find the configuration that I needed in American-made stuff. Koyo is an OEM supplier, so I'm sure I'm safe....but it took the guy at NAPA two hours of calling around to tell me that Koyo was the best that he could find. All of the other companies had out-sourced to China,Brazil, or Taiwan.
I personally hate doing things twice....and while you might possibly never have a problem with the cheaper stuff... anything worth doing, is worth doing WELL. Buy the good stuff if you can find it.
Hope this helps.
The answer is a resounding NO....bearings are NOT all the same. Short answer, is that you want American-made, European, with Japan being last. This is, of course, a very general statement...but I will tell you that Timken USED TO BE a guarantee of quality....not so much any more. Much of their products are made in China or Brazil these days, and not what you're looking for. RA and heat treating of the bearings have suffered more than a bit in the cheap stuff. I have read somewhere that some folks have been checking heat levels ( a good indicator of RA and friction), and some of the China crap runs considerably hotter than a quality American or Euro bearing. These are folks that build CNC's and Mills, Lathes, etc....so I'll take their word on it.
The brands to look for are *** (European...don't laugh), Koyo, SKF (mostly), SOME Timken pieces (but you have to ask where they were made...not always easy)....and a few other brands. It's sad that so many products have been sent over-seas. Prices for a good bearing are often more than double of the China crap from what I've noticed....a price that I'll gladly pay if it means that my car will be more dependable.
I recently had some axles custom-built for my narrowed 8.8 (33 spline/Torino big bearing ends), and the guys that work for the company told me that they used to recommend sealed ball bearings over tapered as a general rule.....but the quality had gotten so crappy on the sealed ball bearings, that they were having a hard time finding a large supply of quality pieces.
Today, in fact, I was trying to source quality wheel bearings for my LSX Miata build.....and had to go with Koyo, as it was so tough to find the configuration that I needed in American-made stuff. Koyo is an OEM supplier, so I'm sure I'm safe....but it took the guy at NAPA two hours of calling around to tell me that Koyo was the best that he could find. All of the other companies had out-sourced to China,Brazil, or Taiwan.
I personally hate doing things twice....and while you might possibly never have a problem with the cheaper stuff... anything worth doing, is worth doing WELL. Buy the good stuff if you can find it.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by salemetro; 11-01-2011 at 11:14 PM.
11-03-2011, 03:42 PM
#5
been involved with rears since the late 60s',things have changed since then.
back then,only Timken and SKF were available and I wouldn't have hesitated to use either one.
now:Timken seem OK,don't find many SKFs',Toyo(Japan) seem good,NTN(USA) seem good,some marked 'china' are 'rough',got one marked 'france' that is dimensionally wrong for the part number stamped on it. been using Toyo and NTN lately without a problem.
back then,only Timken and SKF were available and I wouldn't have hesitated to use either one.
now:Timken seem OK,don't find many SKFs',Toyo(Japan) seem good,NTN(USA) seem good,some marked 'china' are 'rough',got one marked 'france' that is dimensionally wrong for the part number stamped on it. been using Toyo and NTN lately without a problem.
11-04-2011, 12:42 AM
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Pretty sure the OEM setups I have seen use the Toyo and the Ratech kits I always use for rebuilding come with Timken. I have had no issue with either.
11-04-2011, 01:43 PM
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I used a Richmond master rebuild kit because it came with Timken bearings which is what I was looking for. All the bearings were made in the USA and looked and fit with no issues. I had no idea Timken had gone to the dark side, and will be sure to check more closely from now on.
