nsogiba

My passenger rear wheel bearing on my 2000 FRC is making noise, so I shopped around for the best price on a Timken 512153 hub/bearing combo. Thought some of you folks might find this interesting, if you're looking to do this work.

Dealer: $$$$. I didn't even bother.

Rockauto - Generally cheapest by far, but not this time - $135.79 after 5% discount and shipped

Advance Auto - I like using them because they usually have what I need in stock, and you can always look up a coupon code for 20% or more off, buy online, and pick up in store. However, they did not list an actual "Timken" brand unit, just a "Driveworks", which I am not interested in using. Regardless - their price came in at $86.09 - for the "off" brand - with free shipping to home.

Napa: They offered a rear bearing/hub assy under their own part number - not sure of the origin, though. $111 shipped to home.

Autozone - I don't use them too often as they generally cost more than the competition and don't carry as much in stock. I tried them on a whim and found a coupon code offer as long as you shipped to home - which is fine by me. Final price: $100.04 shipped to home.

I was under the impression that the parts would cost much more - but was pleasantly surprised. Happy wrenching!

Evil-Twin

Book mark this thread if you are using spacers on your rear wheels. Those factory bearings should be good for 400,000 miles unless you try to load them up by using spacers.

nsogiba

Funny - mine only made it to 108K - car never raced or driven in anger.

Evil-Twin

I was not speaking specifically to you... Not every factory bearing in inspected... a sampling is used in quality control. You apparently got a bad one.. very very rare... These bearing are design to handle more than 10% of the total load. A side impact could damage a bearing. I've been trying to tell people who use spacers to move the load outward from the bearing that this moment causes a direct exponential increase in the load. ( these bearings are not design to handle this load... Budget management to bring this car in at the target MSRP, is the reason for limited design usage.

nsogiba

Good point - as a fellow engineer I agree with the load and failure characteristics, but the point of this thread was not to dissect the failure modes and causes - just to let folks know that the price of a replacement is reasonable in my humble opinion.

Black 02

Would this not be the same for those using wider and lower offset wheel and tire combos as well?

I know in the truck world the off-road guys would go through bearings, ball joints, etc much quicker due to their heavy wheel and tire combos that were pushed out. I could be wrong, but wouldn't a much wider and heavier wheel and tire combo under wide fenders do the same, if not more, damage as running spacers?

Evil-Twin

I know the reason for the thread... thank you, I only said this for those who may see a bearing failure because of a common use of spacers with wide fenders on this forum. I suggested book marking your thread because you already did the research. People will see premature failure with the extended moment of using spacers with these bearings. This stuff does not happen over night. It is possible when your car was New it may have taken a side hit from a lift at the dealership.

Bill aka ET

Black 02

I agree, very reasonable for the platform. Thanks for the thread and psa

captaineddie

I thought my car had a bad right-rear wheel bearing, so I took it to a local, reputable, independent mechanic. I believe he said the caliper needed lubrication and that the disc needed sanding (?). In any case, his repair seems to have worked. No more noise.

'Shifter

That is a helluva price....this coming from a Timken retailer...

Vetteman Jack

Thankfully do not need to replace a bearing at this point, but thanks for posting up the results of your research.

CactusCat

I've posted this before but there is one little reason I used Timken wheel bearings on my C5.

grasshopper645

my driver rear wheel bearing failed with 60k miles. Just fixed it last weekend. Is that unusual to have failure at that milage?

66dts-v

My car is at 140k miles and my left rear wheel bearing is making an awful lot of noise. I am replacing both along with the ball joints and tie rod ends since I am in there. No spacers and only skinny 5 OE wheels. Not even Z06 wide wheels or anything fancy. I drive my car hard.

The ones I bought came with a "lifetime warranty" but if I still have the car in another 140k miles, I'd be surprised.