mikahb

My car ('02 Z) has 26k miles give or take. I use it exclusively for play now, never really drive it on the street. I've done probably 12 HPDE's since I bought the car with 11k miles on it, maybe 5 of those on race rubber. But, primarily, I autocross the car - been doing that about 3 years. In 2008, I'll run more autocrosses (probably 18 or so) than normal, but do only maybe one or two HPDE's.

I was planning to replace all 4 wheel bearings this winter as part of my normal maintenance, but when I pull/push on all the wheels and spin them, there is no play, no noise, no nothing. But, I've had to replace 2 front wheel studs that galled and I have one rear that's probably headed south too.

So, my question is, is it worth dropping $800 to replace wheel bearings? Or, since my problem is wheel studs, should I just pull the bearings and press in all new ARP studs all the way around? I could spend the net $700 difference on a new data acquisition setup (MaxQData), tire pyrometer, and some other goodies.

Thoughts?

John Shiels

If you do any do the fronts for 300. They fail first. My first originals lasted 45,000 with many, many HPDE's. Now they don't last at all.

VetteDrmr

I've autocrossed mine for five years, running on mainly Toyo RA-1s and Kumho V700s. I've had no problem with wheel bearings, I think mainly because autocross is short enough in duration that the bearings don't have time to get hot enough (or maybe I just need to get better driving!).

IMO, if your bearings aren't showing signs of distress, I'd leave them alone. Studs likewise; I only replace them when they tell me they've had enough and want to go home (none on the Vette to date, but they're beginning to get a bit worn).

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

rustyguns

go maxqdata !!!!!!!!

and just replace studs as they break and wait until the wheel bearings are fried