Scott S

I replaced all of the wheel bearings on my 2006 a few years ago. I went with the $20-30 hubs from Amazon. I considered the more expensive hubs, but I was concerned they were the same parts, but with a much larger markup. I just replaced my rear hubs with SKF parts since the cheap ones kept failing on one side. If I could have seen the parts side by side I would have never considered the cheap hubs.

The rear of the car does feel more stable now, even my wife commented on it from the passenger seat. I can't wait to get the fronts changed. I purchased from RockAuto after a negative eBay experience where I got parts i could not confirm were SKF. The SKF parts should have SKF etched onto the wheel attach face.

These are the SKF ~$150 street hubs NOT the ~$350 SKF HD racing hubs.

The SKF hub is the one with the sliver wheel studs.

Differences I could find--

-- The groves that engage the axle are full length on the SKF hub, but not on the cheap hub. This alone is enough reason to not consider the cheap hub for a 400 ft-lb V-8.
-- The SKF hub has the cable for the wheel speed sensor in the factory original place which is right over the bolt hole. The cheap hub cable does not fit quite right.
-- The SKF wheel studs are beefier.
-- The SKF flange that attaches to the suspension is beefier.
-- The SKF part has a part in the middle of the bearing in the side view. I'm not sure what the purpose of that is, but I don't think they would put additional parts in if it didn't make it better.
-- The SKF wheel speed connector did not come with the right clip, so I had to reuse the clip from the old part which took some patience to figure out how to get it off without damaging it.

PCMusicGuy

I'm running one of the SKF hubs on the rear. I've been happy with it so far. Best deal I've found on them is from NAPA when they are having their 20% everything in a bag or bucket sale.

Sleazy Rider

schpenxel

No pics.

Scott S

That's strange. I see the pictures when I look at it.

Scott S

timd38

Good info! I went with the SKF race hubs about 8 years ago with ARP studs. Didn't look much different, nothing has failed, so I guess we are good.

Curt D

Do yourself a favor and avoid cheap bearings. They failed in 8k on my Cobalt. Moogs are still going after 90k.

timd38

Imported doesn't always mean poor quality. The SKF GT3 (the $400 ones) bearings come from Korea and they are the best Corvette bearing you can get.

I do agree that you have to be careful when buying house brands like Duralast or generic white box product.

89Roadster

Never buy Chinese bearings on a vehicle you plan on keeping a while, you'll just be changing them again in a few months. Name-brand only.

schpenxel

I've got about 50K on $75 wheel bearings from amazon. Guess I got lucky?

Curt D

Agreed. It depends on where it is imported from.

mikeCsix

Great video. Can't imagine how much tire wear and wheel vibration that much bearing play would have, especially on a high performance car. Seemingly endless threads on the forum with regards to wheel vibration at speed, this would be all or part of the issue.

My general rule of thumb for replacing parts is OEM or better.

Scott S

Just an update for the archives...

I replaced my front hubs with the SKF street hubs and the front end is noticeably tighter now and the steering response is significantly improved. The old hubs were the $30 ones from Amazon and I could not feel any free play and were were running quiet with about 40K miles one them when I replaced them, so I was surprised by how much better the front end feels. I don't think the improvement was just replace old parts with new since the front end feel didn't change when I replaced the factory bearings with 30K miles on them, but they were a lot quieter.

I should add that the rear hubs had SKF etched into them, but the fronts did not.

The moral of the story is that you do get a lot for your money buying the SKF street hubs over the cheap ones. If you want to save the money then the cheap hubs are okay on the fronts, but I wouldn't trust the cheap hubs on the rear for the reasons discussed above.

mikeCsix

Are the SKF hubs cheaper than the OEM hubs for the GS? The GS came from the factory with zr1 hubs.

dszwed

These look legit. It appears they sell both 30 and 33 spline hubs. Photos from their website.

4SUMERZ

I still have the original OEM hubs at 110000 miles. I'll keep this thread in mind when it is time to replace them.