I've gone through my second set of front bearings/hubs now. This set of timkens lasted 7,000 hard street miles including 4 track days and a trip to the dragon. I never repacked them and they lasted what is a full season for me. I'd be happy with timken bearings again but they seem to be discontinued.

I've tried local autozone hubs and value pro hubs from rock auto, both were hunks of Chinese crap. The value pros from rockauto had some alarming defects!



Also, every chinese hub I've come across has studs 10-15 thousandths too small. Installing my ARP studs is going to be a nightmare.

Where can quality hubs be found these days? I assume OEM is a safe bet, but folks want $200 for a new OEM hub. If that's my only option, I'll pay it, but I'm having trouble believing there's no quality aftermarket solution at a decent price.

Considering the rash of front hub issues we've seen lately, I hope I'm not the only one looking for good front hubs.

Thank You!

 

5xracing.com

 

You're breaking my heart, man. No more $70 513152s from Autozone. :(

I think you can use the ABS p/n and just not use the ABS ring or knock it off. How many weekends are you putting on the fronts?

 

I would not call those alarming defects.

 

I wouldn't normally, but then I found this thread:

Front Hub Failure - Spec Miata Garage - Mazda Racers

 

Don't want to thread jack by any means, but do you guys repack timken bearings, or just use them with the grease they are coming with?? I also need to replace my front hubs...

Ben

 

Repacked with amsoil racing grease here...

 

I repacked my front hubs that came on the car when I bought it. Used the amsoil racing grease and good god it is amazing, the wheel spins so freely now...

 

Timkens are still listed on Rockauto -

You can use the abs hubs on non abs cars, and I just leave the ring on there (but you can remove it).

 

I get Timkens at AutoZone Online. They were $73, now $84.

 

The rings come off stupid easy with a punch and hammer. Gotta keep that unsprung mass down yo.

 

The 513152 is listed as Unavailable now.

 

I'll probably leave them on as a heatsink. There probably isn't too much airflow around those rings, but more surface area sounds like a good thing to me.