What front hubs to buy
 

Hey guys,

I want to replace my front hubs sooner than later and I'm trying to see how much it will cost me. I want to do hubs + AMSOil grease + TSE brake duct shields + ARP extended wheel studs all at once to make life easy.

So, is there any reason to NOT buy the cheapest hubs I can find? Cheapest being about $65 a pair from eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-FRONT-LEFT...ht_6306wt_1211

Or should I spend a little bit more for Timken/Centric/some other brand?

Search around in hustlers thread, he's been around some hubs and had succes with the cheap(er) ones and Amsoil grease iirc.

Yeah I know he said the cheapest Chinese ones are perfect when repacked. I'm just curious if $65 for 2 hubs is the cheap he had in mind.

Kind of "this is so cheap there's gotta be something wrong with them so I better ask".

That's about the price I paid and they are still in my car. I'm going to go repack them soon. If a vendor or shop wants to make some hubs with a warranty, I might consider them but no one is willing to do that yet.

Is the only advantage of "blueprinting" your hub, or repacking it with grease, longevity on the track with long races/sessions?

I always run on the track in groups, so my car has a little time to cool down. Do the TSE brake ducts also cool the hubs?

I assume the cooler temps help the grease maintain lubricity, but I'm not sure how much of a factor that plays in this deal.

I've always like how shops say they "blue-print" the hubs, yet all I read says they either heat-treat them a second time and repack grease, or just repack them.

Our suspicion is that the vast majority of hub heat comes from the brakes, so our duct kits should help with hub longevity.

Blueprinting the hub should go as far as mixing/matching bearings sets to get matched diameter sets - that helps significantly with longevity. Beyond that it's just repacking with good grease (Amsoil2000).

I was thinking the same thing. BBK's and venting has to extending hub life. Heat transfer from the brake disk to hat to hub is far less than stock one piece rotors.

How about $400 for a pair of blueprinted hubs.

Flyin' Miata : Chassis : Suspension components : ART blueprinted front hub

They won't last forever, and I would order them from ART without the studs and then add your own ARP parts, but they're the best off-the-shelf option available right now.

No thanks on ART. I spent too much money for him to tell me "sorry". I sent him Timkens and he sent me two bearings that lasted one weekend. I hope the FM style warranty is better than what he didn't offer for me.

So you're saying the only guy who makes them professionally has horrible customer service when the products don't perform. Great...

ART kind of disappeared. We called his personal cell a few months ago because his site was down and the business number went to some other company name. Ended up he was in Europe for something and everything would be fixed later. Last I checked the site was back up but the checkout didnt work. I wanted to order his studs since the coating doesnt just flake off like the ARP ones. And at least for a car running stock size wheels and 225 hoosiers they last significantly longer than timkin hubs. That car used to eat hubs in like 3 events and the ART ones he could get almost a whole season between 100 buck rebuilds irrc. I'm not fast enough/dont make enough grip to kill hubs that fast.

Planet Miata also sells hubs, I think they are a little cheaper than ART

Are the bearings the only major point of failure on the hubs?

My car isn't manly enough to eat them at your guy's levels (1 failure in 2 years). :giggle:

Any linky to how to repack the hubs or is it fairly straightforward? What is the amsoil grease you guys use?

What's wrong with the Timken ones? They seem to be pretty middle of the road, i have them on my lowered daily and are doing better than OEM. The build quality is also good.

Using those with some ducting or a ducting kit should solve problems. I can see heat being our issue, as we don't run stupid -89 camber, with dumb low offset wheels, wheel spacers, slammed to the ground ect. all at once.

Repacking Hubs
AMSOIL - Series 2000 Synthetic Racing Grease (GRG)

You may have picked up on this but someone else reading this thread that hasn't read Hustler's tela novella might not have, but I believe Hustler more accurately said the cheapest Chinese hubs that have been heat-treated should be an improvement when re-packed with the Amsoil grease.

I only point out the specifics because I remember using his input when buying mine. I think they were ~$85 - $90 shipped from a place like Detroit Axle. More specifically, I remember seeing some that did not appear to have been heat-treated.

So you sent him your own bearings because you cheaped out, and then cry about it incessantly when he told you that your bearings were the reason they failed?

I've got ART hubs on both cars. I had one fail on Rover and he sent me a replacement for the cost of shipping. Kindly stop whining about how your desire to save a few bucks on the core bearings bit you in the ass.