Was that a message you received from Wilwood? Jegs? Something must fail big time for them to be voluntarily swapping peoples hubs for new ones.

Yes, message from WIwood to one of our teammates that purchased a set of the Wilwood hubs. I have since gotten info from another friend telling me about catastrophic hubs failures occurring with the Wilwood hubs.

Interesting. Care to elaborate on the failures? Are these friends members here?

I am not even the tiniest bit surprised.

I think there was one kicking around a couple months ago of a pretty catastrophic failure as the whole flange broke off.

Reviving thread because I just learned about the issues with Miata hubs, especially since I'm considering tracking my car.

I was looking at the Wilwood hubs as a cheaper alternative to the Miatahubs.com hubs, however if they are having issues then it might not be worth considering. I can handle figuring out adjusting preload, I can handle repacking the bearings every 20 hours, but if the hubs have failure issues then that kinda defeats the purpose of the hubs entirely.

Has there been any updates on that since?

Good timing. I'm also in the market for some hubs.
5 weekends (well technically 4.25) on repacked Timkens from RockAuto, on RE71R's...
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cd3f628211.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...32fa5da64b.jpg

Not much info on the Wilwood front hubs. There's rumors of failures in the handful of threads I found, but a Google search didn't turn up any evidence. No pictures, no first person accounts, just hearsay. I did check and they have replaceable bearings and races. Inner and outer are the same part number. They're about $10 each, so $20 per corner. I'm not opposed to checking preload and repacking bearings, already have to do that with the shitty "non-serviceable" stock hubs.

At $625 they seem like a better option than the $1200 non-serviceable MiataHubs.

I don't like that you need to ship the MiataHubs units back to them to have the bearings replaced. I really don't care that labor is free; I'd much rather be able to do it myself. They won't even sell you the bearing cartridges. If something happens, the hub is a paperweight until I can get it shipped to them. Rather than just punch out the races, grease the new bearings, and throw it back together. I don't like relying on a niche company to be around when I need service. I'm much more confident Wilwood will still be around in a year or two when I need replacement parts.

here you go. Just buy the Miatahubs and quit worrying about wearing them out.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7dbe27fb2.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b52c37a00.jpeg

Thanks for pointing out that we need to update our website and install instructions. The required return-for-replacement deal was only during 2019 and was intended as a way for us to learn from any unexpected early failures. We had a few sent back because of crash damage and only one sent back for normal usage wear. In 2020 we started offering replacement bearing service kits to all customers, and Good-win and FM have been stocking them for most of this year.

We had to purchase a VERY large quantity of bearings to get a custom factory production run from SKF, so we won't be running out of bearings any time soon.

Jesus fuckin' Christ riding a bicycle on a piece of toast that's fucking terrifying. At least with the stock hub you expect it to fail, the Wilwood versions are BEEFY and also fail. You'd think Wilwood would make a very high quality product. Has Wilwood addressed this issue at all? Have they issued an updated version?

It looks like people use Centric Premium hubs as better alternatives, but even then they look thin and chintzy.

So looking at photos, it's a little difficult to really discern, BUT looking at where your Wilwood hub failed and comparing the MiataHubs hub and the Wilwood hub:

https://d5otzd52uv6zz.cloudfront.net...a5030d-800.jpg

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/8...99157~mv2.webp

If you look closely, the 'wall' where it necks up from the flange is MUCH thicker on the MH hub. The Wilwood hub looks like it's half the thickness.

That's just one thing, comparing things like alloy composition and that adds alot more to the mix.

I think I might just go MiataHubs on this one.

It looks like they do have a new (thicker) design. Revision date on the install instructions is 5/11/2020

https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/Br...20Kit%20(Race)

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f0810c55e4.jpg

If you are looking for a more budget solution, Bro Fab has kits for using the beffy BMW E30 front wheel hubs/bearings.

https://www.bro-fab.com/

Well that's good. Not sure if I want to be the guinea pig on this.

The wilwood hubs are also aluminum, so the thickness relative to the "thin and chintzy" centric premiums isn't really relevant. The Miatahubs are suuuuper thick AND steel, so there's a reason they don't break.

Hey guys, BroFab checking in here. Haven't been active much on the forums seems the world has moved onto facebook groups much to my disappointment. I'm still churning these things out and moving a decent amount of them. Still no idea how long the Timkin/FAG/ SKF bearings will last, no one has worn one out yet, so safe to say they are firmly proven at this point. The economy bearings....well they are economy bearings. We've had 7 wear out prematurely now out of 300 bearings sold, so they are aren't 100% effective as expected. Seems big hoosier, big aero or high brake heat tends to push them past the heat treatment depth and shows up as a noisy bearing or little wheel wiggle. None of that scary breaking in half stuff you're seeing from other hubs. I don't feel my recommendations have changed for them, still a viable option for most non serious track rats looking for a cheap option that doesn't try to kill you. Easy enough to upgrade to a German bearing if you find your application warrants it.

Sorry about your luck fmcokc, and thanks for posting! I would have never seen it if it was on Facebook.

Guess it's MiataHubs FTW. I didn't realize they were steel. That isn't mentioned in any of the descriptions, so I figured they were aluminum like the Wilwood hubs.
I see the bearings listed separately on Goodwin Racing. Will be nice to keep a spare in the trailer. I'll be ordering shortly!

Wow, I was debating between these two and totally forgot about your kit. Glad you stopped by, I just ordered a set from you.

Actually the Miatahubs website doesn't make any claim about the material of the front hubs, only that they are billet. They appear to be aluminum, but idk.

They're steel. Professional Miata Parts Guy Ed™ has the good advice :)
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