bgoetz

In line with another post about off season maintenance, I am going to be doing some of my own this off-season. With 130k miles on the rear wheel bearings and maybe a bit of wheel bearing noise, I was debating replacing both rears this off-season. Lately I have been having some odd feeling brakes and was suspecting an issue with one of my calipers, so I had planned to rebuild both fronts and rears. The plan was to take the car 2hrs away to my parents and store it for the winter in a climate controlled barn, it would be much easier/roomy to complete the planned work along with some other things I had on the list.

Well today my brake issue surfaced and may have throw a bit of a wrench in my plans. On my way home I noticed a loud wheel bearing type noise and pulled into the drive to discover that my right rear wheel was hot as heck and my right rear brake had seized up. With the original plan to drive the car 2hrs south in 2 weeks and then do the work, I am now not sure that I can get there without addressing my brake issue. The heat build up has confirmed my decision to replace both rear wheel bearings, with that amount of heat if the right rear was not bad before it likely is now. Additionally, given the heat and the seized caliper I am no longer going to attempt a rebuild on the rear brakes and am just going to purchase rebuild calipers for the rear. I am also leaning towards just doing rebuilt for the fronts as well, since I am not rebuilding the rears. All that said, I would still like to try to get the car 2hrs south and then slowly complete the work over the winter. So my questions are:

1). Any advice on unsticking the caliper just to make the mostly highway drive back? Is it a good idea to even try?

2). You guys are replacing wheel bearings frequently, and brake calipers more frequently than guys who just drive on the streets, so any advice on what to go with? I am really leaning towards all OEM, but obviously this is going to be much more costly than aftermarket. That said I have seen both aftermarket hubs/bearings and aftermarket calipers that range from complete crap to really nice. So if there is a better value than OEM let me know. Right now I am looking at that following costs at Majestic Honda:

Rebuilt OEM rear calipers $127 each
Rebuilt OEM front calipers $80 each
hubs $111 each
wheel bearings $67 each

All said and done I am nearly up to $800!!

Thanks for any advice!!

bgoetz

Just went onto Rock Auto and Centric remanufactured brakes, Timken hub bearing, and Dorman hub is less than half the cost!! Ugh, I like OEM parts and all, but the difference is basically a track day! Any thoughts on the listed parts? They had other options that were similarly priced like A-1 Cardone for brake options.

bdo

Wow, big difference! I recall reading somewhere that the OEM bearings are Timken. Don't know anything about the hubs, but for my car I'd go with the aftermarket; $35 vs $100+! (Or you could pay $99.99 for the same Dorman hub at O'Reilly; then it would be just as good as OEM since it costs almost the same. )

nissanfanatic

OEM bearings are NSK IIRC.

Whatever you decide to do, definitely replace the hub with the bearing. I was hard headed and kept replacing wheel bearings and reusing the hub. Lesson learned after the third bearing went bad. My car has been fine for two years now on the same bearing. Last ones would last a few months.

My next plan for bearings will be OEM repacked with either Redline or NEO grease.


...

If you end up doing all the bearings/hubs, I would recommend doing ARP studs all around since you have to remove the hub to do so.

Alexs '05

My vote is OEM on both the hub and bearings.

Put a Timken bearing in last month, and it's already gone. Of course it lasted until just after the 30-day warranty ran out.
Hub didn't look bad enough to warrant replacing so I didn't, looks like now I'm getting both.
Haven't heard anything good about the Dorman units yet, and the Timken bearings seem to be hit or miss.

And as nissanfanatic stated, OEM bearings are NSK units.

bgoetz

So I suppose it could be debated that the Timken failed because you didn't replace the hub and an OEM would have failed as well. They also offer an SKF sealed bearing for $40 more a side, but that actually puts them at more than OEM (wonder if they would actually be better). Or I could do OEM bearing Dorman hub, which I found for $165 for both sides.

bgoetz

With regards to the brakes, Centric uses mostly OEM stuff and I guess if they fail prematurely replacing isn't a huge deal and they have a lifetime warranty. The only concern I would have is that they would not actually function as well as OEM, which would be an issue for me. Any experience or perspective on if there would be a difference in function between the two?

bgoetz

Ok decision made, I am going to go with the Centric brakes and Dorman/Timken hubs (kinda partial to Timken since it is a big local manufacture). I will try to turn this thread into a review of how they worked for me and my future endeavors beating the piss out of them on the track. I will even try to remember to update it after a season or so. I am packing the Timken bearing with redline grease. I also got Centric Cryo treated rotors, which I will run with some EBC yellows that I got from another member for a great price. All said and done I will have $600 in calipers, rear hubs, and rotors. Then $100 in the Yellows, but that was a good deal from a friend. I will try to update as I put these items to use!

GravyRobber

I'm late to the party here, but I run doorman/timken hubs/bearings and haven't had a single problem. IMHO, for a track car, they are wear items and should be replaced annually, depending on how much track time you get. Mine have held up on the track just fine. I'll likely run them another year before replacing them.

I am curious about the brake calipers, please do report back about the quality of those.

andrewhake

OEM bearings are not Timken...