Just thought I should warn you guys…..

[Texarkana]

Stay the hell away from Timken bearings.

Today I replaced one of my front wheel hubs. I opted to purchase another Timken hub since my OE AC Delco hubs crapped out at 40k miles.

That particular Timken bearing lasted me 3 years and over 60k miles which is pretty good since they WBody vehicles eat front bearings like clockwork.

Around noon the new bearing arrived in the mail. I compared packaging to the old box which I still had in my garage. Everything looks the same but if you pay attention to detail the one I bought 3 years ago says made in United States, and the one which came today says made in South Korea.

I decided to closely inspect both bearings and found a few differences which probably will equate to me only getting 1~ year out of this bearing.

Firstly, the center of the hub of my S. Korea bearing has less metal (thinner) than the old USA made Timken.

lastly, the S. Korea Timken has wheel studs which are approx 1-1.5 cm shorter than the made in the USA counterpart, and the S. Korea bearing cost me $10 more than the USA bearing – Both from RockAuto.

Just thinking about the shorter wheel studs and thinner metal hub makes me think Timken purposely made the bearing this way to ensure it failed quicker.

I’ll never buy another Timken bearing, believe me when I say Moog or SKF will get my money from now on.

Topic

[Nicholas Mitteer]

Thanks man, good to know. I always get Moog whenever I can, plus I like how they will redesign a part and fix known issues with them.

[Texarkana]

The Timken just failed today. Timken tired to give me the runaround but RockAuto is standing by their warranty.

[Nicholas Mitteer]

12 days to failure? Wow. :blink:

[Texarkana]

[quote=”metalnick” post=182980]12 days to failure? Wow. :blink:[/quote]

[zero]

Go with SK and don’t look back.

[Author]

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