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I’d find out who is the OEM manufacturer and just buy that brand vs. buying it in a Honda box (or whatever make you have) and paying substantially more.
Anyway, Timkin and Moog are good products, not sure if they make several versions though (you know: economy, standard, premium). I’d stay away from the economy version.
I prefer to use OEM parts. I would call your local dealer and see how much there prices compare to the local parts store.
I have used Timken bearings on my own vehicles with no issues either.
I used Timken bearings as well. I almost stopped when I was swapping front bearings on and s-10, and the Timken bearings I got at the parts store had a partial plastic carrier. Then I pulled the factory bearings, and low and behold, they had a plastic carrier as well… Wonder why GM went bankrupt?
I would check at the dealer for the price of the OEM bearing before buying an aftermarket piece as sometimes they may be the same price and you would be getting OEM quality.
+1 on the OEM wheel bearing.
I’ve seen cheap after market ones fail really bad before (cough duralast cough..) almost causing the wheel to fly off.I am pretty sure the OEM for wheel bearings (at least for your model) is NSK. You can buy the NSK model at various websites cheaper that any Honda dealership and I am pretty sure mine ended up coming in a Honda box anyways.
I believe the OE supplier for Honda bearings is a company called NUK, if you could find one of those it would be best and you might be able to avoid the dealer mark up. The aftermarket bearings you mentioned will work but may not fit as well as the OE, to be honest they’re all made in China it seems. To be honest however that is a pain in the butt job so no matter what you use it’s going to be a fight. Here is a link that I found while doing some research on this that might interst you.
I would go with Timken from autozone. I replaced both of my front press in wheel bearings on my 00 civic with some cheap China made ones and they started howling after 15000 miles. I did some research and found out Timken are a quality bearing. I pulled mine out of the package and it says KOYO on them and made in Japan which was ultimately what sold me. I have only put about 5000 on them since but so far so good and the reviews are good. They were about $50 a piece for my 00 ex compared to 30 something each for the cheap duralast china ones.
Alot of Timken products are also made in China. It will state it on the box. I have noticed this when purchasing them from Autozone as well.
That’s why I’m a fan of OEM parts only.
A good resource to lookup bearings – has specs and pictures:
FYI many of the OE bearings are made in China as well so it really boils down to a ‘quality control’ issue, the OE should have the best when it comes to this however but given that most manufacturers don’t make their own bearings and purchase them in bulk from 3rd parties if you find the OE supplier for a part you can just as easily buy the same bearing without the OE markup.
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