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Hi all, thanks to some great info in this thread and elsewhere I have held off buying what I thought was going to be a good Hub.
Given the recent failures of Timken and poor machining on other brands, what is the current (July 2017) recommendation of brand and supplier that will deliver me a decent Hub that is not going to break and has quality bearings and seals?
Cheers
m
Not sure yet, but probably not Centric Premium nor Timken, unless you get lucky, or I have reading comprehension problems.
For your viewing pleasure. These are identical parts, and both appear to have the machining problem.
I'm just going to order a set of OE or try to re-pack mine at this point.
If you don't have ABS, there's reports of the cheap non-ABS ones on Rockauto coming sans sketchy machining.
I actually got a "good" pair from Ebay a year or two that i keep as spares. I'm sure the seals are gross and they appear to be tracked with trash, but the metal looks good.
I've got 3 good OEMs and 2 older Timkens with the not **** machine work. I'll be rotating them out and religiously cleaning/repacking them with Dominator to try to keep them alive as long as possible. That seems like the only way to avoid playing hub supplier roulette at this point.
Originally Posted by concealer404
If you don't have ABS, there's reports of the cheap non-ABS ones on Rockauto coming sans sketchy machining.
With so few manufacturers actually making hubs, and everyone just re-boxing parts (speculation) from the same 2 manufacturers (also speculation) I feel like its just luck of the draw right now.
If you don't have ABS, there's reports of the cheap non-ABS ones on Rockauto coming sans sketchy machining.
I actually got a "good" pair from Ebay a year or two that i keep as spares. I'm sure the seals are gross and they appear to be tracked with trash, but the metal looks good.
I just got the Centrics after hearing they are good to go. Obviously, that information was incorrect, at least for this batch. I'll send these back to Rock Auto and try a set of non-ABS hubs to see what they ship. Goodwin has supposedly good Centrics on their site for a premium price, which might be worth doing. I'll save a search on eBay and see what comes up. The Timkins have been on my shelf too long to return, so I'll have to flip those on miata.net along with all of my take-offs and other unused bits.
Time to hit the Spec Miata forums to see what those guys are doing, I suppose...
I bought moog hubs from autozone a few months ago with a coupon, not too much more expensive, and had the correct machining.
I think you might be on to something here. Perhaps the plan should be to order them in to local parts stores and inspect them before paying. I think I'll try it today. I have an AutoZone within walking distance of my office. Man. Shopping locally is gonna be WEIRD!
I hate to ask, because maybe this has already been covered somewhere in this mega thread. But what do MR2 hubs look like, and are those subject to same failure? This could make drop spindles somewhat attractive option? Granted, this depends on your race series and rules, but some of us don't need to worry about such details... Better hub solution with drop spindles?
As an update to my post, I bought these a couple of days later (Early August 2017) as I hadn't heard anything further. El cheapo Centric 405.45005E from Amazon. No machining on lugs so thats good. Bit tricky to repack but got there in the end. off to the track this weekend. Lets see if I keep all 4 wheels on my wagon.
I run a lemons car and we've had 2 hub failures with the machined crappy timken where the wheel fell off, and our second team's miata has also had the same failure with the OEM studs.
Repacking non-machined hubs seems to be the best solution?
Went the whole season this year on a Mazdaspeed / Raybestos front hub combo with no issues.
Repacking ect for longevity or bearing wear is one thing, those straight up failures from the Timkens is really what this thread is about, and hopefully enough people spread the word and keep them off track cars.
Add the Centric 406.45006 to the watch list. We just received a pair of bad examples. For what its worth, both these boxes say "Made in Japan".
It seems like I've seen every name brand use this style machining now; Timken, MOOG, and Centric. Order early, and more than you need with the plan to return a few I suppose.
EDIT: Looks like Steve Dallas already posted about these Centric 45006.