fhp911

GT3-ers,

I am more interested in wheel bearings now than usual because I had a failure at Watkins Glen last week which cost me a full day of track time before I got it fixed.

I have my race shop check the bearings every winter but one failed anyway on my 4th track day of the season.

Q: Can they actually be checked so that you know they won't fail within, say, 10 track days?

Q: Is it a good idea to carry spares, or is this failure so rare as to make it not worthwhile?

I did some online checking and have found (from autopartswarehouse.com):

FRONT:
Beck Arnley 051-2733 $95
Ruville W0133-1814566 $52
OES W0133-1646750 $68

REAR:
Timken TM 513180 $87
SKF W0133-1611924 $117
SKF W0133-1778461 $118
OES W0133-1778461 $93

Are there good brands vs bad brands?

Notice that the last 2 rears have the same part number and wildly different prices. Weird? (or are these W0133 prefixes autopartswarehouse numbers?)

Wheel Bearing-knowledgable listers, please reply, and feel free to expand on the subject in your replies.

FRED

fhp911

Follow-up message:

I should have pointed in the original post out that Dan Jacobs of Hairy Dog Grrrage (Oxford Connecticut), a good guy anyway, was my savior. He offered me the spare bearing he had in his trailer, which saved my day.

A Shout-out to Dan.

Qwickrick

Dan is one of those guys that always seems to be there when you have a problem and is always willing to help. He's above and beyond just being helpful.

Rassel

SKF makes for everything from street cars to F1.

MovingChicane

How about skateboards to F1!

Rassel

CWay27

I have a set of *** bearings setting on my shelf. part number is 999 053 054 05. Don't know if they're any better and can't even remember how much I paid. I thought I would need them them when I did my GT3 brake conversion but carriers already had good ones.

Don't you need to press fit them? Didn't think it could be done track side.....

Rob in VA

Expect to pay around $85 a piece from a dealer.

TurboCup87

Don't have any direct knowledge of GT3 wheel bearing failures; HOWEVER, I had a wheel bearing failure on my trailer on the way home from Watkins Glen today. Found it at my first gas stop. Still had almost 400 miles to go. Looked like it really ground up the bearing and possibly the stub axle. I took off the wheel and limped it to my Porsche shop in Cleveland and drove the GT3 the rest of the way home. Loooong day! Might have to start bringing trailer spares as well as Porsche spares.

amaist

It's a matter of time before a wheel bearing fails. How soon that happens depends on the driving style and how much weight that wheel carries. In my M3 it took about 15 track days to chew up the front left bearing. Having the engine in the front and being able to drive into corners at high speed did the bearing in faster than normal. The GT3 with relatively little weight on the front lasts a lot longer but I did have to change one recently.

I have no experience in changing a GT3 wheel bearing but normally changing it on an non-driven axle (front in the case of the GT3) is not too but a job. The only catch is you need a good breaker bar and the right socket for the hub bolt.

Can you predict a failure? Not really. But at least you usually get plenty of warning when the bearing starts to fail. You don't have to see the wheel fall off to know it failed. The noise gets bad enough to realize it's failing.

CWay27

But do you have to take the carrier out to remove it??

fhp911

The point in having a spare would be that virtually any local mechanic would have the tools to do the job, but he almost certainly won't have the part itself.

In my case, Dan Jacobs got me the bearing and a local shop in Watkins Glen then easily did the job.

You CANNOT do this yourself without the pulling and pressing tools, which I don't have.

Carefree

Thank you for the clarification.
A Wheel Bearing set in the tool box and a mechanic to install it, is the best scenario.

Nothing worse than wasting a perfectially good track day!

Cheers; Dennis in Lovely Portland, OR.

johnr265

What is the sound that a failing bearing makes? Is it a squealing sound? Reason I ask is I am getting the faintest squealing, almost identical to the sound my ceramic brakes make, only I get the sound when I quickly turn the steering wheel to the right. It is not horribly loud but pretty reproducible. I only occasionally get the sound when going straight. Car has 51k miles on it. Thanks.

fhp911

I am not an expert on this issue but have a few personal datapoints, which are somewhat contradictory unfortunately.

The noise generally made by a failing wheel bearing is a 'roar' kind of sound -- not a squealing sound and it intensifies when you are cornering. A failing left bearing will make noise in righthand turns.


2 stories from my previous track car, an '84 911.

+ The car was fine in a straight line but it made this roaring noise when cornering in either direction.
I had it looked at and found out that both front bearings were failing; thus the noise in either direction.

+ Years later the car never made any noise at all but at Pocono there was a catastrophic failure resulting in the destruction of the entire left front suspension and I almost had a bad crash.

1 story from my '04 GT3 with 40K miles:

+ A gentle roaring started on the street. At the track the noise got progressively louder and was very pronounced in right turns. I took it to a local shop where we learned that the left front bearing was wrecked.

LESSON: Have your car reviewed by someone competent -- but squealing does not sound to me [an amateur] like a bearing.