Wheel spacers, offset, and wheel bearing wear...?

I've been running Spidertracks spacers for a couple years now and have had to replace my front driver's wheel bearing twice since putting the spacers on.

Just wondering if others have had similar experiences with decreased wheel bearing life due to spacers, or due to aftermarket wheels with more adverse offset/backspacing.

I had one guy tell me that it's common knowledge that spacers destroy wheel bearings, but I haven't seen much of that discussed here, so I was just wondering what other people experiences have been.

 

Everything I have been taught is a yes to your question... adding a spacer is hard on wheel bearings but just the same as adding a wheel with a different offset. All that said we still do it cause it looks way better!

 

It does look way better, but I'm on my second blown wheel bearing in 2 months (for the same wheel)! And they are kind of a bitch to replace. Bearing vibes are so loud at 50 mph I can barely hear my stereo, haha.

Just wondered if other people here go thru wheel bearings like crazy with Spidertrax.

 

2 months seems crazy...

 

I have NOT had problems with my .75" BORA spacers and '09 wheels since mounting them July of last year...on my '02 Tacoma..
I still have my original bearings up front and 65000 miles on them , no noise and with the wheel upgrade I also moved to an LT 265/75/16 instead of my P265/70/16's...

4WDToyotaOwner magazine put SpiderTrax 1.25" spacers on their FJ last year and they have not reported any problems....

Good luck finding out WHAT is destroying your bearings and WHEN you find the cause PLEASE print it up here..

 

2 months?? maybe improper installation?
are all the seals in good shape and properly installed? seals keep water out. check the knuckle seal if you have a 4wd. its between the axle and hub assembly..

 

Where are you getting your bearings from?

 

I have had wheel spacers for the past 40k miles (at 80k now) and have only done the pass front once. I am ok with that.

 

I'm thinking your replacement bearing was not good, or installed poorly.

On another note, my last vehicle was an FJ with stock rims and no spacers. It required a wheel bearing at 29kmi.

 

BenWa, I had a long conversation with a wheel bearing engineer at SKF a couple of years ago about the effect of changing the wheel's offset either by using different wheels or through use of spacers, same thing.

The 2nd gen Taco comes from the factory with a +30mm offset to its wheels. The SKF engineer told me this was the ideal offset that Toyota established to center the load of the vehicle over the wheel bearing module. If you remember, each front wheel bearing module has two side-by-side tapered roller bearings in the bearing module. The engineering design is to split the load so that each of the tapered parts in the module takes about 50% while driving in a straight line.

When you move the wheel outward (change the offset from the +30mm factory design to a lower number, such as +12mm) you proportionally change the loading so that the outermost tapered bearing takes a greater load and the load on the innermost tapered bearing decreases.

Let's do some math for fun. Assume that your truck weighs 4,000 lbs. and that the weight distribution is 50% on the back and 50% on the front. That would would make about 1,000 lbs. of weight on each corner, or 500 lbs. that each tapered bearing part in one of the front bearing's module would be loaded (assuming a straight path). Now, let's change the offset by say 60% from the factory's +30mm to a +12mm wheel or doing the same by using spacers to move each wheel outward by 18mm (0.7 in.).

Now watch what happens to the loading. By changing the offset by 60% the innermost tapered roller bearing's load decreases 60% from 500 lbs. to 200 lbs., and the outer now has to take a load of about 830 lbs., up from the 500 lbs. it previously carried. Keep moving the stance wider and work the math, you will soon see that the outer tapered roller is taking almost all the load and the inner almost none.

SKF told me that the design life of those bearing modules is 100k miles if the factory +30mm offset is maintained. I have a relatively modest offset to my wheels: they are +18mm, or 12mm (0.47 in.) different from factory.

I asked for a gut feeling from SKF on the expected life of my front bearings with the offset I run. As I recall it was something like to expect a reduction to somewhere around 65-70k miles or so, I'll have to dig into my old notes to confirm.

Obviously chuck holes, rocks, high speed cornering, etc. will hammer the wheel bearings too.

 

Here is a really depressing thread.

By the end of the thread this guy had replaced 10 wheel bearings with about 120,000 mi. on his Tacoma. He clearly states in the thread, and in email communication with me, that the high toll on wheel bearings started when he changed the offset of his wheels. As I recall, he told me in correspondence he was running something like -6mm offsets (again I would need to check my notes to confirm). The thread can speak for itself.

http://www.ct4wd.com/forum/showthread.php?1494-Lucky-number-7-wheel-bearing

 

Great post, Taco'09. Hard to imagine that 1.25" could make such a difference, but these trucks (like any vehicle) have so much engineering put into them with the intention of them remaining stock. Once you start modding, all that careful engineering starts to go right out the window.

I will definitely have to read that linked thread when I have a spare few minutes. 10 bearings sounds depressing indeed. Wheel bearings are not cheap to have replaced professionally, and I don't particularly enjoy replacing them myself.

 

Carquest.

 

Possibly something wasn't right when installed. I installed the with supervision from a friend who was a professional auto mechanic for many years, but who knows what may have happened. It felt like driving on glass immediately after we did the replacement, but has since gone to shit.

 

Here is my situation:

I drive an 07 Tacoma that needs both front left and front right bearings replaced asap. Truck has 138k km (86k miles) on it. This is the first time I'm replacing bearings (dealer is, but I pay )

Truck was running stock wheels and tires since I got it in 2009 with 47k km (29k miles) on the odo. I'm assuming that was the case with the first owner as well.

In spring of 2012, I installed Amercian Racing Mojave Teflon 16" wheels with one size bigger than stock 265/75/16 AT tires mounted on them. I did probably around 17k km (10.5k miles) on them so far. Specs for these wheels are: 16x8, 0mm offset, 4.5bs.

After that in fall of 2012 I purchased FJ Cruiser 17" alloys with stock size 265/65/17 winter tires mounted on them. So far I did about 5k kms or (3k miles) on these and started hearing humming noise and later slight vibrations in the steering wheel and pedals as it got worse over time. Specs for these wheels are: 17x7.5, 15mm offset, 5bs.

So truck ran on non stock tires and wheels for almost a year now for around 22k kms or 13.5k miles. I since then sold my original OEM 17" TRD wheels.

I realized when I started swapping wheels that less backspacing and offset will put some strain on all components, but quite frankly did not think it will show issues this soon. After all, I see lifted trucks with a lot bigger tires and aftermarket wheels all day long on TW.

Are my mild modifications possibly the casue of my wheel bearing issues? Any thoughts?

If I keep running these two sets of wheels from now on as I originally planned to, should I expect this happening freqeuntly? I would probably get 265/70/16 next time when these tires wear out instead of current 265/75/16 to put less stress on my truck, but would still like to run these two sets of wheels with smaller bs and offset.

 

Grant it I run factory wheels, they weren't factory for my vehicle. I do have 1.25" wheel spacers though and have had no problems with wheel bearings. I have had to replace one wheel bearing but I don't think the spacer had anything to do with it b/c it's been probably 2 years since I've had the spacers. Also, it was only one side. When it comes to Toyota and the parts involving bearings always go OEM. I know personally how big of a PITA they are to put in so I only want to do it once. If it drove like ass after installation maybe something wasn't installed correctly.

 

What does this mean? Factory non factory wheels?

 

He's running Toyota wheels, but not wheels originally designed for his 4Runner.

 

Ohhhhh, I totally missed that. @)

 

This is the best explanation I have seen about wheel bearing wear with spacers or high off-set wheels.

On a side note, I've had 1.5 inch wheel spacers on for a year or so now and haven't had any wheel bearing issues yet.......