AZ vs National wheel bearing

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WhyMe

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i just got my wheel bearing from RA for my CRV afer waiting for about 5 days. no big deal. originally i was gonna get a AZ on but it was made in China. i elected to get the national one from RA as the pix show a USA made bearing . it cost about $9 more after shipping than the AZ one.

when i opened the box its marked China on it . very disappointed, but i have no choice but to use it now. So would i just have been in the same place to get the AZ one and just did it instead of the wait? Yeah maybe i should have gotten a timken, but these days maybe they come from china also.

Does the brand name really make that much of a difference if they are both made in China and have the same waranty which is one year?
 
Auto Zone parts suck.

But just because something is made in China, doesn't mean it's bad. If it's by a reputable company I have absolutely no issue with Chinese products.
 
My experience with SKF: box says made in USA, bearing made in SK (not Saskatchewan).

I guess SK>Taiwan>China. Getting what you wanted>bait and switch.

EDIT: This was early 2018 so recent enough to be relevant.
 
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Does the brand name really make that much of a difference


Brand names were ONCE companies, then they got taken over and cheapened to bring "investor value"

Brands suck. It just gives you the Illusion that it is a respected company with a quality product.
 
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I'm not sure about National bearing units, I've installed their tapered bearings on an Explorer and the COO was China. This was 3+ years ago and they still roll smooth and true.

Bearing units do have less room for error at the assembly stage however.
 
I looked all over the box that my OE GM wheel bearing came in, but I didn't see anything about COO. It was half the price of a SKF or Moog bearing, and it's OE, so I'm not to worried about it.
 
Does made in USA automatically mean everything made in the USA is stellar quality? No, a lot of real rubbish was made in the USA along with top shelf stuff. Ditto China.
National was a very good hub/bearing manufacturer in the USA but parts of it were bought by Federal-Mogul and now sold as Moog and made in China.

This is where things get foggy, companies like SKF, F.A.G/INA and possibly a few others have their own factories in China and support the Chinese auto industry and other manufacturing, these components are the same quality as what is produced in other parts of the world.
On the other side of that coin is are the companies who buy from Chinese companies and relabel, the quality of these parts is anyone's guess. National and Timken have a lot of unbranded hubs, if you are lucky it will have the COO on the box or the bearing itself but often times not.

I looked at a Timken hub at AZ with no COO on the box and the bearing was pressed in with the info on the blind side, no idea where that was made and by whom but you can guess. If they go to that much trouble to hide it, something doesn't smell right to me anyway.
There is a big difference in made in China by (company) and made in China for (company).
 
all done with the bearing job. took me about 4 hours i think. lots of it was trying to remove it on the car. i think if i just pulled the whole thing and used a press it would take less than 2 hours . one thing i need is a good set of large snap ring pliers. mine were way too small , but got the snap ring after a while.

yeah i know china makes some good stuff. that why i wonder if the warranty is the same is there really a difference in the quality. i have bought quite a few non german made parts for my e46 and they worked just fine .


i am waiting for the rush hour traffic to blow over before i take it on the freeway . i hope this solves my issue .
 
Several years ago and 60k ago I had a wheel bearing start growling in the front of my f250. I drove to work and tore it apart. Bearings were junk.

I had to order new ones from several sources as nobody had all of them in stock. I got a bearing from Napa,a race from O'Riley's,another from AutoZone etc. All imported parts. Some from China,some from Czechoslovakia etc. Packed them with valvoline grease.

60k later they are still going.
 
I'm about to install a timken wheel bearing for my corolla with 137K miles purchased from eBay for $37 after their 15% promotion that was running. This one was made in USA and actually had Koyo stamped on it which is the preferred OEM for all the timing belt pulleys for Subaru.

I didn't want the house brand like duralast so really targeted timken. Truthfully National was my second choice and the difference was no more than a couple of dollars.

My thought about warranties is I will likely not have this corolla for another 137K and really could have gone cheap but the way the corolla bearing comes out of the spindle...the inner race is stuck to the hub shaft. So even if it fails within the one year warranty, the parts store is going to get a bearing that's all wasted from removal and then claim I'm not an authorized mechanic so they'll probably fight me tooth and nail to reimburse me.
 
Originally Posted By: ccs368
I'm about to install a timken wheel bearing for my corolla with 137K miles purchased from eBay for $37 after their 15% promotion that was running. This one was made in USA and actually had Koyo stamped on it which is the preferred OEM for all the timing belt pulleys for Subaru.

I didn't want the house brand like duralast so really targeted timken. Truthfully National was my second choice and the difference was no more than a couple of dollars.

My thought about warranties is I will likely not have this corolla for another 137K and really could have gone cheap but the way the corolla bearing comes out of the spindle...the inner race is stuck to the hub shaft. So even if it fails within the one year warranty, the parts store is going to get a bearing that's all wasted from removal and then claim I'm not an authorized mechanic so they'll probably fight me tooth and nail to reimburse me.




i actually asked the guy at AZ about how they warranty these bearings as they get destroyed on removal. he said that they will look at the races and bearings to determine if there was an issue. i hope they are all trained in bearing inspection. LOL
 
Originally Posted By: WhyMe
Originally Posted By: ccs368
I'm about to install a timken wheel bearing for my corolla with 137K miles purchased from eBay for $37 after their 15% promotion that was running. This one was made in USA and actually had Koyo stamped on it which is the preferred OEM for all the timing belt pulleys for Subaru.

I didn't want the house brand like duralast so really targeted timken. Truthfully National was my second choice and the difference was no more than a couple of dollars.

My thought about warranties is I will likely not have this corolla for another 137K and really could have gone cheap but the way the corolla bearing comes out of the spindle...the inner race is stuck to the hub shaft. So even if it fails within the one year warranty, the parts store is going to get a bearing that's all wasted from removal and then claim I'm not an authorized mechanic so they'll probably fight me tooth and nail to reimburse me.




i actually asked the guy at AZ about how they warranty these bearings as they get destroyed on removal. he said that they will look at the races and bearings to determine if there was an issue. i hope they are all trained in bearing inspection. LOL


Exactly. LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: Snagglefoot
We continually complain about China, an entire country with numerous companies making parts. There is never a reference to which company it is. Folks, Chinese parts are here to stay.

Accept it before it destroys you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhZBWhZsBKg


Never will but for geopolitical reasons. My money going to China enables that government to push their agenda around the world and challenge the US Navy in the South Pacific. Xi may seem to be the leader of China but with the changes he made he now resembles one of China's past god like Emperors of Dynasties past and all that it entails. If their system of government resembled Japan or Taiwan I would have no problem buying from them yet that obviously will never happen. So that is my line in the sand.
 
Originally Posted By: WhyMe
Originally Posted By: ccs368
I'm about to install a timken wheel bearing for my corolla with 137K miles purchased from eBay for $37 after their 15% promotion that was running. This one was made in USA and actually had Koyo stamped on it which is the preferred OEM for all the timing belt pulleys for Subaru.

I didn't want the house brand like duralast so really targeted timken. Truthfully National was my second choice and the difference was no more than a couple of dollars.

My thought about warranties is I will likely not have this corolla for another 137K and really could have gone cheap but the way the corolla bearing comes out of the spindle...the inner race is stuck to the hub shaft. So even if it fails within the one year warranty, the parts store is going to get a bearing that's all wasted from removal and then claim I'm not an authorized mechanic so they'll probably fight me tooth and nail to reimburse me.




i actually asked the guy at AZ about how they warranty these bearings as they get destroyed on removal. he said that they will look at the races and bearings to determine if there was an issue. i hope they are all trained in bearing inspection. LOL


The problem with eBay new parts: they may be fake. I'd be ok buying from a reputable online seller (not eBay, maybe Amazon market place if you can inspect it yourself and low risk part, but mostly reputable dealer like RockAuto at least).

Parts house private label will probably just give you another part and send you out the door, then ask their suppliers to pay for it as a percentage yield hit. The suppliers or manufacturers figure parts cost nothing even if they have like 10% RMA compare selling at a higher price with low quality cheap sources. The elephant in the room is the labor cost and downtime, they are never in the warranty.
 
Originally Posted By: Snagglefoot
We continually complain about China, an entire country with numerous companies making parts. There is never a reference to which company it is. Folks, Chinese parts are here to stay.

Accept it before it destroys you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhZBWhZsBKg
Not enough Canadians on here to agree with you. Manufacturing and investment are returning to the US, can't say the same for Canada.
 
Several years ago, my mom's Taurus needed front wheel bearings. I went to O'Reillys to buy two of them. They had two National bearings on hand. One was American-made and the machining on it was beautiful. The next one with the same part number was made in Korea. Now Korea usually can make a good part, but the casting was rough, the machining was terrible and it was incorrectly pressed together from the factory. I had both of them sitting on the counter for a comparison and the counter man instantly agreed with me. Having only two in inventory, they ordered a replacement that was also made in Korea and also poorly machined. At least this one was assembled correctly.
It only lasted about three months after installation, however. They gave me a replacement, another Korean-made bearing and the car was sold several months after that still working.
 
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