Timken quality has dropped drastically.

[wtd]

Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
Pirelli was bought out by a Chinese company but are manufactured elsewhere and are held up to higher standards.
I consider Pirelli tires junk. My 2014 Mustang GT came with them from the factory and are the loudest tires I have ever run on any vehicle. They also became out of round very quickly. After about 11,000 miles, I bought a different set of take off factory Mustang rims that I liked better with factory Pirelli's and they also became very loud in no time and are also out of round. I will never buy another set again. Unfortunately I have a third set of factory tires and wheels that are just like the set that are on the car now that have factory Pirelli's on them. I will not run these without different tires.

Wayne

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: wtd
Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
Pirelli was bought out by a Chinese company but are manufactured elsewhere and are held up to higher standards.
I consider Pirelli tires junk. My 2014 Mustang GT came with them from the factory and are the loudest tires I have ever run on any vehicle. They also became out of round very quickly. After about 11,000 miles, I bought a different set of take off factory Mustang rims that I liked better with factory Pirelli's and they also became very loud in no time and are also out of round. I will never buy another set again. Unfortunately I have a third set of factory tires and wheels that are just like the set that are on the car now that have factory Pirelli's on them. I will not run these without different tires.

Wayne


We agree with Wayne here. I have experience with Pirelli in trucks and cars. Bought a set for my old Neon R/T and found them noisy and bad traction in the wet. Plus they wore out fast. Not on anything we own...

 

[R18Civic]

Just replaced the passenger rear with an SKF unit about an hour ago, looks 100 percent identical to the AC Delco bearing compared to the SK Timken. As if it's any surprise the SKF was made stateside. No more timkens for me.

 

[R18Civic]

 

[R18Civic]

Originally Posted By: wtd
Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
Pirelli was bought out by a Chinese company but are manufactured elsewhere and are held up to higher standards.
I consider Pirelli tires junk. My 2014 Mustang GT came with them from the factory and are the loudest tires I have ever run on any vehicle. They also became out of round very quickly. After about 11,000 miles, I bought a different set of take off factory Mustang rims that I liked better with factory Pirelli's and they also became very loud in no time and are also out of round. I will never buy another set again. Unfortunately I have a third set of factory tires and wheels that are just like the set that are on the car now that have factory Pirelli's on them. I will not run these without different tires.

Wayne


Tires geared for performance don't usually fit things like road noise and overall comfort into the equation. The Pirellis I purchased were touring tires (P4 Four Seasons Plus).
You're comparing a V rated, low profile tire with a 45k tread life to a T Rates Passenger car tire designed for luxury sedans. No comparing those two.

No road noise, I've driven on ice, snow, and in rain and they're a huge improvement over the Khumos I had on there.

 

[Trav]

I have Pirreli P4, P7 AS Plus and P Zero tires on various vehicles and couldn't be happier with them. The old P4's are due for replacement due to age but have been flawless and lived a long time and gone a lot of miles, this time it gets the P7 AS Plus. They are one of the nicest tires I have ever had on a car.
Smooth as silk, quiet, long lasting, holds a balance well and not priced like over priced/overrated Michelin. For performance street tires its hard to beat the P Zero.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
I have a hard time believing RockAuto would sell counterfeit or even have a difficult time telling the difference.

Why would you assume that? I've heard of lots of people who have received sketchy-looking products from RockAuto.

Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
The bottom line is the shorter studs and thinner hub race = shorter bearing life.

What does stud length and hub thickness have to do with bearing life?

Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
They were higher quality because every time it'd rain outside I'd turn off TC I'd spin tires which isn't good for bearings.

What does that even mean?

 

[mjoekingz28]

Look-up babbitt metal

 

[R18Civic]

@BottomFeeder
Thinner metal is more prone to cracking, shorter studs are more prone to snapping.
I'll be pulling the hub back of tomorrow, tried to clean rust and corrosion off with WD40 and a wire brush to no avail. I developed a wobble after my first drive that retorquing the wheel didn't fix. Going to pick up a rotory sanding tool from home depot and get her cleaned up.

 

[R18Civic]

Well this latest post is /thread. The SK Timken is now making a grinding noise after less than 3 weeks and under 1k miles.

 

[R18Civic]

 

[R18Civic]

Spoke with the owner of the local Napa, he says Asian parts are not on par with the USA. The wheel studs are metric grade 5 vs USA SAE grade 8 studs on USA made bearings. Asian steel is also inferior.

My issue seems to have been a steel and bearing grease issue. The hub didn't dissipate heat, it overheated and melted the grease which came out both ends on the bearing. The innermost race has black spots and blued metal.

This will be my final post in this thread. The car has oem quality parts on it once again.

 

[daves87rs]

Like the vid here too....


Knock on wood, my Moog has held up pretty well.

Which one did you end up with?

 

[R18Civic]

Ended up with another SKF. Cost me double what I could've got it for on RockAuto but it beats the original request of removing the hub, allowing 3 days for it to arrive in NY, 3 more days for inspection and about another 5 for a refund and the SKF to be sent to me.

 

[nobb]

Originally Posted By: Hemispheres
Spoke with the owner of the local Napa, he says Asian parts are not on par with the USA. The wheel studs are metric grade 5 vs USA SAE grade 8 studs on USA made bearings. Asian steel is also inferior.


In today's globalized market, this comment is false. Stuff made in asia is fully capable of exceeding US made products. It all comes down to quality control and if the various brands are willing to pay for that quality from the manufacturer or keep a tight enough control.

It's basically luck of the draw now. Big US names like Timken, Moog, SKF, etc have all outsourced various product lines and just looking at country of origin is not always a reliable way to determine quality anymore. Some of their products aren't even made inhouse but reboxes of other brands.

 

[mjk]

Older thread, brought back to life...

Picked up another Timken hub assembly for my 01 Tahoe from RA. Like the one I received last fall, it has 'made in USA' on the bearing's race.

7 months in, no issue with the 1st one.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Sad indeed to see the quality of so many trusted names decline.I just use OEM parts and haven't had a bad experience yet. Times change.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: wtd
I consider Pirelli tires junk. My 2014 Mustang GT came with them from the factory and are the loudest tires I have ever run on any vehicle. They also became out of round very quickly. After about 11,000 miles, I bought a different set of take off factory Mustang rims that I liked better with factory Pirelli's and they also became very loud in no time and are also out of round. I will never buy another set again. Unfortunately I have a third set of factory tires and wheels that are just like the set that are on the car now that have factory Pirelli's on them. I will not run these without different tires.

Wayne


Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
We agree with Wayne here. I have experience with Pirelli in trucks and cars. Bought a set for my old Neon R/T and found them noisy and bad traction in the wet. Plus they wore out fast. Not on anything we own...


Wow. I've run nothing but Pirellis on my Pajero, Envoy, Expedition and recently the SRX - primarily the Scorpion STR (Brazil/Romania), Scorpion Verde All-Season (UK) and Scorpion Verde All-Season Plus (Mexico). The STR was H-rated with both Verdes being V-Rated for the Envoy and SRX and H-rated for the Pajero and Expedition. I get really good tread life out of them, and they are rotated every 6,250 miles (back to front first and cross rotation next) running 36 PSI. Dry traction is fantastic, although the STR wasn't as good as the Verdes, and they offer a smooth, quiet ride. In the wet, considering there is a lot of mud here with all the sand on the roads, hard braking has been excellent. I would buy either Verde offering again in the heartbeat.

That being said, the only Pirelli I was not happy with was the P6, which had the same tread pattern as the Scorpion STR. Those came standard on my '07 Grand Marquis at the time, and dry traction was horrible simply because of the fine sand that is always on the roads here. The STR was an improvement, but the Verdes are light years ahead.

Michelins are pretty good, too, and I've had a set of LTX tires on the Expedition. But they just don't last very long in the heat here. Only other tire that's comparable performance and longevity wise to the Pirellis for me has been Continental.

 

[Y_K]

I cannot get rid of Pirelli addiction. They are still on a 2005 P71 and a 2004 LTC, and even Micheline MXV cannot touch them in those applications.
[ I have those as well on 2 other panthers]