Whats the deal with STI hubs??? are they stronger than STD???

As per the title,

I am building a clubday racer and was told a while back that STI hubs are stronger and have bigger wheel bearings (or something to that effect)

Is it true? if so what year hubs did they make them stronger ect???

input appreciated.

v9 and newer are supposed to be stronger. Also swapped to 114.3x5 PCD.

Dunno if there's a difference between the older STI vs WRX stuff.

No difference between the older stuff.

Version 9 Hubs are the way to go, just doing conversion on mine at the moment... wheel bearings went after 2 race meetings!!!

So how do you get a hold of version 9 hubs??? wreaks? whats the rough cost and conversion issues?

New from subaru, you'd be hard pushed to find a wrecked V9 onwards STI I would say.

Need 5 x 114.3 wheels, and suspension or machine the knuckle and re drill the hub to suit 5 x 100. V9 onwards have a different outer CV which mount into the hub, so need an V9 onwards outer CV to go on the earlier axles.

Looking around $1,500 - $2,000 either way.

Why do you reckon they went BT? Do you run a huge offset or something?

I would say the increased wear and tear on track as opposed to road

I can tell you that my *rear* GC8 STI has a larger wheel bearing than a std GC8. But that is all I can tell you :lol: I think the front bearing is std.

doing a v9 conversion is pretty involved and expensive... overkill unless you are actually

having repetitive problems. I don't think front wheel bearings go all that often, BT runs

slicks and possibly more than 3 degrees camber, so it bound to have problems... also

has a GD which are heavier.

I'm actually having the bearings done on my GC8 at the moment ( this was the cause of my required pedal double pump I posted earlier ). The car's only done 54,000km, doesn't run slicks, doesn't seem to have massive camber. I'm not 100% sure what they're replacing it with, but MacBilt are putting in new bearings, and machining something, I'm not sure. Anyway, they said it is notoriously common with GC8's, and that they use "insert whatever I'm getting on my car" on their race cars, and will last a lot longer. For reference, here is what it cost :

"The bearings were 333.60,seals 72.00,machining 348.00,second hand drive flange 75.00 grease ,tolls and freight 27.50 ,labour to strip rebuild hubs and refit 276.25 plus gst"

 loren said:

doing a v9 conversion is pretty involved and expensive... overkill unless you are actually

having repetitive problems. I don't think front wheel bearings go all that often, BT runs

slicks and possibly more than 3 degrees camber, so it bound to have problems... also

has a GD which are heavier.

Pretty much sums it up, but Loren is right- only need to do it if your having continous problems. For me the cost of new brake pads and discs which get ruined after 2 meetings, its worth the cost.

 caspros said:

I'm actually having the bearings done on my GC8 at the moment ( this was the cause of my required pedal double pump I posted earlier ). The car's only done 54,000km, doesn't run slicks, doesn't seem to have massive camber. I'm not 100% sure what they're replacing it with, but MacBilt are putting in new bearings, and machining something, I'm not sure. Anyway, they said it is notoriously common with GC8's, and that they use "insert whatever I'm getting on my car" on their race cars, and will last a lot longer. For reference, here is what it cost :

"The bearings were 333.60,seals 72.00,machining 348.00,second hand drive flange 75.00 grease ,tolls and freight 27.50 ,labour to strip rebuild hubs and refit 276.25 plus gst"

Yeah, they told me the same thing, and warned me not to run more than 3 degrees camber... still, it's not something you hear a lot about,

so must assume it's more serious track cars that have the problem commonly... macbilt only deal with race cars, so will see it quite a bit

I imagine. Still, hopefully the treatment your hubs are getting will alleviate the need for further work, including a v9 conversion.

I've had a different experience with maclennans. Have got 3 degrees of negative camber on front, done quite a few track days over time, had the front left wheel bearing changed 3x, and back left wheel bearing changed 1x. Rear is about 1 degree negative camber. The bearings seem to last a longish time.

Are you using camber bolts or do you have adjustable suspension? Three degrees is quite a lot; I didn't think you could get that far with a stock setup. I imagine the effect of the camber on the bearings would also be amplified if running particularly high or low offset wheels, as that would increase the turning moment on the hub? A low offset would presumably increase the force on the outside top/ inside bottom of the bearing while a high offset would increase it on the inside top/ outside bottom.

 al said:

I've had a different experience with maclennans. Have got 3 degrees of negative camber on front, done quite a few track days over time, had the front left wheel bearing changed 3x, and back left wheel bearing changed 1x. Rear is about 1 degree negative camber. The bearings seem to last a longish time.

lol. so maybe the problem is more common... I'm just lucky so far maybe. you say 3x for the front? how long do they last between changes?

 GC8E2DD said:

Are you using camber bolts or do you have adjustable suspension? Three degrees is quite a lot; I didn't think you could get that far with a stock setup. I imagine the effect of the camber on the bearings would also be amplified if running particularly high or low offset wheels, as that would increase the turning moment on the hub? A low offset would presumably increase the force on the outside top/ inside bottom of the bearing while a high offset would increase it on the inside top/ outside bottom.

you need adjustable suspension and/or camber bolts, or you can dremel out the bottom hole of the strut... 1mm = 1 degree.

 GC8E2DD said:

I imagine the effect of the camber on the bearings would also be amplified if running particularly high or low offset wheels, as that would increase the turning moment on the hub? A low offset would presumably increase the force on the outside top/ inside bottom of the bearing while a high offset would increase it on the inside top/ outside bottom.

All those things add to it (I run over 4 deg negative camber, and was using 15mm spacers making my offset +29!). Also have to take into account the amount of heat going through the hubs from the brakes.

Its just another thing you have to be aware of if you intend to run a Subaru race car [...sigh...]

Heat is the issue here.

Track cars need to use steel caged bearings NOT the std plastic caged bearings ( they melt and good bye W/brg)

Also 2 piece rotor / top hat set up sorts most issues of heat soak into W/brgs

W/Brgs are a service item when used for track work, they need to be re greased often and hub nuts torqued for each meeting

 GC8E2DD said:

Are you using camber bolts or do you have adjustable suspension? Three degrees is quite a lot; I didn't think you could get that far with a stock setup. I imagine the effect of the camber on the bearings would also be amplified if running particularly high or low offset wheels, as that would increase the turning moment on the hub? A low offset would presumably increase the force on the outside top/ inside bottom of the bearing while a high offset would increase it on the inside top/ outside bottom.

Camber bolts. And yes, it amplifies the bearing wear-out. And also, I have to swap the tyres over on the rims after 18 months to stop the inside tyre wearing out. But, by crikey, it helps the cornering.

 loren']

[quote name='al said:

I've had a different experience with maclennans. Have got 3 degrees of negative camber on front, done quite a few track days over time, had the front left wheel bearing changed 3x, and back left wheel bearing changed 1x. Rear is about 1 degree negative camber. The bearings seem to last a longish time.

/quote]

lol. so maybe the problem is more common... I'm just lucky so far maybe. you say 3x for the front? how long do they last between changes?

 caspros said:

"The bearings were 333.60,seals 72.00,machining 348.00,second hand drive flange 75.00 grease ,tolls and freight 27.50 ,labour to strip rebuild hubs and refit 276.25 plus gst"

that's odd, i wonder if they machined the hub and/or knuckle to fit a bigger bearing in there?

can you get a bearing part number?