Front wheel bearings.

Hello all,

Just had an MOT done yesterday on the Jimny before selling her and she failed on both front wheel bearings.

So I was quoted £197 to supply and fit both bearing kits, Which I thought was fair so I left it with them as I didn't want to undertake the Job myself with no bearing press.

But today I got a call from them saying they now didn't know how to change the bearings so didn't want to do them...

but to be fair I think they just didn't want to start it then take a lot longer than excepted then have to charge me more.

So I had a chat with rhino ray who is just down the road from me and he said he could do it for not a lot more than my local garage first quoted, but the bearings he used where 86 a kit as he uses genuine parts.

Soooooo I thought I'd have a quick look online and see if I could find them cheaper for him to fit and found I could get SKF bearings for 96.16 for both kits delivered.

So my question is, Are the SKF bearings as good as the genuine Suzuki ones as Ray said he would use the cheaper ones as he doesn't trust them which is fair enough.

Now when I was in to skating years ago SKF where the bearings to have so is it the same for cars?

Any help much appreciated!

SKF are top quality bearings. I work on quality equipment full of these and they are the most reliable part.

In The Real Olden Days Sweden supplied all the ball bearings that kept the old Spitfires and Meschersmitts flying (yes they were what is technically called neutral- they profited from selling to both sides)

SKF are the Swedish bearing company, in fact the largest bearing manufacturer in the World.

Nowadays, everyone thinks Japan makes everything better, so the OEM bearings are now made by Koyo.

I'd fit the SKF, If they make the part, it is a funny cassette type bearing with a preload gap that closes up when you tighten the hub nut.

Strange for both bearings to go? Get ray to check its defo wheel bearings and not kingpin bearing play.

As people have said skf are good.

£86 pound per kit is quite expensive even for SKF versions.

I originally sold the SKF version and it was around £60 if I remember correctly. It is also worth noting that the SKF kit when I sold it contained KOYO bearings!!

This is because bearing kits came from SKF Automotive not SKF Bearings. SKF Automotive put the kits together using whatever was on the market.

I tried sourcing my own kits at the time and spoke through a couple of specialist bearing distributors. At the time Koyo was a single source for the bearing, no other worldwide manufacturer made them, so all kits at that time had Koyo inside them no matter what was written on the outside. Whilst that was two years ago and things may have changed, for front wheel bearings I would mind betting that the SKF are actually Koyo still.

Sorry if i was clear, it was the genuine suzuki bearings that where 86 a kit and the SKF where 68 but they have 35% off at the moment so it worked out too 96 for 2 sets delievered.

Seemed like a good deal!

I'll get them ordered, here's where I found them if anyone else needs some...

www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/wheel-bearing-k...9.html?KTypeNr=16095

I replaced all kingpin bearings about 4months ago and have only been off road a handful of times since so I doubt its them that have the play.