VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum banner

Wheel Bearing and Axle Upgrade for Road Racing (because stock sucks)

5K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  jimbbski 
#1 ·
Hey everyone!

We currently campaign a 1.8t Mk4 in the American Endurance Racing Series. While the car itself is well sorted, and handles wodnerfully, we do have an issue keeping wheel bearings and axles under the thing.


We currently run *** brand bearings, new, and repacked with CV2 grease. We run parts store axles with Neo Synthetic Grease.

Before we added the KW's and Differential, the car was pretty friendly on these parts, but evey since them (faster, more load, more heat) we've had nothing but misfortune with the car.


With that said, I was curious to anyone who races these cars, as to if they have upgrade ideas, or solutions to keeping them happy.

As of now, we're curreently looking at upgrading to:

R32/TT front spindles/hub bearings for that section

and

Custom axles with R32 style outers, and 2.0/VR6 'porsche' style inners (as the stupid tripod sucks!)


Any help would be appreciated. We do have ducuting to the inner CV and outer, but it just doesn't work.

Thanks!

 
See less See more
1
#2 ·
Do you race with the wheels shown in the pic? They look like steel wheels and if so that can be one thing that you can change that will help your bearings and outer CV's live.
Get aluminum wheels!

Their lighter!
They conduct heat better then steel!
The fact that there is more surface contact of the wheel to hub interface means that more heat is transferred from the hub & rotor into the wheel where it can be dissipated into the air as the wheel spins!
An open spoke wheel will cool the brakes better then a steel wheel which has only small holes!
I've seen steel wheels crack and fail way more often then an aluminum wheel.


Your brake pads will last longer too.

I know all this from first hand experience.
Been racing or worked on race cars since the mid 80's.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply!! I appreciate it!


Aluminum wheels are 100% also in the forecast -- we had run the steelies to start as they were cheap, easy to find, but now that we're getting more competitive it only makes sense to run Aluminum ones.


With that considered, we're not currently trying to budget crazy wheels, but something stock VW would be great - are there any better stock wheels than others or are they all the same? I'd love to keep to an OEM based one, and weight doesn't really concern due to the classing of the car.

Again, much appreciated on the response - was a shot in the dark for sure. With that said Marty from Raxles was *very* confident in the axles not ever breaking...which would be sweet.
 
#4 ·
I'm not up on late model VW's other then my '12 Jetta which is totally stock.
I do know the Mk I chassis as that's what I race currently.

As for wheels. If you can get stock aluminum wheels cheap then do so. But don't overlook buying used aftermarket wheels or new ones!

Sometimes places like "Tire Rack" sell close out specials on tires and wheels. So do take a look at their website to see if they offer anything that will fit.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top