Modifications and the consequences part 1

[Tony]

We all know that lowering the cars suspension will change the camber angle (vertical position of the wheel) and we know if this position is not corrected then the cars weight will be incorrectly placed at the tyres footprint resulting in this

 

 

One area that is overlooked is how the camber position affects the wheel bearings..

 

 

The camber lean forces uneven loading between the bearing and the race, almost conical compression accentuated by the severity of the camber.

 

This problem is more pronounced with roller bearings (image above) since the rollers become tapered quite rapidly.

 

Now i'm not saying every car that's lowered will have rapid bearing wear since the lowering denies dynamic camber gains because the radii of the wishbone is reduced "but".. The nominal loading would be larger so an element of wear will exist.