dry film lube on wheel bearings?

[JDEstill]

Anyone done this, or heard of it? A decade or so ago on of the Houston guys supposedly did this - had his wheel bearings coated with a dry film lubricant - and it made a significant difference in the friction between the wheel and spindle, as observed by how long it took for the wheel to come to a stop when spun by hand (with the car jacked up, obviously). Sounded like a good idea to me, but I've never heard of anyone else doing it. I'm about to do wheel bearings and I was thinking I might give it a try. Sounds good in theory.

Not sure exactly which parts would get coated. I'm thinking it would the races and the inside of the bearings that fit on the spindle, but not the actual rollers themselves.

Any thoughts?

John

 

[GNONYX]

It's interesting of new technology, but I never hear of having the wheel bearings dry film lubricant.
I'm old school and when I was young my father taught me on how to pack a wheel bearing.
RIght now I'm also in the process of either replacing both original inner, and outer front wheel bearings.
Then again for the cost I might just replace all bearings, and of course pack them with grease.

 

[dank GN]

I use this stuff on a bunch of parts while assembling my motors

 

[GNONYX]

I use this stuff on a bunch of parts while assembling my motors View attachment 310855

Have you use this on wheel bearings?

 

[GNONYX]

Okay, I just a search on this stuff and it claimed, "Not recommended for friction bearings or light-duty bearings"
Like I said, you can't beat old school methods

 

[Nick Micale]

Just my opinion, but I find it hard to believe you have less friction that could even measured?

There are 2 other factors to consider, I have yet to see a front wheel spin freely with no friction from the brake pads on the rotor?

Also, my thought is that the bearing when surrounded with grease would help dissipate heat from the wheel bearing to the spindle.

It is an "old-school" car, and I am an "old-school" owner!

 

[JDEstill]

Oh yeah, I am not talking about running with no grease! Definitely need the grease. Sometimes people get dry film lube coatings on piston skirts, rod and main bearings, transmission gears, and so on. That doesn't mean they don't run oil in those things and depend only the dry film lube to keep things moving. As for being old school, well, we're always trying to learn new things aren't we? Otherwise we'd be stuck with the technology from 1987 and going a lot slower.

So it doesn't sound like anyone has really done this...

Oh yeah, brake drag - now that you mention it, I think this guy also put some small springs between the pads to force them apart when he wasn't on the brake, and that helped too. He was looking for hundredths if I remember right.

 

[dank GN]

It says for extreme pressure and temp applications . I would use it on wheel bearings .

 

[earlbrown]

I can't imagine it would be measurable in real world conditions. Wheel bearings have a radius of a about 1/2", with a 27" tall tire that's a 13.5" lever pushing against bearing drag with a 1/2" radius. That's a hellova mechanical advantage.

That being said, bearing grease will have some drag... but the polar moment of inertia from the wheel OD will be much much greater than whatever drag the most packed bearing could every generate.

 

[JDEstill]

FWIW, I called Polydyn, a coating company that is close by. I've used them before for main and rod bearings and piston skirts (dry film lube), and turbine housing and piston tops (thermal barrier). The guy there said a few people come in to get dry film lube applied, to the races only - they don't do the bearings themselves. He gave me the name of one big name race outfit in the area, and some others that I've never heard of. He did say that not very many do it, but the ones that do, like it.