Bearings?

[Anquetil]

Hi, my R33 has slight pulsations/vibrations coming from the front right which has sustained damage in a minor accident not long ago, mechanic says its the bearings?

Are these usually cheap to replace and can you source generic parts or do they have to be genuine parts?

Whats the technical name for these when I'm asking around? just 'bearings'? What do they look like?

Thanks

[JimX]

You can get bearings from most Auto spare parts shops (Repco, Auto 1, etc). Just ring them up and specify the make and model and they should be able to get them in. I don't think there's any advantage to buying genuine Nissan bearings. Whatever you get should last more than 100k km.

I'm not sure what they look like on Skylines because I've never had to replace them yet, but if they're the same or similar as a Torana's, they will look like 2 rings with a series of ball bearings separating them. I'm not sure if there are 1 or 2 per wheel, but the Torana had 2 because the disc actually mounted on the bearings rather than having a central hub to contain them.

Are you sure your bearings are gone? You can check it yourself by jacking the suspect wheel off the ground and try wriggling the wheel around. Best test is to grab the top and bottom and rotate it in and out (ie, push the top in and bottom out, and vice versa). If the bearings are gone you will feel movement.

If there is no movement, check the wheel for buckling (take to a tyre place and get them to balance it), or damaged suspension parts or bushes. You might also just have an alignment problem.