The competitive environment forces producers in automotive industry to decrease the costs. Producers as well as subsuppliers need to find possible savings. The paper presents results of laboratory experiments with real journal bearings made of bimetallic alloy realised to find out possible replacement of a rolling bearing by a journal bearing. The important correlation between results of laboratory experiments with a model of tribological system and the real journal node may by achieved by maximum approach of simulation features by real running conditions. Thus, the given experiment conditions result from the chosen application, i. e. steering servo unit. The experiments were realised on Tribotestor M’06 testing machine.
