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The number of vehicles with engines using idling stop systems and hybrid systems to improve fuel consumption has recently been increasing. However, with such systems the frequent starts and stops of the engine, where the oil film between the bearings and shaft is squeezed out and direct contact between the components is more likely, can result in increased wear of the engine bearings, particularly in the main bearing. Bearings with resin overlays have been shown to display superior resistance to wear from such start-stop cycles. Moreover, cast iron shafts without quenching treatment have also been used in engines for cost reduction. Because the cast shaft has low hardness and unstable surface graphite after abrasive finishing, increase in the wear amount cannot be suppressed by conventional resin overlay in comparison with steel shaft. Therefore, the resin overlay with improved wear resistance achieved by adding hard particles was developed.

With increased awareness of environmental issues and regulations, developments for recent automotive engines are progressing towards engines with low fuel consumption. Due to these changes, automotive engine bearings are increasingly used in harsher environments, with higher loading. These operating conditions require bearings with both conformability and fatigue resistance. From the above background, various aluminum alloy bearings have previously been developed, including materials with solid solution treatment to improve their properties, and alloys which can be used with or without an overlay [1, 2, 3]. These materials are known to have good conformability and fatigue resistance. However, while conventional Al-Sn-Si alloy bearings display excellent sliding properties, due to the unceasing trend for engine downsizing, more conformability is required.