Design/methodology/approach Some steel rollers in traditional cylindrical thrust roller bearings were replaced with ceramic rollers to assemble hybrid roller bearings. Friction experiments were conducted under lubricant contamination using alumina as the contaminant, and simultaneous vibration acceleration signals from the bearings were collected to evaluate their tribological and dynamic performance. Findings Under lubricant contamination, hybrid roller bearings with a sufficient number of ceramic rollers exhibit greater wear resistance compared to traditional all-steel bearings. There is a noticeable suppression of energy in both tangential and normal frequency bands of the bearings, with more pronounced suppression observed in higher frequency bands. Originality/value This study provides valuable insights for the development of hybrid ceramic bearings. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2024-0291/