After market adjustable rear lower control arms. Anyone got any experience?

[Gunnytron]

I need to replace some pillow ball bushes...again. I saw that the Battle Version control arms get rid of them so I am thinking about getting these control arms as that offsets some of the cost of the pillowballs.

Does anyone have any experience with aftermarket arms on a street car? any corrosion/durability issues etc?

 

[JoeLanger]

Not really saving much when those arms are $700

 

[JonFD]

I've got Japspeed rear lowers on mine, had the same set on two cars now, done easily 20k mi and the bearings are all good, and would be easy to change and source compared to pillow balls, and cheaper.

They were about £450 for the pair like 5 years ago when I got them, so was a decent price compared to pillow ball cost, and potential inner bush, and work lol.

I think another member has KTS brand ones that look identical, I don't think the Japspeed ones are still available.




I will add I have driftworks toe arms, and the bearings knocked within a year, got 2x replacement sets under warranty, then decided to spend £160 on 4x good quality rose joints from a race car supplier (forget who) under their recommendation, and they are knocking now about 3 years later.... false economy there lol.

I know it's not the same application, but I'm gonna go stock/rubber for the toe arms, as I've had constant issues with them since going to aftermarket..

 

[Gunnytron]

I am probably going to order some from P2M. Rumour has it they are the US equivalent to Japspeed.

 

[4packet]

For a street only car why would you want to change from stock? You remove the only isolation point from the road to the chassis. Despite the cars I drive, I avoid aftermarket parts where possible and to bin a nice aluminium, fully tested, quality controlled casting seems a shame in favour of an unknown steel fabrication with unknown bearings. I can understand the benefit of being able to replace the bearings if they are cheaper, but how often is that likely to be? I've only replaced 3 of the 6 on mine and one of those might have been my fault. Your car, your choice of course.

 

[JoeLanger]

Yeah japspeed aren't exactly a top quality brand either

 

[Gunnytron]

Fair points. My main reasoning is that it would replace c£500+ worth of Mazda and J-Auto bushes (including the inner control arm bush) so on the face of ,financially, it makes sense to get new arms.

This is why I wanted to know if many people had experience with them.

I am assuming that replacing the inner control arm bush would be best to get mazda rather than poly as it is also a pillow ball style?

 

[JonFD]

For a street only car why would you want to change from stock? You remove the only isolation point from the road to the chassis. Despite the cars I drive, I avoid aftermarket parts where possible and to bin a nice aluminium, fully tested, quality controlled casting seems a shame in favour of an unknown steel fabrication with unknown bearings. I can understand the benefit of being able to replace the bearings if they are cheaper, but how often is that likely to be? I've only replaced 3 of the 6 on mine and one of those might have been my fault. Your car, your choice of course.

I got them for my first FD as an ease and cost option over stock, I've just found my order, they were £299 in 2017 for the pair so way cheaper...... I'm now lucky enough (or not lol) to have a few sets of stock arms, I'm going to make a good set out of them one day and probably fit them again.

The steel arms are a lot heavier than stock ally too, and I have always questioned the strength of the inner rose - its maybe 20mm thick at the threaded portion, and as you say of unknown quality.. ain't broken yet tho lol

Re isolation point I suppose you loose 1x rubber coated bearing on the inner, but the other 2x on the arms are essentially the same as a PB anyway, so can't be that much worse. I couldn't really tell, but I went from worn and knocking anyway...

So yeh cheap, heavy and potentially weaker, you could get some mad / \ camber out of them tho, if that's anyone's thing

 

[4packet]

Regarding the inner bush, I agree there is an argument for OEM, however I run a black series poly (Superpro everywhere else) and haven't noticed an issue. I've checked the suspension without the damper in place and it doesn't seem to bind. If it was me I would just fix on fail where necessary.

 

[JonFD]

Yeah japspeed aren't exactly a top quality brand either

TBH comparing them (KTS Japspeed etc) they all look pretty identical, I recon they all come from one factory and are being re branded, I bet most of their stuff is.

Same with the toe arms, so many similar ones, makes me wonder...