has anybody seen these..(cheap lower control arms)

[90kacoupe]

i was screwing around on ebay and noticed these.. has anybody tried these.. they are much cheaper the spl... lmk

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/89-90-91-92-93-94-NISSAN-240SX-FRONT-LOWER-CONTROL-ARM_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33583QQihZ022QQitem Z350044884974QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/89-90-91-92-93-94-NISSAN-240SX-REAR-LOWER-CONTROL-ARM_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33583QQihZ022QQitem Z350044884982QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[a_ahmed]

They are ikeya formula/battle version/orange tree knock offs... cheaper quality, and some issues im sure def or aceinthehole could shed some light on.

Observe the many differences:

SPL Rear LCA:

http://www.splparts.com/main4/parts/NissanShared/Suspension/Multilink/SPLRearLowerArm.jpg

Ebay rear LCA:

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/23000160/Images/3/RCA-0004.jpg

[Wiisass]

They've been discussed before in another thread.

I have the front arms, I don't like them. The outboard bearing especially is horrible. It seems like a cheap bearing in too tight of a press fit. And recently, the castle nuts on the pin have been loosening themselves after driving. So the car is parked until I get new lowers. I would just replace the bearing, but it's a real weird size.

I don't have the rears, but one of my friends put them on his car. He said he had to have a piece on the outboard side remade or machined for clearance because they didn't fit.

[Def]

The use of a rod end on the outside of the rears is a bit of a worry. Notice SPL uses an enclosed bearing there to better deal with the bending moment generated out there.

[Epstein]

How does a bearing have a moment?

[Wiisass]

He's talking about the rod end having threads in bending/shear due to longitudinal forces at the contact patch.

[Def]

The shank of the rod end will have to counteract the braking and acceleration reaction force. The other arms help with this in respect. I guess it'd more accurately be termed a moment about the inner mounting points, but a rod end is put in bending to generate this moment.

[Steve_S14]

http://bings.ca/index.php?page=subsection&parent=2&child=11

this guy up in toronto has been importing rear multi-link of very high quality -qa1 rod ends etc..

reasonable prices too (but no lower arms :()

[a_ahmed]

well those parts specifically are not bad, but most of his stuff is made in china/knock offs/etc..., the tc rods seem like spl tc rod clones, the rucas are their own design with qa1, and the rest i guess is all imported. I very much highly doubt he'll ever distribute any sort of LCAs as there isnt one single guy up here would be interested in them aside from myself lol... most are interested in jdm tyteness and thats good for business. I still prefer buying SPL's stuff as I trust their parts, they are proven and they have excellent customer service, already bought plenty, so will get the rest from them. A few bux more and shipping but I feel better about it hah..

[turtl631]

Bing's stuff is good, and the rear multilink is made by him (he has a local race shop build the arms and then assembles them with rod ends, etc. and gets them powdercoated). I have his rear S14 parts and they're nice, and at the time were a great deal for non-chinese arms with good rod ends. He offers even nicer pieces now (toe and traction rods are made of 6061 Al...mine are chromoly, just like the RUCAs). Sasha had them on his S14, but with Al rod ends. Jacked from his homepage:

Why are these suspension arms the best option for all Canadian
S13 / S14 / Z32 / R32 owners?

We use the best rod ends you will find on multi-link suspension arms for these cars. All of our rod ends are sourced directly from QA1 and we only use thier best.

We use only professional race-fabrication facilities to build the components for our arms and these companies are also Canadian. All other inputs are sourced in Canada or the USA.

We have clients come to us every week who used to run other brand name suspension arms or some of the unbranded cheap multi-link arms. When their suspension arms were damaged due to an accident, corrosion, mis-use or other situations that required attention they quickly found that there is no reasonable way to service any other suspension arms for the Canadian tuner.

We are the only company building these arms in Canada and we are also the only company in Canada that can quickly and economically service your multi-link suspension arms when you have a problem.

Our warranty is among the best around and when our customers are in an unfortunate accident on the street or go into the corner too hot on the track and need to replace damaged suspension components they find out that they do not need to buy entirely new arms; unless of course they dont own Bings multi-link.

If you spent more money on fancy brand name arms from Japan you will quickly find out that if you bend even just one arm or one rod end you will have to buy a whole new pair and pay top dollar, again.

Support us so that we can better support you.

[Def]

http://bings.ca/index.php?page=subsection&parent=2&child=11

this guy up in toronto has been importing rear multi-link of very high quality -qa1 rod ends etc..

reasonable prices too (but no lower arms :()

Not saying anything about the bings arms, but there is a HUGE difference in quality from the bottom of the barrel economy rod end to a company's bling-bling top of the line chromoly rod end(and the price varies accordingly). Just because the rod ends are QA1s(which are not as nice as other manufacturers in my experience), does not mean they are very good quality. They could just as easily be a $7-10 rod economy rod end that is much weaker than a chromoly Chinese rod end that's about the same price.

[Wiisass]

I know Bing uses decent rod ends, not the lowest ones, but not the highest either. But I also thought he was importing the rest of the stuff and just replacing the bearing, or at least he used to. But I just looked at the website and it looks like he is making a lot of that stuff now.

But I also agree, with the QA1's not being as nice as some other bearing companies. But they're better than the cheap stuff that comes on most arms. So they are a step in the right direction.

[turtl631]

FYI, bing uses QA1 XM10 rod ends, which are 3 piece, Teflon lined units. They have a 17,955 lb static radial load rating, and weight 0.36 lbs. They look to be around $22 at Summit Racing. For some arms he also used AMR10H rod ends, which are an aluminum version of the above, weighing only 0.26 lbs, but with a load rating of 19,300 lbs. I think he was also using some other aluminum components on those arms. I thought about it but the extra couple hundred bucks to upgrade all 3 pairs of arms wasn't a good choice right then.

[a_ahmed]

^that is correct