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As an aside on "Porsche labeled parts, several years ago I needed a new AC compressor for my car. The price at the dealer was about $1,800 in a box labeled Porsche. I went to Rockauto.com and bought the Denso unit for $270. When I removed the original one it was the exact same Denso unit. same model number, configuration, etc. as the one from Rock Auto. So the Porsche one was amost 6.5 time the price. That is crazy!!
I was (still mostly am) of the same opinion but let me offer you -and others reading this- my perspective having run repair businesses. My experience has been that quality control is better on parts that come labeled and in manufacturer/dealer boxes. More than once we have had parts arrive non operational (new in box). Once on a Mercedes we replaced 4 cam actuators directly from Pierburg (O.E. manufacturer, same part number etc), arrive non-operational. Only after paying extra to "get them in Mercedes branded boxes" did we actually receive parts that worked as designed.
I would personally in general still use O.E. manufacturer parts attained outside the dealer network on my personal cars but it does seem like there is a difference none the less.
So they are saying that normally when there manufactured arm breaks, it normally causes an accident?
sorry that’s just poor manufacture and lack of testing and quality control! AVOID
and the argument that it might only be 1% well that’s great as long as I’m not the one who ends up dead, in my 170mph supercar.
similar thing I had with wheel nuts supplied without the washers, just because they fit, doesn’t mean it’s the right and fit for purpose part.
Could it be a fake part made out of Pacific Rim pot metal?
it doesn’t have to be a fake part to have this problem, most companies manufacturer in the China, but the quality control has to be so good.
I know loads of companies from Europe and the USA that have had production issues, with Chinese castings.
often the companies do make really high quality parts ( as well as cheap parts ) but mistakes and supply of material and also knowing what to do when there is a process issue or failure is not always there.
one issue I knew of ended up with the heads pinging off of m80 bolts, yes 80mm diameter all torqued up which was fine until the oil rig was out at sea!
It’s just a bad design that is not allowing the arm to rotate up and down with the suspension. This causes the aluminum to flex and weaken and crack, that’s it.
Yikes!! My EPS control arm broke like you guys said it would. The original OEM arm made a clunking sound after 32K miles but that was just irritating. This failure was dangerous. Luckily it broke just as I was pulling into my favorite repair shop (Gerber Motorsport in Seattle) after a 200 mile cruise through the boonies. I could have crashed or been stuck far from home. Naturally I am having them put in genuine parts.
I worked at a university for a while and we had a material science program for Mech engineers, we had a SATAC materl stress machine that stretched or twisted or whatever any sample you put in it, those are classic fatigue cracks.. and based on their angle and look its definitely being stressed in the thin direction..
I am not a mechanical engineer but I have had a lot of cool toys to break stuff with in my life...
There is no dot number on that bushing. Its sold a race product with, im sure a fine print disclaimer. U r your own warentee station when u start to mod beyond factory.
Whelp, guess I’m the new addition to the growing number of folks who have had the EPS control arm linkages fail while installed. Mine lasted 4+ years and I still have a few days to return to manufacture to honor that 5 yr warranty. It just so happens that the failure occurred during some hard braking I did to avoid another accident that had turned the highway into a parking lot. Anyhow during the hard brake I heard a loud pop and snap sound followed by smoke which I initially thought equated to a blown tire. After slowly merging out of the road and moving to the shoulder I realized the car handling was off. As I prepared to make a tire change I saw that my tire was actually in one piece and good, except that the plastic lining of the wheel well was melted like chocolate on a s’mores. 😣 Then after further inspection I saw the nasty snap on the control arm. Sad ending to a nice drive, especially seeing the 996 being ferried home on the flatbed tow truck. “We suck again.” 😞 Anyhow, looks like I will be switching back to original parts.
Minor update: I'm researching suspension replacement parts and came across these EPS pieces, which led me to this thread. The Amazon comments section has 4 reports of them snapping. 3 reports in the 1 star section, and 1 report in the 2 star section.
I hope to revive this thread so that others might update their experiences with the EPS control arms. Mine snapped at the bushing end. My experience was as exactly described by “schnappi”in an above entry.
These front control arms are of poor design and unsafe. Do not buy these arms
A control arm should never, ever catastrophically fail. Barring a direct impact from a rock or curb, or a collision impact…just effing no! Try pushing a shopping cart with a bad wheel and multiply that mass by 60 and add 100 fps velocity. Only bad things will happen.
Catastrophic: involving a sudden and large-scale alteration in state.
I've done a lot of "link" based suspension work, all I have to do is look at the EPS arm and I'd say NO.
Links need non binding travel to do their job, whether rubber or ball or hybrid.
The EPS doesn't have that it has 2 parallel contact surfaces with no obvious room for travel.
Also Neoprene is not for every suspension joint, I've fixed a lot of suspension "problems"
moving back to stock style rubber.
Note this is a summary of opinion not a detailed analysis,, I am not an engineer I am a guy who's addicted to working on motor toys..
07-09-2021, 12:21 AM
