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Thread: VERY IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING! - Camskill Lower Suspension Arms

  1. #21
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    Hey guys,

    glad this has been taken seriously.

    I took the front end apart this evening and to my astonishment the damage is not that great. The lower arm obviously failed, the curved arm rubber bush has been ripped apart and i think the upper wishbone arm has been bent at the ball joint.

    bodywork wise .. managed to push the wing back into shape by hand (thin panels are good for something) and the inner plastic wheel arch should go back into shape with a heat gun..

    luckly i have a new driveshaft already as i was going to replace it after i bought new lower arms... only i did'nt intend on removing the old drive shaft quite in that manner...

    I intend on posting photos of the bits when i charge my camera.

    Dan

  2. #22
    orionn2o's Avatar

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    How did you bend the wing back out of interest mate?
    '97 EVO 4 GSR

  3. #23
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    photos

    Quote Originally Posted by orionn2o
    How did you bend the wing back out of interest mate?
    literally pushed it with my hands. not 100% perfect, but neer enough.. unfortunatley the door panel gap is not equal, but i'll undoo some bolt and see if i can get any play to realign.

    photo's of broken ball joint. some parts of the crack dont look new and in some places there is quite old rust... I'm curious to get the other side off now.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #24
    peter thomson's Avatar

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    Never seen a balljoint shear like that. Seen a few that have pulled out of the socket but never that .I remember a story about somebody in a forward control Landy thay had just been in for it's MOT and had one of the steering balljoints failed shortly afterwards in a similar way but they were not as lucky as you Dan. It passed the MOT because there was no movement but was seized possibly in a similar way to yours.

  5. #25
    The Vee's Avatar

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    Dreadfull. So glad that it was not a different tale to tell. Take it the ball was seized in its socket causing the pin to twist and snap eventually. I believe that is exactly Mitsi's recall - water ingress causing the ball to seize through faulty seals/boots. Hope you get all sorted soon.

  6. #26
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    Thanks for posting this up Dan and I am really glad to hear you are OK.

    This is precisely the reason that my car is currently off the road awaiting a replacement dust cover for my upper arm. I could have purchased a complete aftermarket arm from Camskill for not much money and got the car back on the road sooner but I had read comments on here about the lower arms being suspect and given that I am actually track my car sometimes I was actually not prepared to take the risk.

    I, for one, will be sticking with Mitsi parts ...
    1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI Tommi Makinen Edition

  7. #27

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    ball joint failure

    Damn, just got back from the mot station to be told my v6 failed on excessive play in the front offside ball joint. Was just about to phone camskill (mitsi want £150 + for the arm) when I saw this!.

    Anyone got any more up to date info? Have camskill compared the arms?.

    From what i have read on the site re this issue the original recall was due to water ingress into the joint causing failure due to the seals not being correct.

    I have checked with mitsi and as far as they are concerned my 2001 v6 has no outstanding recall notices.

    Do the replacement arms from camskill cure the problem of the seal not being adequate? if not am I just getting a cheapo arm thats going to fail again sometime in the future.

    Your input and advice would be appreciated as The car is out of mot soon.

    I take it we are talking about this one........

    http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.p...22b0s1403p7603
    Last edited by glover; 01-02-2008 at 03:07 PM. Reason: to add link
    Winning turqouise perl? What kind of colour is that!

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by glover
    ......Anyone got any more up to date info? Have camskill compared the arms?.......

    Unfortunatly it seems there is still an issue!

    http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32850

  9. #29
    MarkSanne's Avatar

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    Indeed and I've read no bad reports on the original (improved) Mitsu arms, so why choose the camskill ones at all? The arm I got replaced a few weeks ago was 155 euro, the camskill one is 111 euro, alright, sure, just over 40 euro difference, but seeing all these problems I'd never think twice.

  10. #30
    jayjay99's Avatar

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    If that was the case then there would be no choice at all but I think over here you are looking at I think nearly £200 difference for a pair which is why everyone goes for Camskill. But I'm going for original regardless, both my new one and the one on the other side are starting to creak like hell! Where did you get your original arms from? Just a regular mitsi garage in holland?

  11. #31
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    Yes I did, but a Mitsu mechanic friend bought it for me, so he must have have some discount on it. I'll ask him what the 'regular' price is so comparing is more honest.

  12. #32
    rees's Avatar

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    im not a great fan of buying OE part ,especially from dealers but f*** it ,ill pay an extra 100 quid if it means i dont die!

  13. #33
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    Looks as if Camskill have finally seen the light. They now have OE arms listed rather than copies

    http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.p...22b0s1403p7603
    Ask a simple question, never receive an answer these days

  14. #34
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    That's good news

  15. #35

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    Looking at the camskill website they seem to say that the arms are an oe part anyway. Does that mean they are manufactured by mitsibushi?

    The problem with a lot of the aftermarket parts for sale in the world is that they are often made by small companies is that although they can be made to look the same as an oe part often the metallurgy is totally bypassed. I.e. a balljoint stud has to be forged for the strength with only a light turning operation and grind to make the dimensions correct. I have seen ball joints in the past just turned out of steel bar of unknown alloy. Just turning them out of bar cuts all the grain in the metal and although looks the same is often not 1/10th as strong and often prone to cracking.

    Manufacturers spend millions fatigue testing and alloy testing whereas often small companies just weld something up with no real testing of heat affected zones or fatigue.

    There was a high profile tuv investigation into a fatal crash in germany after a bmw lower aluminium suspension arm broke at high speed. The papers are available to look at online. The looked in great depth at the arm and it looked like the real macoy even with the bmw logo and part no on it. When they tested it in the lab it was found to be a cheap casting and not the genuine forged part. It turned out that somewhere in its life that a replacement part from one of these german/european car parts companies had been fitted. The part was of low quality with defects inside it and of an improper alloy but mostly a cast part is totally inappropriate in that sort of use. small companies often dont have the huge machinery needed to forge parts and do it with quality and repeatability.

    Word of warning, only use cheap/handmade parts on low stressed non safety critical parts. Oe parts are not expensive just to make profits they reflect the research and work that goes into the quality and safety.

  16. #36
    White Lightning's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dom B
    Looking at the camskill website they seem to say that the arms are an oe part anyway. Does that mean they are manufactured by mitsibushi?
    Yes. These will be genuine Mitsi arms

  17. #37
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    OE = Original Equipment right?

  18. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkSanne
    OE = Original Equipment right?
    Yes that's correct Mark

  19. #39

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    Just to say that i have had the noise issue with my lower arms, thanks to looking on this site i took the advice from you guys and stopped driving, so i didnt have any nasty accidents, But guess where i bought my lower arms from?. less than 12 months ago!!! CUMSPILL...i meant CAMSKUM erm you know who i mean !!! they def wont be getting a Xmas card from me. But you guys will for tyhe advance warning, Cheers guys (and dolls)

  20. #40
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    Don't be too hasty to blame Camskill for the product as they are only the distributor.

    If it is found to be faulty then talk to Mike there. He will in turn talk to his suppliers. Since my problem he has been very honest and a good contact. Although my issues are still unresolved at this moment.

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