too good to be true?

[Scanny]

i bought a nearside lower ball joint arm through a mechanic who fitted it. price £175 with trade discount. now i find them on ebay for £56 delivered? thats a hell of a difference and while it is definately the right part, why so cheap?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MITSUBISHI...item27bd7a12ad

[Louis]

There was a thread about the cheap ones not lasting long, Camskill stopped selling cheaper ones, but you can get them on ebay etc.
Eurocarparts used to sell the 4WD V6 ones (which are the same (slightly longer, 5mm, but adjust tracking to suit) for £19.99 I used them but made a point of changing them every 6 months, (before and after winter), I do all work myself so it was only my time and £40 to do this).
But beware, there are a lot of cheap ones out there, and a few folk have had creaking and then low speed failure of the ball joint, and some high speed!!

[Davezj]

as louis says most lower arms on ebay are after market one and some are very bad quality, some are good.

however there are some people selling genuine lower arms for very cheap price, there was a mitsi dealer selling them early last year for a pair at £65 which was a bargin.

[Nick Mann]

That is the curved arm you have linked to, not the straight arm, which is what most of the info above relates to.

Obviously it is not a genuine part, which is why it is cheap.

I have not heard of a ball joint on a curved arm failing, but it's still a critical part IMO so I'd take solace in the fact you have a good quality part on there and not a cheap one.

[Humpty's Revenge]

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m22b0s1403...num_Galant_VR4

Does say they have had trouble with these in the past.........

[swinks]

Lower curved arm (linked) is more likely to fail on "candy" bush. It's not critical, but very noisy and affects ride.
Just as been said, there are plenty of aftermarket arms on eBay and there sites, either good or poor quality. I've found that occasionally appear arms made for Hyundai or Proton made in Taiwan. Those are the same quality as genuine ones, but much cheaper (paid 185 GBP for set of 4 lower arms).

[Scanny]

its the curved one i replaced last year and it may be the same one i need on the other side now. one mechanic said the front arm, another mechanic says the rear arm. it doesnt need to last long. just long enough to keep the car going while i save up for a VR4 which will hopefully be no more than 3 months. then the V6 will be stripped for parts as it is no longer worth spending money on but there may be some money to be made from the parts i have upgraded recently

[Davezj]

sorry, i had assumed you were talking about the straight arms as nick alluded to above.

i had to replace my curved arms a while back as the ball joint on one side started to fail and was making a mighty loud cluncking noise over bumps, and it took a while to track down where the clunking was coming from.
i had a couple of second hand arms off my old VR4 which i had no issues with clunking wise. so i replaced one curved arm, and within a couple of weeks the other side curved arm started to clunk as well.

i only fitted these as a temperary measure, but they have been fine ever since. i am going to replace with some new ones soon though before japfest II.