aftermarket front suspension arms no good after less than 2 yrs?

[Robotnik123]

Under 2 years ago I replaced the straight and bent arms on my Legnum VR-4's front suspension. However, it has now failed a Warrant of Fitness for excessive play and it appears that both straight and bent arms need to be replaced. Is this normal, the parts were aftermarket from Repco?

Very inconvenient and expensive; will have to get genuine Mitsubishi parts I guess. The car has travelled under 20,000kms in that time, and not thrashed at all.

[Robotnik123]

These suspension components are also referred to as ball joints. At any rate they are ruined, but are not very old at all.

[lathiat]

It is well documented that the after market items here fail very quickly.

OEM is the way to go.

[horndog]

The aftermarket lower straight arms are a known weak point and have been known to fail catastrophically - front wheel going one way, car going other.

[wintertidenz]

I had aftermarket straight arms as well, and I replaced them recently after two years because I thought they had gone.

The passenger's side had a bit of play (ie. moved round in the socket SLIGHTLY - less than 1mm play) - possibly a WOF issue, but the driver's side was fine. I actually tried getting the ball out of the arm with liberal use of a hammer, and I only resulted in making marks in my hammer.

The straight arms I used are Shih Hsiang ones, and you can get them for about $50 + GST a side at Automotive Supplies... considering that the OEM ones are also known for failing quite quickly, and cost 4-5 times the price, I'm happy to replace them every couple of years.

I've never replaced my curved arms so I have no idea how much they cost though.

[Louis]

I think two years use of suspension parts is quite good for a mitsy vr4! Lol!!.

Eurocarparts in UK 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).
Cheap ones are ok if you do your own maintenance.
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!!

[wintertidenz]

If you do your own maintenance, yes it's easier to replace them as service items (mine lasted 30,000km with the car sitting unused a fair bit). It's only a couple of hours to get each side out - less if you are clever from the start and use the boiling water or propane torch trick to get the buggers to pop out at the beginning.

When I spoke to the guy at Automotive Parts, he said that these ones were the only ones they would sell due to failures from cheaper arms - apparently these ones are much better. The only thing wrong with mine were the slight play, and the boot was splitting on it - I could have gotten away with just replacing the boot.

[Kenneth]

Any play (which means 1mm is plenty) should be a WOF fail.

I don't know where you got that the OEM ones are known to fail quickly. I have never seen that information and I have been around here for many many years. Unless you are running stupid suspension setups, they should last in excess of 100,000km. Our Legnum got to 170,000km on its first set.

I had aftermarket straight arms as well, and I replaced them recently after two years because I thought they had gone.

The passenger's side had a bit of play (ie. moved round in the socket SLIGHTLY - less than 1mm play) - possibly a WOF issue, but the driver's side was fine. I actually tried getting the ball out of the arm with liberal use of a hammer, and I only resulted in making marks in my hammer.

The straight arms I used are Shih Hsiang ones, and you can get them for about $50 + GST a side at Automotive Supplies... considering that the OEM ones are also known for failing quite quickly, and cost 4-5 times the price, I'm happy to replace them every couple of years.

I've never replaced my curved arms so I have no idea how much they cost though.

[wintertidenz]

The arms I had when I got the car were well shot, and they had done 120,000km (which isn't too bad really).
I've heard of others failing after about 40,000 or 2-3 years from friends who have worked on these cars before.

[Davezj]

the initially fitted oem arms from new were subject to a recall when the vr4 was in japan before importing cica 2000 so mitsi new they were a potential fail point a couple of years after manufacture, and recalled them.
but that does not mean they were all replaced at this point, i bought my firat vr4 in 2006 and it had not had the recall done on it and that had done 80Kmiles when i get the recall done in 2009 i think to the oem ones should last much longer.

i do think there are diff quality grades of aftermarket arms out there, and if you find a manufacturer you trust and they last well then i would have no issues with using after market ones.
some of the polish guys on here have used after market arms for years and have trusted suppliers from poland maybe you can get some of the soppliers names of them for a bit more confidence if you buy after market ones.

[Louis]

The recall was due to the rubber failing and letting in moisture and dirt which caused the ball joint to eventually fail.
When i had the recall done at mitsy dealer they replaced both arms. They lasted me about two years. Or 60,000 miles (hard miles!, busy year ). But i was running stupidly low with lots of neg camber.