This is what happens if you don't replace your control arms (or go aftermarket)

[unclepaulie]

no way to tell for sure, id assume that they would be be manufactured at the same factory.

yearly or 6monthly insurance might be to remove the arms and the rubber boots and repack the ball joint with grease. i hav had non genuine ones for 6months now and hav zero problems. i know 6months isnt anything to get excited about, but its better then nothing...plus they hav copped a bit of abuse too


not sure on oem, id guess around $250 per arm, given mitsubishi's love of a good mark up

 

[BuzzPuppy]

A late-comer to this thread, but definitely the impetus to get mine changed!

 

[kymbo]

So from what i can tell from this thread is that the arms are fine and it only seems to be the ball joints that are failing.
In that case wouldn't it be easier just to replace the ball joints themselves.
Also would anyone know if these would fit:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2-FRONT-UPPE...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27b4e90dd6

 

[Jonson]

From what I have seen you cannot remove the ball joints. I can't find a stand alone part number for the ball joint, only the arm as an assembly.

 

[naughtika]

I believe you can replace the rubber boot, but not the ball joint themselves as they're pressed in there permanently..

 

[unclepaulie]

kym, those ball joints are for the upper A arm, you can replace those if you like, but its the ball joints in the lower control arm that fail

 

[BuzzPuppy]

TUFFTR's (Paul) mate, tiv just had his front end collapse as well TODAY on his legnum and he let me know on Facebook about four minutes ago.

That's a little spooky.

 

[[TUFFTR]]

This needs to be made a sticky so new owners can be alerted to this goddam crap inherent fault and be alerted to replace these ASAP when buying one.

Will be inspecting the damage tonight, Tiv will be probably be getting in contact with a few people over the weekend to have this fixed ASAP.

Poor bastard

 

[naughtika]

poor fella.. hope he wasn't hurt or didnt get rammed at the back..

what I found best in installing new control arms is, install the curve one first on to the chassis then the straight one.. otherwise if you install the control arms on the hub first you have all these weight you need to lift while trying to get the bolt holes to line up properly..

 

[[TUFFTR]]

Well when he called me at 7:45am he was actually very calm....I would of been very different but he was suprisingly calm. I am going to check out the damage when I get home and AFAIK he wasnt rammed or anything.
yeah I've learnt the hard way, the hub is fkn heavy! Thanks for the tip too.

He'll probbaly come on later and say something. I feel so sorry for the bugga, last week we got the engine and trans back in his Ute, and it hasnt started all week (thinking TFI module) so he had to drive his leggy to work....now he has 2 car's outta action.

unreal.

 

[Kenneth]

There was a fault initially where there wasn't sufficient lubrication (or was it the rubber boot wasn't fixed well enough... I don't recall exactly) in the ball joints, this is why Mitsubishi did a recall on them.

Besides that, OEM lower control arms should (so long as there is no water ingress through a pierced boot or some such) last a good 120,000+km on a standard car, often longer.

To say a part is crap because someone did not appropriately maintain their car (Not saying this is Tiv, just generalising) or were tardy in replacing a critical component once they knew it needed replacing is very short sighted.

OzVR4 appears to be following a course the NZ/UK Club VR-4 people were at a few years ago. The cars had been around long enough for peoples neglect of ball joints to result in failure. The spate of failures highlighted the inherent problems with not checking ball joints regularly and brought about a knowledge of how to ascertain when they were near failure.
Failures dropped off a bit for about a year. Then there was another spate of failures. These were a portion (large portion too) of those who went and bought non-OEM lower arms.
From the sounds of things, OzVR4 will go that same way (after reading the posts about how to save some money by getting non OEM arms). How bad can they be right? Well, 1-2 years and ~30,000km or so vs >120,000 km or say 10 years. The maths on that isn't even mildly difficult though it does get a bit more complicated if you try and add non numerical things such as your safety and those who travel in your car or on the same road as you. Personally I would much rather pay the extra and forget about them for what will probably exceed the length of time I own the car.

A good thing to also keep in mind is if you have aftermarket suspension with increased spring and damper rates, you are going to be shock loading the ball joints more and should expect less than OEM reliability. In saying that, not really had any issues myself and I have had VR-4s for 7 years now.

This needs to be made a sticky so new owners can be alerted to this goddam crap inherent fault and be alerted to replace these ASAP when buying one.

Will be inspecting the damage tonight, Tiv will be probably be getting in contact with a few people over the weekend to have this fixed ASAP.

Poor bastard

 

[tiv]

I was calm until i just read this thread im i just feeling massive fail so right now ive got 2 cars and neither are working. Im just farking glad it happened at 30km an hour on a back street and not on the freeway yesterday coming back from castlemaine that would of been fun

 

[steveP]

Just ordered a set of the ebay ones. I would have prefered to get the OEM parts, but I had no information on what the part numbers were or where to get them.

I had a look around the ball joints a few weeks back and it all looks clean and normal. I shook the wheel around and got a slight knocking noise, but it appeared to be coming from the bottom seat of the coilover.

 

[Kenneth]

The positive thing is that of all the failures I have known about, only one was at speed. Someone in NZ on the motorway doing (apparently) 100km/h which wrote off the car. The rest have been at low speed such as you have experienced.

I hope you get your car back on the road quickly, it is an arse of a thing to happen.

 

[unclepaulie]

There was a fault initially where there wasn't sufficient lubrication (or was it the rubber boot wasn't fixed well enough... I don't recall exactly) in the ball joints, this is why Mitsubishi did a recall on them.

Besides that, OEM lower control arms should (so long as there is no water ingress through a pierced boot or some such) last a good 120,000+km on a standard car, often longer.

To say a part is crap because someone did not appropriately maintain their car (Not saying this is Tiv, just generalising) or were tardy in replacing a critical component once they knew it needed replacing is very short sighted.

OzVR4 appears to be following a course the NZ/UK Club VR-4 people were at a few years ago. The cars had been around long enough for peoples neglect of ball joints to result in failure. The spate of failures highlighted the inherent problems with not checking ball joints regularly and brought about a knowledge of how to ascertain when they were near failure.
Failures dropped off a bit for about a year. Then there was another spate of failures. These were a portion (large portion too) of those who went and bought non-OEM lower arms.
From the sounds of things, OzVR4 will go that same way (after reading the posts about how to save some money by getting non OEM arms). How bad can they be right? Well, 1-2 years and ~30,000km or so vs >120,000 km or say 10 years. The maths on that isn't even mildly difficult though it does get a bit more complicated if you try and add non numerical things such as your safety and those who travel in your car or on the same road as you. Personally I would much rather pay the extra and forget about them for what will probably exceed the length of time I own the car.

A good thing to also keep in mind is if you have aftermarket suspension with increased spring and damper rates, you are going to be shock loading the ball joints more and should expect less than OEM reliability. In saying that, not really had any issues myself and I have had VR-4s for 7 years now.

kenneth, you beleive non geniunes really are of poorer quality?

perhaps, geniune LCA's are the best and only option.

i cant really comment on the non geniunes, as i hav had them for 6months only. if i hav had them for 2 years then maybe. ill defintly be monitering them 6-12 monthly. if they are properly lubricated and sealed, then they should last a fair while.

 

[Kenneth]

You can get them from Ralliart in NZ. Not sure about in Australia, however I would think that the Mitsubishi dealership prices (if anything like in NZ) would make the international shipping very affordable.

Bill at Ralliart should know the part numbers, he sells enough of them . If I see this thread again when I am at home, ill post up the OEM part numbers.

Just ordered a set of the ebay ones. I would have prefered to get the OEM parts, but I had no information on what the part numbers were or where to get them.

I had a look around the ball joints a few weeks back and it all looks clean and normal. I shook the wheel around and got a slight knocking noise, but it appeared to be coming from the bottom seat of the coilover.

 

[steveP]

Ok sweet, thanks.

So.. do you know if you can cancel an ebay order once you've paid lol?

 

[Kenneth]

Yes, I believe that they are. I wont go as far as to say all non genuine lower arms will fail before OEM ones, but the majority will and usually it is within 2 years and fairly low mileage.

Lubrication and sealing are one thing, material strength and how true the ball and its seat is are completely different issues which are very hard to judge. I would be interested in finding out about which, (including Mitsubishi) if any, have ISO certification.

kenneth, you beleive non geniunes really are of poorer quality?

perhaps, geniune LCA's are the best and only option.

i cant really comment on the non geniunes, as i hav had them for 6months only. if i hav had them for 2 years then maybe. ill defintly be monitering them 6-12 monthly. if they are properly lubricated and sealed, then they should last a fair while.

 

[Kenneth]

Here are the part numbers:

MR296295 LH (ARM ASSY,FR SUSP LATERAL,LWR LH)
MR296296 RH (ARM ASSY,FR SUSP LATERAL,LWR RH)

 

[steveP]

So you said you do have a connection at ralliart who can order these directly?