Navaros911

Hi guys,

I haven't posted for a while and I blame the 3 year old in the room next to me. Fortunately she is as much into cars as I am.

Now my question is if anybody here has experience with the URO front control arm bushings that are being sold by Pelican Parts. The price is very low at $77 per side in comparison to other options, but at the end of the day, it's just a rubber part, so I can see how it can be produced cheaply and still be reliable.

Now before anybody goes off into why I'm even contemplating this, hear this. I'm on my second set of Elephant racing bushings, and prior to that replaced the whole arm with the original Porsche part. I've had the car for 8 years now. So they last around 2 years only. That's well under what I would expect elsewhere in the world, so the cost is actually quite high in my opinion for some rubber and steel.

Today I was scouting for parts and noticed the URO parts. I've only gone OEM hardness and would do the same this time.

I wouldn't mind going a little stiffer and PU bushings seem interesting considering my climate... but I'm concerned about noise and vibration transmission into the body. I expect to keep this car a long time.

Advice, ideas and experience welcome.

TIA

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

FWIW,...I've found URO parts to be complete and total rubbish. I will not sell, use, nor install anything made by them.

Having installed a LOT of ER rubber parts, I've not experienced the same issues you may be having. If you are having problems for unknown reasons, I would recommend buying factory control arms as the next good alternative, despite the costs.

deadendd9009

Im surprised to hear ER or even Porsche parts not lasting very long. Are you torquing the control arm at the correct position?

Let me second Steve, URO parts are vastly inferior parts.

JasonAndreas

Go with the Walrod bushings if they are still available (he now works for Singer) for around $100USD. I have yet to hear a single complaint!

PelicanParts.com

I, too, am surprised you're having issues with the Genuine Porsche part. They do warranty their parts up to 2 years, so if you're within that time frame you should get a replacement for them. I would suggest them over any other part, unless you want to upgrade.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/...pg6.htm#item22

Navaros911

Gents,

I really appreciate the feedback, but I have to add a bit of information here.

The place I'm living and where I drive my car on a very regular basis is SUPER hot with insane amounts of sunlight. Anything made of rubber falls apart quickly. A set of Michelins has dry rot cracks in two years. Plenty of warranty periods are reduced here. Batteries, tires, etc...

I'm not dissing anybody's product, they all suffer in the same way. It's just that it gets expensive and I hate that steering wheel wobble.

From past experience I've noticed URO is not exactly high on the quality list, but under the conditions I'm in, I may not notice this difference. The way I look at it, they may fail 2 months earlier for 50% of the cost. But I won't know until I try.

Something else to remember is that labor is cheap here. So replacing bushings does not cost much.

That being said, nobody seems to have tried this URO product.

The walrod bushings I'm intrigued by. May be worth a try... worst case they get replaced a year after fitting or so.

AOW162435

If you (or your mechanic) are torquing the control arm mounting bolts with the suspension drooped, the rubber will twist with the car sitting static. Stock-style rubber bushing hardware should only be torqued with a settled suspension.

Walrod (or equivalent) bushings rotate about the inner sleeve, and can thus be torqued with the suspension hanging/drooped.




Andreas

Vancleef

+1 on Walrod bushings.

Vandit

I can see your point about torquing at the sitting ride height with regard to the rearward front control arm bushings, however the forward bushing has a key that slots into the subframe that locks in the correct orientation. I guess the failure could happen further upstream in the installation process if the installer does not correctly orient (i.e. parallel with arm IIRC) that key when they press in the replacement rubber bush into the arm.