Elephant Racing Parts users beware!
07-01-2019, 04:51 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Elephant Racing Parts users beware!
I won't rehash my well know disdain for most aftermarket parts, specifically suspension parts where blingy low grade monoballs and materials are used. Here is just a heads up of a local track friend who installed some Elephant Racing lower control arms on the front of his street/DE track prepped Cayman. After a few years and 8400 miles of mixed street and track use, this is the result of a failure of the outer monoball trunnion pin.
Several years ago he installed OEM RSR LCAs in the rear of the car and to save some money chose to go with the ERP LCAs in the front which resulted in a failure that caused significant damage to the front fender area as the wheel broke away from the suspension and the car went off track. He was very lucky this happened on turn exit as opposed to a 100+ mph sweeper where the results could have been substantially catastrophic and potentially deadly. The RSR arms on the rear of his car are going strong without failure to this day while the result of the ERP arms installed on the lightly loaded front of the car are shown below.
As I've always said, there is a lot more to this stuff beyond the shine and bling and saving a few bucks sometimes turns out to be quite expensive. This is not exactly an isolated incident as another friend and a rennlister here had a failure of his popular brand aftermarket LCA on his 996TT. The results were eerily similar . To all my track peeps, be careful out there and don't skimp on quality parts especially when your neck depends on it. No matter what parts you use, set up a maintenance interval schedule that you're comfortable with and stick with it. Cheers!
Several years ago he installed OEM RSR LCAs in the rear of the car and to save some money chose to go with the ERP LCAs in the front which resulted in a failure that caused significant damage to the front fender area as the wheel broke away from the suspension and the car went off track. He was very lucky this happened on turn exit as opposed to a 100+ mph sweeper where the results could have been substantially catastrophic and potentially deadly. The RSR arms on the rear of his car are going strong without failure to this day while the result of the ERP arms installed on the lightly loaded front of the car are shown below.
As I've always said, there is a lot more to this stuff beyond the shine and bling and saving a few bucks sometimes turns out to be quite expensive. This is not exactly an isolated incident as another friend and a rennlister here had a failure of his popular brand aftermarket LCA on his 996TT. The results were eerily similar . To all my track peeps, be careful out there and don't skimp on quality parts especially when your neck depends on it. No matter what parts you use, set up a maintenance interval schedule that you're comfortable with and stick with it. Cheers!
Last edited by powdrhound; 07-01-2019 at 08:11 PM.
07-01-2019, 05:19 PM
#2
Wow, scary, but wonder if that's isolated. Plenty of the air cooled guys been running ERP for years from before we even got our cars. I've had mine installed now for several thousand miles w/out issue. I am taking the front end apart today, will def give it a good thorough inspection. Very odd to see a shaft snap like that.
07-01-2019, 05:39 PM
#3
What's up with the impact area also? If it failed where it failed the arm should have at least stayed in the knuckle. Worst case it wouldn't flop around with the caster arms still attached. Was the car in accident? Where did failure occur?
07-01-2019, 05:43 PM
#4
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Wow, scary, but wonder if that's isolated. Plenty of the air cooled guys been running ERP for years from before we even got our cars. I've had mine installed now for several thousand miles w/out issue. I am taking the front end apart today, will def give it a good thorough inspection. Very odd to see a shaft snap like that.
07-01-2019, 05:51 PM
#5
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
The LCA pulled out of the wheel carrier after the trunnion pin snapped at the top where the nut attaches. The top of the trunnion pin is in constant tension from the torque of the nut and it failed at the base where the threads start which is a natural stress riser. Hard to say if it pulled out right away or if it stayed attached for a while and eventually pulled out from the cornering stresses. The abrasion is from contact with the rotating wheel as the wheel broke away and probably the ground after the as the LCA simply flopped down to the ground at that point with the cart still moving. No there was no accident that caused this. The failure occurred on track out at the exit of turn 8 at our track. Bottom line, in my opinion, all these aftermarket parts are ticking time bombs on cars that see hard track use...
Last edited by powdrhound; 07-01-2019 at 08:50 PM.
07-01-2019, 05:51 PM
#6
Drifting
Pretty sure that ERP Parts and Elephant Racing are not the same. E.R.P. used to be under the Elisonor Racing Products (or something along those lines) - but think they sold years ago.
07-01-2019, 05:55 PM
#7
Yes, I believe you are right. ERP is not Elephant Racing; however, OP's pics really look like an Elephant lower arm. Their customer service is great, I wonder what they have to say.
Trending Topics
07-01-2019, 06:23 PM
#8
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Yes. The failed part is Elephant Racing. I used ERP as an acronym. Sorry for the confusion. I made the edit
Last edited by powdrhound; 07-01-2019 at 08:11 PM.
07-01-2019, 07:13 PM
#9
RL Community Team
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
I won't rehash my well know disdain for most aftermarket parts, specifically suspension parts where blingy low grade monoballs and materials are used. Here is just a heads up of a local track friend who installed some Elephant Racing (ERP) lower control arms on the front of his street/DE track prepped Cayman. After a few years and 8400 miles of mixed street and track use, this is the result of a failure of the outer monoball trunnion pin.
Several years ago he installed OEM RSR LCAs in the rear of the car and to save some money chose to go with the ERP LCAs in the front which resulted in a failure that caused significant damage to the front fender area as the wheel broke away from the suspension and the car went off track. He was very lucky this happened on turn exit as opposed to a 100+ mph sweeper where the results could have been substantially catastrophic and potentially deadly. The RSR arms on the rear of his car are going strong without failure to this day while the result of the ERP arms installed on the lightly loaded front of the car are shown below.
As I've always said, there is a lot more to this stuff beyond the shine and bling and saving a few bucks sometimes turns out to be quite expensive. This is not exactly an isolated incident as another friend and a rennlister here had a failure of his popular brand aftermarket LCA on his 996TT. The results were eerily similar . To all my track peeps, be careful out there and don't skimp on quality parts especially when your neck depends on it. No matter what parts you use, set up a maintenance interval schedule that you're comfortable with and stick with it. Cheers!
Several years ago he installed OEM RSR LCAs in the rear of the car and to save some money chose to go with the ERP LCAs in the front which resulted in a failure that caused significant damage to the front fender area as the wheel broke away from the suspension and the car went off track. He was very lucky this happened on turn exit as opposed to a 100+ mph sweeper where the results could have been substantially catastrophic and potentially deadly. The RSR arms on the rear of his car are going strong without failure to this day while the result of the ERP arms installed on the lightly loaded front of the car are shown below.
As I've always said, there is a lot more to this stuff beyond the shine and bling and saving a few bucks sometimes turns out to be quite expensive. This is not exactly an isolated incident as another friend and a rennlister here had a failure of his popular brand aftermarket LCA on his 996TT. The results were eerily similar . To all my track peeps, be careful out there and don't skimp on quality parts especially when your neck depends on it. No matter what parts you use, set up a maintenance interval schedule that you're comfortable with and stick with it. Cheers!
07-01-2019, 08:06 PM
#10
Three Wheelin'
wow, glad to hear drivers is fine. erp is Cary Eisenlohr of Eisenlohr Racing Products engineering and design manufacturing and not related to Elephant Racing Products. Cary had a nice black custom wide body 996tt early on not sure if he still owns it. purchased some suspension bits years ago and are still working great.
07-01-2019, 08:33 PM
#11
At least the bright side is he can replace the ball joint on the Elephant arms versus having to get new arms lol.
07-01-2019, 08:38 PM
#12
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
07-01-2019, 08:50 PM
#13
07-02-2019, 03:15 PM
#14
Three Wheelin'
For street use it's not likely an issue. Not really isolated if you track your car as I've seen this before especially on cars that get driven hard. How much hard track use do you have on your car? The performance / lap times of the air cooled cars is so much lower than the new generation cars (especially those on DOT rubber or slicks) that the stresses imparted on the suspension are substantially less. There is a reason why Porsche uses exotic materials like 300M vacuum remelt steel in critical areas of the suspension components like the trunnion pins instead of normal grade steel like you see in the ERP stuff and others. There is a lot more to this than meets the eye.
"It's been around for years" is not a valid argument. On the heavily tracked 996/997/991 gen GT and Turbo cars, these type of failures aren't really isolated incidents.. seem to see something come up at least 1-2 times each track season.
The following users liked this post:
Scott. (07-02-2019)
07-02-2019, 03:35 PM
#15
It's been around for years is a valid argument, as I'm implying they've been around for years w/ little to no issues. Elephant Racing is highly regarded as good parts though, based on many years of track use. . I did a lot of research and could only find one other thread that's older in Pelicans forums where a part failed and it was a balljoint also. What surprises me is that if this were a bigger issue, there would be threads all over you would think? I mean, just like what OP did, and it's not even his car. Irregardless, I will be inspecting my stuff more closely.