porsche996tt_tpe

Any body have experience on these 3rd party made control arms on their 996tt? There are many brands. Are they any good?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-996-...lZJx0i&vxp=mtr

Third-Reef

If i was going aftermarket i would try these

https://www.vertexauto.com/upgraded-...r-p-10655.aspx

garrett376

Those eBay ones look like Pelican's OCAP brand which are only $82 each - why bother with the eBay ones?! I just installed 4 on my turbo. The wheel carrier hasn't fallen off yet...

T10Chris

Yikes.

OEM or OEM Motorsport only.

Maybe would consider Tarett control arms if looking for something adjustable/monoball on a budget

993GT

OCAP is a good brand from what I've seen...

911mhawk

Based on your post count, consider buying genuine Porsche parts from a reputable place and you'll be $ ahead in many scenarios.
Understanding the differences between OE, OEM and aftermarket will save you $. Textar brake pads are a good example, as are Mahle filters. In some instances the grey box with red letters is overpriced, other times necessary.

Suspension is one area I would not experiment with.
At speed I like to know what I'm rolling is tested by a certified agency (TUV, Etc.) or at least by many others at the track without failures that could be life threatening.

If you've ever had a Chinesium ball joint fail ( I got lucky and was pulling to a stop in a muscle car) you'll never try to save a few bucks on suspension again.

garrett376

Any objective evidence they are worth "yikes"?

r6vr6

I wanted TRW units but I don't think they sell them any longer. The OEMs were just too salty for what the are. I ended up with Meyle units. They looked like a quality part prior to install. I put them in last season and only have a couple thousand miles on them so far. No issues to report so far. I did pick up a second set for when I do the rear.

Carlo_Carrera

TRW still makes the OEM adjustable arms. If I was replacing mine I would go for those.

T10Chris

Yikes because it is outside of my scope of acceptable risk. A couple hundred bucks saved to take a chance on a replica piece is nothing compared to the financial exposure in the event of failure.

What quality of metal are those made from and where is it sourced? Have they been subjected to fatigue and stress testing as factory parts have been? How many hours, or dollars invested, or miles of proven performance and/or reliability?

To each their own, but personally I'm not interested in being a test case especially considering how I use my car.

garrett376

Your view is understandable but do you have any of that info for the parts you do use? That'd be a nice resource to have if it's available!

T10Chris

In the case of OE Porsche and Porsche Motorsport parts, in my opinion there is evidence of enough testing being done by the extremely low incidence of failure on road cars and I'd say endurance racing is an adequate test of Motorsport parts. Virtually unlimited budget and reputation for quality, as well as all parts having to be certified by various American and European safety agencies vs unknown budget and unknown sourcing for materials, unknown amount of research put into the development of the piece other than being a replica.

Tarett arms are pieces I have considered, but I do not have a lot of data on as far as durability/stress testing and longevity. The company does have a long-standing reputation for producing high quality suspension parts for many years, plus they seem to specialize in Porsche cars. I do know these are 6061-T6 aluminum. They mention that OEM and other arms tend to have a problem with the ball joint and they have re-designed this piece to eliminate potential issues. Still researching these arms.

garrett376

Motorsports parts are "timed out" in most cases, right? Hard to correlate that meaningfully to street car usage.

T10Chris

Correct. I am speaking to a metal fatigue/strength of part stand point. I highly highly doubt a street car in any situation possible puts the same stresses on a control arm as the high speed cornering load Cup or RSR cars are capable of with insane grip due to race slicks and downforce. Then done for 6/12/24 hours at a time in various endurance series.

Correlating to street usage is a guess at best, I totally agree with you. A local shop told me a rule of thumb is 1 track hour in a road car is treated as 1000 miles under their maintenance schedule. 40 hour timeout (not sure what the actual maintenance schedule on control arms for race cars is, just throwing a number out there) on a road car is 40000 miles by that logic. I'd say that's conservative for parts subject to signficantly less loads than designed for. Perhaps the monoball bearings/bushings will require maintenance before then.

I consider this to be within my scope of acceptable risk. We obviously have different scopes in this subject and that is perfectly ok. There is no right answer for everyone, but depending on how you use the car these are things to consider. I track my car fairly often; I want to know what I have has been subject to that environment.