Anyone had lemfoerder control arms die really early?

[nrubenstein]

After chasing my tail looking for a clunk for quite a while, I finally figured out at my practically new (18,000 mile now) lemfoerders were completely and utterly trashed. I'm talking about several millimeters of play in the central balljoint while tugging gently with my hand. They've been making noise for the last 10,000 miles at least because the noise sounded like it was coming from the rear and so I've been ignoring the brand new parts and looking at, well, different brand new parts.

Frustrating as hell.

Anyone else had serious premature death issues with them?

[lolcantturn]

No, but thanks for the heads up as they were on my order list on Pelican Parts.

[Mr. Tasty]

how low are you?

[nrubenstein]

how low are you?

As high as I can get on GC coils. Not that low. I've never had issues with that killing control arms on other cars, either.

[nrubenstein]

No, but thanks for the heads up as they were on my order list on Pelican Parts.

Meyle HD arms went in to replace. Hope these last better - in concept, they have '95 M3 style solid mounted outer ballpoints, so they should be better.

Febis were also disappointing. I have no data points on durability, but the outer balljoint is dramatically smaller than others.

[AnimalE30]

I think they might have changed up the recipe on their control arms from what they used to be. I know some people (myself included) have seen extra caster with new arms compared to older ones. A new lemi arm with stock cabs had the same caster as an original lemi with m3 offset bushings in my case. I haven't heard of blow outs that early tho...

[nrubenstein]

I think they might have changed up the recipe on their control arms from what they used to be. I know some people (myself included) have seen extra caster with new arms compared to older ones. A new lemi arm with stock cabs had the same caster as an original lemi with m3 offset bushings in my case. I haven't heard of blow outs that early tho...

You probably had late M3 arms, then. That's how those were always made.

[irish44j]

why don't you just press some Moog balljoints into the old control arms? the two balljoints for each cost less than buying a new LCA anyhow, and they're Moog, so you know they're good quality.

Not terribly difficult if you have a harbor frieght shop press....

[alexth1]

I installed some maybe 5 months ago at the most and my front end is starting to shake again like a mother

[rturbo 930]

Shit, I have some I haven't installed yet. I was planning on installing all my susp. parts this week (spring break), now I'm not so sure :/

[Grand525]

The hardest part is usually the inner ball joints nuts removal, they are hard to reach. Other than that it's gonna be simpler with a shop press.

[cormier]

Crap I just put these CAs in my project. We'll have to see how they hold up...

[KenC]

Lemfoerder is the OEM supplier. This is the only time I've ever heard of them failing that early.

[drumad]

Yea, please don't let one thread scare you away.

It may just have been a fluke set.

[withinward]

Anyone here had any experience with the bavauto branded CAs? They're cheap as hell...