Rear Control Arms

[chrisria]

Who sells reinforced rear lower control arms? I've check numerous sites with no luck! Are the sftermarket one worth the expense for a street car?

[nick325xit 5spd]

Reinforced lower control arms are bad for a street car. The part is DESIGNED to fail when you slide into a curb so that you don't destroy the rear subframe, etc.

[WytLytnyn]

Reinforced lower control arms are bad for a street car. The part is DESIGNED to fail when you slide into a curb so that you don't destroy the rear subframe, etc.I didn't know this. Thanks for posting it.

I guess that's why you see the reinforced ones being offered by the racing companies but never see a disclaimer stating what you did.

[NeilM]

Who sells reinforced rear lower control arms? I've check numerous sites with no luck! Are the sftermarket one worth the expense for a street car?

Bimmerworld, and others, sell stock lower rear control arms that have been stitch-welded to reinforce them. Just about all the usual performance vendors (Bimmerworld, Rogue Engineering, Turner, UUC, etc.) sell adjustable lower control arms in steel or aluminum that are also stronger than stock.

Neil

[chrisria]

Thanks for the feedback-question is for street use are these type of arms useful or would a OEM part do? Sounds like these might even be a bad idea on the street(see first response)! What do you think?

[savage217]

^^^

If its s street car and you dont plan on tracking stick with oem.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Are you running big sticky racing tires? Do you drive at 10/10ths all the time with those tires? You you answered no to either question, then they're not advisable. The stock arms only fail if you hit something. The nice thing is that they generally fail soft (i.e. bend a lot) rather than failing hard (i.e. breaking in half).

[Rob Levinson]

Reinforced lower control arms are bad for a street car. The part is DESIGNED to fail when you slide into a curb so that you don't destroy the rear subframe, etc.

Every single aftermarket arm will break in a sideways accident without damage to the subframe. The subframe is a darn strong part!

The UUC arms, which are the strongest ones available, have already been involved in this exact same "slide into a curb" accident scenario and bent without damaging the subframe.

You're spreading the nervous wive's tales of a few manufacturers/vendors whose arms have spontaneously failed from stress under normal conditions (street/auto-x) and now advertise that as a "feature". :lol