Bent Lower Control Arm

[TwoFastTwoStop]

Last year I was at Road America and bent my Lower Control Arm after running over the outer rumble strip. These rumble strips are some of the most violent ones that I have seen. I chalked it up to having a defective lower control arm, but this past weekend at CMP another Supra driver bent his lower control arm on the outer gator/rumble strip as well. So has anyone else experienced this issue? Are the SPL control arms strong enough to handle this abuse?

Below is the video & picture of what happened.

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[AHP]

I come into turn 8 a little too hot and under-steered into the rumble strip, recovered without much drama. As soon as I straightened out I noticed the wheel was cocked, followed by a bunch of chassis and diff codes; I assume due to the level sensor being out of position. It was a relatively innocuous encounter and shocked it was enough to bend the LCA. I was able to limp the car home fine.



Here's mine:

Steering wheel straight:

I have some in-car video I will post once uploaded.

 

[AHP]

 

[razorlab]

I’ve caught air off of track curbing with enough force to shove the wheels into the upper fender liners, gone two wheels off and clipped the side of the track and launched the whole side of the car in the air. My SPL arms are still straight as an arrow. Even the front alignment stayed solid (spl lower arms and tie rod ends) only thing that happened was my rear camber moved slightly from the oem eccentric hardware slipping. Toe stayed solid (spl rear toe arms)

 

[AHP]

Installed the SPL arms and realigned yesterday (finally..!). Thankfully all of the chassis, diff, parking assist, etc.. codes cleared themselves after a few miles of driving so no dealer visit needed.



RE: dealer service -- FYI A local dealership quoted me "at least a $2-3k job" to replace the arm, realign and recalibrate. WTF!? The OEM part is like $120 list and it's maybe an hour of labor. Incredible...

 

[FLtrackdays]

Sebring in a S2K I hopped off the high rumbles between 15-16 at pretty high speed and broke a knuckle. It was resting in the wheel well Luckily that was the only damage done.

 

[TwoFastTwoStop]

Installed the SPL arms and realigned yesterday (finally..!). Thankfully all of the chassis, diff, parking assist, etc.. codes cleared themselves after a few miles of driving so no dealer visit needed.



RE: dealer service -- FYI A local dealership quoted me "at least a $2-3k job" to replace the arm, realign and recalibrate. WTF!? The OEM part is like $120 list and it's maybe an hour of labor. Incredible...

That is insane, below is what I was charged to replace a lower control arm.

 

[AHP]

That is insane, below is what I was charged to replace a lower control arm.

Yeah, man... I couldn't believe it. I asked more than once to try and clarify how/why a $100 part and an hour or 2 of labor added up to thousands of dollars. He claimed they had to program this and recalibrate that and how the EPS could be damaged and could even be several thousand more based on what they find blah blah blah... I was totally baffled. This was without even seeing the car -- I texted a few pics and gave a detailed description. At the end of the day they were clearly quoting a "we don't want to work on it" price.


Anyhey, all good now! I'm going back to CMP 8/20 - 8/21 and I'm registered for the 10/8 - 10/9 event as well so will see you there!

 

[razorlab]

I've swapped a LCA in a parking lot between track sessions. Easily less than an hour and since there is no adjustability, it won't change alignment enough to matter. Even with the SPL parts, if you measure correctly, you won't change the alignment.

The dealers are just trying to scam people. They aren't called stealerships for no reason.

@TwoFastTwoStop, looks like you found at least an honest service center at a dealer.

 

[Todday1]

Installed the SPL arms and realigned yesterday (finally..!). Thankfully all of the chassis, diff, parking assist, etc.. codes cleared themselves after a few miles of driving so no dealer visit needed.



RE: dealer service -- FYI A local dealership quoted me "at least a $2-3k job" to replace the arm, realign and recalibrate. WTF!? The OEM part is like $120 list and it's maybe an hour of labor. Incredible...

I have all spl arms on my car. 50 track days. But I do not bounce curbs or put 2 wheels off. So you will not find anything stronger. All good and installed all myself. Only difficult one was rear upper as the bolt hits frame so have to drop sub frame. But if you put the bolt in the the other direction then you are good and can take out without dropping sub frame. If you go this far arms and with camber plates the can get about -2.9 front with stock or sport springs as further they will rub shock tower ribs. Best set up has been -2.8 front- 2.6 rear 0 toe front and 1/16 tow in rear. This is with 275/35/18 square set up.

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