Raybestos control arms

[1981]

So I just replaced the front lower control arms on my 08 hyundai elantra because the front vertical bushings were bad. I ordered a set of raybestos professional grade control arms on amazon part numbers 507-1890 and 507-1889. The control arms worked out great, they fit good and we're made in Korea with oem hyundai bushings.

So my wife has an 09 elantra, they get great mileage and we both drive a distance to work. I checked the bushings on the front control arms on her car and noticed they were bad, the rubber part of the bushing was completely seperated from the outer sleeve. So I ordered another pair of the same control arms from amazon. Both raybestos professional grade same part numbers. When I got them one was like the others I ordered for my car made in Korea. The other arm was made in Taiwan and had [censored] looking welds and bushings. It is about a 1/16 of an inch off to line up with the brackets in the sub frame. I contacted raybestos chassis which is apparently owned by Affinia according to the website. The guy I talked said that affinia bought the raybestos name and raybestos doesn't actually manufacturer any parts. He said he had no way of telling where or who made these control arms, all he had was the specs they were supposedly made to. He also said it wasn't uncommon for the same raybestos parts with the same part numbers to be made by different manufacturers in different countries.

So now I have a made in Korea control arm that fits great and a made in Taiwan control arm that doesn't fit. Both have identical raybestos part numbers and came in identical packaging. So now I have to decide what to do, send the Taiwan arm back and order one from a different manufacturer, or send them both back. This is extremely frustrating. Anyone else ever run into this with raybestos control arms?

 

[Kool1]

It's only going to get worse. Raybestos Chassis was bought out by Federal Mogul which has Moog as their chassis brand. The next time you purchase Raybestos chassis parts they just might be reboxed Moog products.

 

[stephen9666]

You could just replace the bushings in your original control arms. It's more work, but may save you a good chunk of change.

Since it's a Hyundai, look at Auto 7 bushings. The ones I bought for my Sonata were genuine Hyundai bushings with an "Auto7" sticker and were well priced on Rock Auto.

You could also look into Auto 7 control arms, but I don't know if they offer them or not.

 

[1981]

I was going to just replace the bushings but the rear bushings look like they would be extremely difficult to press into the arm. They have a lip on one side so they can only be pressed in one direction. I have a small press but there was no way to fit the arm on it to press in the rear bushings. There isn't really anywhere to press on these bushings either. If you press it in by the lip it will just bend, and if you try and stay off the lip you're just pressing against the rubber. It's a bad design.

 

[stephen9666]

I've pressed all my bushings in with a ball joint press I rented from Advance Auto Parts for free.

What does the factory service manual say about pressing them? I would guess one of the many adapters in the ball joint kit I've used would work.

 

[The_Eric]

They typically don't fit so tight that they can't be hammered in.

Gut the rubber from the shell, fold the edge over and pound the old shell out. Make sure the bore is clean, add a bit of sleeve retaining compound, then pound the new one in, making sure to note rotation if the bushing isn't solid and to only hit on the lip.

 

[buck91]

Originally Posted By: Kool1
It's only going to get worse. Raybestos Chassis was bought out by Federal Mogul which has Moog as their chassis brand. The next time you purchase Raybestos chassis parts they just might be reboxed Moog products.


Why would that be worse? Might not be best of the best but I always thought moog was good stuff?

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: buck91
Originally Posted By: Kool1
It's only going to get worse. Raybestos Chassis was bought out by Federal Mogul which has Moog as their chassis brand. The next time you purchase Raybestos chassis parts they just might be reboxed Moog products.


Why would that be worse? Might not be best of the best but I always thought moog was good stuff?


Even Moog can be hit-or-miss, citing occasional rebrands and such.

I have long abandoned Raybestos stuff, not worth my while (would rather do my homework/research on other products/brands instead).

It just goes to show that you can lay your trust all the way to the grave RE: certain corporate brand name ("brand-loyalty"), but the corporate brand will sell you down the river some day...

Q.

 

[chrisri]

Originally Posted By: Kool1
It's only going to get worse. Raybestos Chassis was bought out by Federal Mogul which has Moog as their chassis brand. The next time you purchase Raybestos chassis parts they just might be reboxed Moog products.


I was a big fan of Ferodo brake pads in the past. After they were bought by Federal Mogul quality dropped significantly. From top quality products to below average.

 

[ISO55000]

Originally Posted By: 1981
So I just replaced the front lower control arms on my 08 hyundai elantra because the front vertical bushings were bad. I ordered a set of raybestos professional grade control arms on amazon part numbers 507-1890 and 507-1889. The control arms worked out great, they fit good and we're made in Korea with oem hyundai bushings.

So my wife has an 09 elantra, they get great mileage and we both drive a distance to work. I checked the bushings on the front control arms on her car and noticed they were bad, the rubber part of the bushing was completely seperated from the outer sleeve. So I ordered another pair of the same control arms from amazon. Both raybestos professional grade same part numbers. When I got them one was like the others I ordered for my car made in Korea. The other arm was made in Taiwan and had [censored] looking welds and bushings. It is about a 1/16 of an inch off to line up with the brackets in the sub frame. I contacted raybestos chassis which is apparently owned by Affinia according to the website. The guy I talked said that affinia bought the raybestos name and raybestos doesn't actually manufacturer any parts. He said he had no way of telling where or who made these control arms, all he had was the specs they were supposedly made to. He also said it wasn't uncommon for the same raybestos parts with the same part numbers to be made by different manufacturers in different countries.

So now I have a made in Korea control arm that fits great and a made in Taiwan control arm that doesn't fit. Both have identical raybestos part numbers and came in identical packaging. So now I have to decide what to do, send the Taiwan arm back and order one from a different manufacturer, or send them both back. This is extremely frustrating. Anyone else ever run into this with raybestos control arms?


Partner, I have news for you. What you experienced and what that rep told you is now the officially accepted standard for manufacturing in general globally so unless you have a specifically patented widget or other proprietary property or branding agreement, every manufacturer is going to at least a 3 tier supply chain ( so they wont get starved on the assembly line and to lower shipping costs for manufacturers who have global manufacturing facilities)

Add to that the fact that these agreements almost always include the sub agreement for them to sell non branded clones and you now have supply chain roulette when you order a replacement part.

Seriously, right now I am building MRO processes that require procurement to obtain OEM data sheets listing all critical parameters for critical parts and then having a supplier enter into a quality agreement. Even then the receiving facility has to check behind that.

I see no end to that forever- sorry. Believe me, I suffer intensely because of it.

 

[1981]

I wouldn't mind if they were made in different factories and different countries if the part's were made the same. One control arm using oem hyundai branded bushings and the other using no name made in Taiwan or china bushings is unacceptable in my opinion. I'm done ordering any parts online unless I can see an actual picture of the exact part I'm buying. I ordered two beck/arnley lateral links a few weeks ago. On the beck/arnley website the picture of the part showed a castle nut on the ball joint. When I got them they had cheap nylon lock nuts. It's pretty sad when a company's own website can't even have accurate information about their parts.

 

[Kool1]

I purchased a Genuine Honda water pump on E-bay which was made in Thailand. The water pump had "HONDA" engraved in the casting and the box had the correct labeling with part number.

I brought it to a local Honda dealer and showed it to the parts department. The dealer had the same water pump in stock so they pulled it out so we could compare them. The dealer pump had "NSK" stamped on the hub assembly while the Honda Thailand pump only had numbers on the hub. The parts guys said that they have never seen anything like this from Honda and believed these parts are probably sold outside the United States. In any event, the guy was really cool and allowed me to exchange the Honda Thailand water pump for the Honda water pump he had which was made in Japan.