Amazon vs Advance Auto

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Why do you need control arms?

The front compliance bushing is the only one that wears out. Get a new one from the dealer and press the bushing in/out. It will save you a lot of headaches compared to installing the aftermarket arms.


The front bushing is cracked and won't pass inspection. I am in a city and have to do the work on the street, and don't have a press, nor can I really leave the car sitting and disassembled while I try to find a place to press in a bushing. I'd love to use Honda parts but it's not really cost effective on this car. Are all aftermarket parts that bad?


Yes, the aftermarket suspension industry has really gone downhill in the last couple years. There really isn't a supplier of premium aftermarket suspension parts anymore. If you want quality, you will have to stay with OE. My recommendation would be to find a used OE arm (from ebay) and have new OE bushings pressed into it by a shop. This way you can do the swap.

 

[troutfisher]

I have ordered some parts off of advance auto.com,they where packed very well but we’re shipped with usps parcel,when I paid extra for for 2-3 day shipping took about 6 days.Amazon has never failed me with the prime and even third party sellers ship pretty quick. I do walk in advance sometimes to recycle my old oil

 

[daves87rs]

Never touching anything MOOG ever again...

 

[Lubener]

Originally Posted By: mclasser
Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Is the warranty and ability to do a quick exchange in the future worth $25?

Yes.

Just how long do you think that 2004 will be around? It took 14 years to wear out those parts. I would go for the 25 dollars now.

 

[dlundblad]

My local AAP makes a huge deal out of online warranty exchanges.

They typically want me to pay the difference of what I paid vs normal price.. which is subject to change btw.

 

[RooflessVW]

AAP has discount codes posted all the time.

Tell the guy at the counter what you want to pay. The right color shirt can sell them for basically whatever price they want.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Why do you need control arms?

The front compliance bushing is the only one that wears out. Get a new one from the dealer and press the bushing in/out. It will save you a lot of headaches compared to installing the aftermarket arms.


The front bushing is cracked and won't pass inspection. I am in a city and have to do the work on the street, and don't have a press, nor can I really leave the car sitting and disassembled while I try to find a place to press in a bushing. I'd love to use Honda parts but it's not really cost effective on this car. Are all aftermarket parts that bad?


Yes, the aftermarket suspension industry has really gone downhill in the last couple years. There really isn't a supplier of premium aftermarket suspension parts anymore. If you want quality, you will have to stay with OE. My recommendation would be to find a used OE arm (from ebay) and have new OE bushings pressed into it by a shop. This way you can do the swap.


Some OE stuff isn't very good to start with eg VW rubber donut strut mounts, sway bar links and bushings they were garbage from the get go and definitely not made for pot hole roads. GM control arms that fit everything from a minivan to a Buick with poorly designed bushing that would tear after a couple of years just by jacking the wheel up.
The aftermarket has successfully addressed this with Heim joint style bushings.

There are some aftermarket specialty manufacturers that are making some great stuff eg tubular arms and heavy duty pieces just not for every make and model.
I agree in principal most of the stuff you get at the parts store is poor to mediocre quality but if you want to spend the money there are usually some very decent stuff to be found but its not cheap.

 

[JamesBond]

I ended up getting a Beck Arnley control arm from Pep Boys for $72 all in with a lifetime warranty for whatever that's worth. The part was made in Taiwan. It had some little rust spots along the welds but it fit fine. I also ended up putting a new honda boot on the ball joint after doing a little damage with the pickle fork before I went and rented a ball joint separator from autozone.

I will do the other side in a couple of weeks but will probably order from rockauto to save a couple of bucks.