Is it necessary or waste of money. Megan Racing Front lower control arm ball joint

[tuketo]

For S13
My car is not slammed but it is lowered to the point where the FLCA are not horizontal, they are tilted up a little. I'm wondering how low does the car have to be for the ball joints to be necessary?
I forgot what the hight was, but the tires sit at same level as the fenders do, maybe 1/4" into the fender.
Car is built for grip and drift, so I'm trying to figure out if these will help me out.

[kris]

For S13
My car is not slammed but it is lowered to the point where the FLCA are not horizontal, they are tilted up a little. I'm wondering how low does the car have to be for the ball joints to be necessary?
I forgot what the hight was, but the tires sit at same level as the fenders do, maybe 1/4" into the fender.
Car is built for grip and drift, so I'm trying to figure out if these will help me out.


I would say not worth. Get other parts like T/C rods, coilovers, tie rods etc etc before those. You will need to piss with alot of settings to get it back on point. i am sure some one will chime in with the technical mumbo jumbo. Even then for a part like that if your serious go SPL or some other higher quality brand with a more durable joint

[s13silvia123]

waste of money go with SPL. go to this site

splparts.com

[tuketo]

I already have tension rods, and the tie rods to fix the bump steer, and coilovers with adjustable upper mount. I'm just not sure at what point does the balljoint start binding. That's the only part that I know of why the joint is crucial to replace but I don't think I'm there yet, and the other reason is to get the back the track width that's lost because of the LCA angle.
Anyone else has any more info on when the joint should be replaced with the megan racing to correct the arm?

[EDacIouSX]

well... i got the SPL lower control arm, what a big difference!

If your arms have worn bushings and worn outer ball joints then you do need to at least fix that but it depends how serious you are. Also, you can widen the track to get more grip and raise your lowered center of gravity to where it is suppose to be.

[Slammed180]

I have them, and know of a few cars that run them locally.
It helps only if you're really low.

[burnsauto]

adjusting roll center on a low vehicle is always a good thing to do.

[GSXRJJordan]

I have them, and know of a few cars that run them locally.
It helps only if you're really low.

It helps the most when you're really low, but any roll center adjustment helps - and having new ball joints sometimes helps the feel a lot. I'd say that compared to the other replacement joints, they're not bad if you can get them for close to cost. I can't see paying $140 or whatever retail is for them though.

[ManoNegra]

I have a set of Chinaspeed FLCAs and RLCAs and they're junk
Ikeya Formula are the only ones I've personally seen that are quality and worth the money
one day I'll make my own

[GSXRJJordan]

I have a set of Chinaspeed FLCAs and RLCAs and they're junk
Ikeya Formula are the only ones I've personally seen that are quality and worth the money
one day I'll make my own

Same lol, Luke (Blu808) and I have been talking about it for about a year now haha. Eventually, I'll probably hit you up too, we can brainstorm.

[Slammed180]

It helps the most when you're really low, but any roll center adjustment helps.

Correct. That's what I meant.
My statement was more towards someone with lowering springs or mildly low on coils. These aren't really necessary for someone only slightly lower than stock.
If your car is slammed or close to it, then these are definitely worth the money IMO.

[WISH ONE]

I was actually looking at these, online yesterday. Pictures look ok, but eh.. who really knows what quality is like? has anyone personally tried them?I have heard all kinds of nightmares about the RUCAs and the poor quality welding on some, while others have had no problems. Seems sort of sketchy, but nowadays almost everything is made in china/wether you know about it or not, so who can you really trust?? :ugh:

The spl ones are nice but $700+ for lca's is a good chunk of change and unless you really are fine tuning,IMO its unecessary for daily/light track use.

[g6civcx]

I'm deftly scared of suspension tuning, even after taking 2 years of motorsports engineering.

I don't know how the pros do it, but on my personal car, I don't mess with the factory suspension geometry.

Say what you want, but the only thing I change is the strut and spring at most, and maybe replacing worn out bushings with polyurethane ones. I don't even change the factory ride height.


For the hardcore suspension tuning guys, how do you know what's working and what's not?

[landins13]

For the hardcore suspension tuning guys, how do you know what's working and what's not?


trial an error, practice, experience. every car will act different under different circumstances, tire compound and pressure come into play as well, its a matter of setting up the car through many test passes and tweeking it as you see fit, one thing you need to do though is continue to run the same compound tire to keep consistency, if you tune a car for an r compound and then run street compound tires the car will handle a lot worse than if it were tuned for the tires its on.

[g6civcx]

trial an error, practice, experience. every car will act different under different circumstances, tire compound and pressure come into play as well, its a matter of setting up the car through many test passes and tweeking it as you see fit, one thing you need to do though is continue to run the same compound tire to keep consistency, if you tune a car for an r compound and then run street compound tires the car will handle a lot worse than if it were tuned for the tires its on.

That's first semester suspension class, and it's fine and good, but with factory suspension, it's impossible to change just one variable due to the way it's designed.

You change one component and a bunch of variables change.

Even if I were able to change one variable at a time on a stock suspension, I'm not good enough a driver to where I can sense a minute change in a single variable.

How do you know if you're doing more harm than good?

[GSXRJJordan]

That's first semester suspension class, and it's fine and good, but with factory suspension, it's impossible to change just one variable due to the way it's designed.

You change one component and a bunch of variables change.

Even if I were able to change one variable at a time on a stock suspension, I'm not good enough a driver to where I can sense a minute change in a single variable.

How do you know if you're doing more harm than good?

All very good points ~ for me, I always compare overall performance (speed through a given corner) and feel (steering feedback/confidence/etc, which plays a huge roll in overall speed lol) with my dad's Z06 vette. This helps a ton, especially when you have (had? :() Angeles Crest Hwy at your back door.

For me personally, I got the car to a ride height and camber setting I liked, drove it, eventually raised it a little, then started playing with damping. Once I changed an alignment setting (toe, caster, camber again, etc), I'd play with damping again.

[surge s14]

i think anything megan is a waste of money

[supersayianjim]

bump, I need new front ball joints, anyone have a breakthrough for a lowered (not slammed) 240sx?

[tuzzio]

bump, I need new front ball joints, anyone have a breakthrough for a lowered (not slammed) 240sx?

Gktech grip knuckles.

Updated geometry. Stock balljoints. win win.