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Aftermarket Front LCA rear bushing not lining up

1177 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Moonshot Rattle Bucket, 
Thebassmatt
Hey All

Sorry for the newb post, been a forum troller for years on many many projects but always found such good how-to I've never actually needed to reach out so..thats cool lol

Trying to fit a "Mevotech" Supreme replacement LCA and when I slot the from bushing in, the rear looks as below..about 4-5mm off...

Tried hammering in the old bolt into the gap (cuz it has that wedge/flare on the end) to maybe get it to line up, but I didn't find success with some pretty hard hammer blows. Not wanting to wreck the bushing I stopped. But not before it flared the frame hole out a touch.

I didn't want to bore out the hole further but I feel like if I want this LCA to fit thats the only option?

I think a better option is just to return it and find an alternative?

I tried heating the old worn one to test softening up the rubber but it didn't seem to do anything.

I've emailed mevotech but this just came up.

I appreciate any suggestions!!


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Moonshot Rattle Bucket
Hard to say which is wrong car or part. Has it ever been in front end accident or taken a heavy blow? These are hydro stamped parts made with solid form tooling. Not to say they couldn't have reverse engineered the tooling from a bad part or started with an incorrect model, especially if made in some penny labor country. I think you're bet bet is trying for a return.
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Thebassmatt
Thanks for the reply!
As far as I know it was never in any accidents, it has some scrapes on the wishbone mount bolts but other than that zero impact damage.

I got word back from Mevotech yesterday suggesting they had no reports of bad fitment.
I returned to the same parts store and checked it against the other unit of the same brand and the same misaligned rear bushing was evident.

Grabbed a moog control arm to compare and the moog lines up PERFECTLY with the VW arm, and when I went to install it, it went it with zero effort, holes also line up perfectly, both sides installed in no time.

Turns out to be a shitty part, as was the other Mevotech one in store. Strange that the company is denying any way it could be their part, but quality parts that fit the first time don't lie. I suppose I could have done their warranty, but who'd trust that at this point, lol.

So I guess lesson is, as I've learned many times, there's always risk with the "value" parts.
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DeenPD
Thank you for sharing this info. It will help a lot of forum members in the future
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Moonshot Rattle Bucket
Yes, thanks for sharing your experience good info. You would think they would want to get to the bottom of the problem you had.

But then again that would take a reputation worth not losing, work, honesty and concern for quality.
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UhOh
Did you send Mevotech that last picture?

I've had to force things into alignment. Tool of choice: come-a-long (stretched to the rear of the car- axle beam). Seems that things are almost always a bit off with these aftermarket parts. That said, it's a coin-flip as to whether one wants to make the part work (not sure how bad it would have to be in order to really mess up a wheel alignment) or get something else (perhaps replace the bushings in the original arms): either way one tends to encounter having to do a bit of extra work.
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Thebassmatt
UhOh said:
Did you send Mevotech that last picture?

I've had to force things into alignment. Tool of choice: come-a-long (stretched to the rear of the car- axle beam). Seems that things are almost always a bit off with these aftermarket parts. That said, it's a coin-flip as to whether one wants to make the part work (not sure how bad it would have to be in order to really mess up a wheel alignment) or get something else (perhaps replace the bushings in the original arms): either way one tends to encounter having to do a bit of extra work.
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They got all those pictures and then some extra ones of the new parts in the part store.

The only part that really scared me about hammering in or trying to move the arm further was the fact that the bushings probably would have been severely preloaded by the bolt holding it in place, and then set the weight on it and they're prolly just gunna fail right away, or have a reduced life anyway.

I was always taught to be super careful of preloading, but maybe thats just paranoia in this case.
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Moonshot Rattle Bucket
Thebassmatt said:
They got all those pictures and then some extra ones of the new parts in the part store.

The only part that really scared me about hammering in or trying to move the arm further was the fact that the bushings probably would have been severely preloaded by the bolt holding it in place, and then set the weight on it and they're prolly just gunna fail right away, or have a reduced life anyway.

I was always taught to be super careful of preloading, but maybe thats just paranoia in this case.
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I don't think you're being excessive. With as much side load as would be on that bushing and rubber to get it positioned in line, something would likely fail prematurely.
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