Wishbones

Hi all,

When replacing your wishbones which did you use? EBAY offers a few different choices,

Some for £67 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-COUPE-20V-TURBO-FRONT-2-LOWER-WISHBONE-SUSPENSION-ARMS-BALL-JOINTS-BUSHES/270599821544?hash=item3f010198e8:g:4MoAAOSwhvFZBYOX

Or delphni for about £100? - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Coupe-175-2-0-20V-Turbo-Delphi-Front-Left-Lower-Track-Control-Arm/301960621756?hash=item464e416ebc:g:~UAAAOSw-itXtyug

Thanks
Lee

Yes, there is a bewildering choice on eBay and places like BuyCarParts and all the other similar "clone" sites of AutoDoc. Unfortunately not all wishbones are created equal, many come with captive nuts that are too "soft" - as if made of cheese! Do a search on this forum (use Search link next to the Forum Help link, type "+cheese" and specify user GrahamL and you'll find from his research that even Fiat OE items are prone to premature failure. I'm about to buy a pair of Lemforder ones either from CarParts4Less (aka Euro Car Parts but cheaper) or BuyCarParts. But beware when using BuyCarParts since the headline discount changes daily but so do the base prices, so the price you pay can vary wildly from day to day. Also the parts ship from Germany so take a while to arrive, and just occasionally they may substitute an incorrect part. But if you're not in a hurry and take a while to keep checking their prices to make sure you pay the lowest possible price, they can be a good place to buy from.

So AutoDoc have the following makes, in ascending order of price, from £25 up to £83 each:

RIDEX
VAICO
RUVILLE
SIDEM
MAPCO
NK
JP
SWAG
ABS
MAGNETI MARELLI
RTS
METZGER
MOOG
OPTIMAL
FEBI BILSTEIN
MONROE
DELPHI
TRISCAN
STARK
TRW
LEMFÖRDER
SASIC
MEYLE

That's a ridiculous 23 "different" makes. I can't believe there are that many different producers, there must be only a handful really, and they all get labelled as different makes, with perhaps only 1 producer getting it right, and those are sold as Lemförder for example.

By contrast, CarParts4Less/EuroCarParts show 3 makes only: Starline (cheap-ish, but only one side), TRW and Lemförder

The Lemförder ones have increased in value (£52 to £54) over the past 4 days on buycarparts, probably due to us looking for them, adequately demonstrates your point though DaveG

I used Alfashop local to me in Norwich, they were TRW about £50-60 I think.

I put some £59 eBay wishbones on my NA a couple of years ago. The drivers lower ball joint was finished in less than ten thousand miles.

I have " Birth " ones from www.shop4parts.co.uk used the club discount code as well.

Just been looking into this too and there seems to be another couple of complications:

There are cast iron ones and forged steel ones. Guess what, the Lemförders are steel and Moog and TRW have steel options.

TRW is now owned by ZF, who also own Lemförder.

Part numbers for the forged steel ones are:

Moog AL-TC-8867
Moog AL-TC-8868
Lemförder 2674902
Lemförder 2676102
TRW JTC375
TRW JTC376

The arms are defiantly not cast iron, first pot hole and they'd be .

I was "talking" to a guy at MOOG about which parts I would need and they have both cast iron ones and forged steel ones. Have a look in their catalog. Most manufacturers do cast iron ones and some also say cast steel.

OK it will not be plain cast iron but these parts don't really twist they just locate so why not a good quality cast iron?

Because cast iron is very brittle.

Some cast irons are comparatively brittle. There are ductile cast irons that are less so. Many car suspension components are made from cast iron and if the manufacture says that they use cast iron why do we not want to believe them?

By the way, my first degree was in metallurgy and I have no reason to believe that some cast iron types cannot be used for wishbones. It is all down to the quality of the material and the loads it has to take.

I'd go with the Lemforder wishbones and would avoid geniune Fiat wishbones even if they were giving them away for free.

Check my old wishbone thread:
http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1510218&page=1


Had to look up the cast iron thing, but a couple of quotes from wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ductile_iron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleable_iron

That is an interesting and worrying thread GrahamL. I'm not going to do the change myself but it looks like Lemförder parts have to be the ones, just to reduce the risk of problems.

Neil

I have BIRTH ones fitted, similar price as Moog.

1+ vote for Lemforder.

So forget these then?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-COUPE-1995-2001-FRONT-SUSPENSION-2-LOWER-WISHBONE-ARMS-BALL-JOINTS-BUSHES/390092023011?fits=Car+Make%3AFiat%7CModel%3ACoupe&epid=518634909&hash=item5ad34be4e3:g:48IAAOSwhvFZBc02

Have to say on reading Graham's very informative post- the whole issue of quality/genuine parts for the coupe is a cause for concern. Due to low numbers even pretty much every day items - such as ignition coils - are floating at prices up and above that of running a 911.

If you have a brand or two to be weary of, fair enough maybe. But when you have a list like this, or Graham's experience of non workable wishbones/bolt's....then the whole situation becomes surreal.

You could quite easily end up with more expensive, less reliable poorer quality units trying to simply service your coop as a good owner.

Does make you feel the odds are stacked against the average coupe owner comes what may!

Edit reason - link updated to work
MM

I bought the lemforder ones graham recommended from buycarparts with 12% off in the end, whilst there I got lemforder drop links too as already had track rod ends on my shelf

Is there any weight difference in cast iron vs. steel wishbones?
Lighter should be better, unsprung mass etc.?