So I bought and installed the Z1 Front upper control arms per the directions. I had some noise about a week after I had the alignment done coming from the passenger side. Sounded like I had forgotten to tighten down the nuts for the strut mount on that side. I checked the nuts and everything I could think of with no luck. Drove on it a bit more and took another look. Turns out there's an 8mm allen bolt that Z1 had forgotten to tighten. Found this out from searching online and from a forum member here.

Well after talking with Z1 it sounds like it wore out the teflon on the inside of the heim joint and needed to be replaced. This whole thing has taken up a lot of my time and money. They say I won't have to realign it if I mark the old joint before removing it and marking the new one before installation but I don't know how I feel about that. They shipped me out a replacement joint but I'm still not happy. I also asked for a full refund to help compensate my time and cost for a realignment. They're going to see what they can do after reviewing the old joint.

 

Here's the link to my original thread...

https://www.myg37.com/forums/g37-sed...installed.html

 

Thanks for the update, hopefully that new piece will get them working quietly and as they were designed. G/L

 

So I installed the replacement heim joint today and it's perfect. Immediate difference in handling and noise. The old joint rattles around when you shake it. Guess that joint was missed through QA.

 

Word of advice I guess... shake your control arms before install. Thanks for the update! Hopefully Z1 compensates you somewhat for their mistake which ended up costing you so much time.

 

Good luck with getting them to compensate..
The sent me the worst Made HFC I have seen.. They wouldn't overnight me a new set on there dime as my car sat out of commission while getting the headers installed.
Totally turned my off from ever buying from them again

 

That's the thing they weren't loose when I installed them originally. The bolt was loose enough to start coming apart though.

 

I know, I spoke with John from Z1 and he said that's how ordering aftermarket parts works. He says there's no compensation, then compared themselves to the ****ty place he ordered his headers from saying they didn't compensate him when they sent him a defective part. I spoke with Spencer who's a manager or something, so we'll see what he can do. I told him I've been ordering from them since I had my Z and planned to continue to order from them if they make things right. I'm asking them to eat 1 pair of control arms for their mistake which will cover a realignment at least, not my wasted time troubleshooting and looking like an idiot driving around with a noisy broken sounding car. If not, I'll avoid them like the plague. Mostly because I called several times and was given wrong info on more than one occasion.

 

What about getting the non-race model joint? They will just need continuous greasing down the road.

BTW: Check your private messages

 

DONE. Check your text messages lol

 

Have pics of the old one?

 

I tackled this project this weekend. My right front ball joint kept backing off so I took it apart, cleaned really well and liberally applied some red lock tight. I let it sit for about 2 hours buttoned everything back up. I don't think it will be coming apart any time soon.

 

The new one is also failing. I didn't bother trying to tighten anything before installing since Spencer said they are all preassembled. This one is coming apart as well. My point to Spencer was that their QA sucks. Really makes me lose confidence in their other products.

I guess they will be changing their directions to include tightening the joints. I myself will be opting for a refund and a different product.

 

when SPL makes a quality product why try and be an early adopter for the z1 product?

while z1 does come up with some new products for our cars (like their z1 csc, rear diff cover etc) i am hesitant to buy them because i always get the feeling they are extremely busy and lack a bit in the customer service department and after sales and quality checks.

 

Cost was the biggest factor. The product appeared to be solid. They looked harder to adjust but that's what the alignment guy does anyways. What I found out is that they're not assembled properly in many cases I've read about and experienced. That's not exactly the area you want assembly issues with. I can't speak for the poly street version but I'm not going to try either.

I'll just go with the Kinetix as a replacement.