I have BMR vertical links and I experienced 'TWIST' without any track days on the car. I drive back roads and only had about 3-4,000km on the car. Are they shot now? Can I keep using them?Hey Joe, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas!
I wanted to point out your sentence about what you want in the links.
From our offering, (3) different sets meet your requirement and I would almost say to just either flip a coin, or buy on price (in reference to the 3 offerings from BMR)
TCA045: Dual Bearing
When talking just performance and quality - this is my absolute favorite. These are links that work well for just about anyone from a daily driver to a racecar (and are what I use on my "racecar"). The NVH on these is typically not noticed. That being said, NVH CAN occur. After the bearings get some serious use/abuse and a lot of miles the bearings can develop just enough tolerance to allow the body of the links to twist when driving. This twist "can" allow the body of the link to contact the lower mounting point of the control arm and cause a clicking noise. This is something that really hasn't happened yet, but I suspect that it will occur years down the road for some.
Repair costs for this part # if it were to be needed is the most expensive, since the bearings we use would cost roughly $15 on the retail side (there are 4 total). Of course, if it were something that was defective prematurely, we would warranty it. But years down the road, if the bearing is a little on the loose side...that would be something that is not covered as bearings of ANY kind are a wear item.
TCA046: Delrin/Bearing
This is my favorite "cool" factor Link...and is very cost effective. This is a cool design because the top mount has a delrin bushing and the lower has a bearing. In this configuration, you do not run into the link twisting which can lead to the NVH described above - the Delrin mount on this part keeps the arm indexed / aligned at all times, enough to never make contact with anything else.
Cost of repair if needed is similar to the above, you have CNC machined Delrin bushings and spherical bearings which are both "pricey". And again, if the cause is due to the design or a defect, it's covered.
NOTES:
-The TCA045 was our first design, and the first bearing only links on the market. I have not had a single issue with them, and they are our best seller.
-The TCA046, also the first to the market, was prone to NVH occasionally. I worked with the team to redesign these, and that has been excellent. People with the older design, I typically offer to update them to the new design at no charge to them if they have excessive NVH issues. The design change was changing the Delrin bushing to the upper mount, and the bearing to the lower mount. We also revised all of our Delrin bushings AND sleeves for NVH free performance quite some time ago.
TCA048: Poly
These are what I use on my Daily Driver. They are, in my opinion, THE best bang for the buck links on the market. Innovative and the most cost effective all in one. Due to BMR being most efficient at steel fabrication, we are able to price these below $100 and still make the money we need to feed the family. These are the lowest cost links on the entire market, but do not let that fool you. They are 100% American Made pieces and everything but the bushings are made in house right here at BMR.
This design is the only link available that is able to be greased properly without being removed from the car. Greasing them is needed upon initial install, and then past that point there really isn't a specific time to do it - if you use a quality synthetic when installing you may never need to lubricate them again.
Performance: These pieces perform very well. On paper when looking at the product alone and comparing deflection, etc, these are not going to "perform" like most other non-poly options. However, in the real world and on the car they work very well. I went from TCA045 to TCA047 to TCA046 to these on my 2016 GTPP and I can honestly say that I liked having these Poly links on that car the best. They are light, NVH free, and fight off deflection just enough to notice the difference when pushing the car.
Price point on these is $85 shipped until Jan 2nd.:first:
which ones were those?
