Waste Of Time & Money, Due To Poor Quality Parts (Eurocarparts)/My Inexperience

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
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Just thought I’d post my experience as a reminder to people to not waste their time and money buying rubbish quality parts.

I got some yellow dot RX8 roll bars for my NC.  I decided to replace all four drop links, but used the bushes supplied from the ebay seller as they looked fine.  unfortunately MX5 Parts, didn’t have the rear IL Motorsport drop links in stock, I’d read that Mazda ones don’t last long, and they are more expensive.  So I bought the drop links from Eurocarparts, these were from a company called CTE.  They were the same price as IL Motorsport ones.

The car had always slightly knocked from the back, it had done 40K.  I got the bars swapped over by a garage.  The knocking was still there, but not quite as bad.  Over the next 1,000 miles it got worse, it was doing it all the time and really annoying.  I got the car on ramps, and noticed what I thought was play in the rear anti roll bar, on both sides, and from the middle of the bar, it was making a knocking noise.  My inexperience, I thought that the bushes were knackered so I bought some more, the bar still had play and was knocking.  So like an idiot I got some clamps from Mazda, exactly the same as the ones I had, and the play was still there.  I then read on the internet that anti rol bars are supposed to move in the bushes, although the front one appears really rigid.  I undid the drop links at either end, the bar moved but silently.

I have just received the IL Motorsport drop links from MX5 parts, fitted them and the car is silent.  The car had done less than 2,000 miles with the CTE drop links, and they have knocked from day one.  They were fitted in February, have quite a lot of corrosion on them, considering the car has only been once in the rain since then, they seem really poor quality.  My inexperience, logic that a new parts should be of high quality from a national Motor Factor clouded my judgement.  Also because the car knocked before they were fitted, made me think it was something else, when in reality the drop links on the car were worn.

I’ve had exactly the same with a Ford Focus with cheap drop links off Ebay.  Which made me never really buy much car related off there, definitely not brands of suspension components, I’ve never heard of.

I should know better as the three cars I’ve had with suspension knocks, it was always drop links.

Just thought I’d share my findings.  I looked on Eurocarparts, and they no longer stock these drop links, the new ones are by a company called Starline.  I still decided to avoid them, as the IL Motorsport ones fitted to the front of the car have been suparb.

On a plus point the car is silent now, and the roll bars make a huge difference to the way the car handles.  I see no point at all lowering the car now.  The IL Motorsport links are recommended, for a very reasonable price.

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I no longer use Eurocarparts. They seem totally incapable of sending the right parts. Gave them 3 attempts over the last few years and they sent the wrong parts eveytime! That takes some doing.

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Hi,
A few observations. I think my drop links cost less than £25, and you don’t need to be a formula 1 race engineer to fit them.So why pay £50 an hour for a garage to fit them.
You’ve made a good move fitting the RX8 ARB’s,but why not do the droplinks at the same time? That’s an obvious cause of knocking and a well documented MX5 MOT failure.
It used to be the norm that suspension joints should not be done to final torque until the car was on the deck. Polybushes supply lubricant to enable the ARB’s to move. Wishbones, norm applies.
Regarding the brand names of non Mazda parts that you mention. Merchandising is a dark art. Supermarkets are not allowed to sell premium brand, well known manufacturer’s branded goods, fridges and such. at discount, so they sell them under their own names. I don’t believe that they are manufactured to any less standard. Same for car spare parts, most are made by the same manufacturers. Unless you fall foul of counterfeit rubbish, I saw recently that you can, online, buy soap powder that is rubbish and not genuine.
And someone will no doubt trounce my comments with the observation that genuine Mazda brake pads cause less dust. They ought to get out more,
Rant over,
David.

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If you go back and read my post, you will read that I replaced all four of them.  The front ones from MX5 parts, but as I stated they did not have the rears in stock so I bought them at Eurocarparts.  Hence why I did not think it would be the cause of the knocking as they were brand new.  The whole point of my post was that I had bought new, poor quality parts from a national motor factor.  My lack of experience made me look at other things as I never thought I would have had an issue with being supplied useless parts.

Regarding the fitting, I have no problem at all fitting the rear anti roll bar, I have had it off more times than enough lately.  Fitting the front bar however sounded like a pain in the @rse to do on a drive.  Hence why I took it to an independent garage, that only charged me £75, for changing the oil, anti freeze and the two anti roll bars, this was labour only, but very reasonable.  The garage I use, charges nowhere near £50 an hour.  They obviously failed to check the bar for play, but as they were supplied with 4 new drop links, by me, they probably thought it would be fine.

Its just a learning experience for me.  I’ve never had any problem with MX5 parts, and will continue to use them.  In Eurocarparts defence, they said on the phone they’d give me a full refund.  This is good as a terrible local independent motor factor, that sold me defective brake drums for my other car, would not except a return, unless I bought another set, and they sent them away to the supplier to be tested, then I’d get my money back.  I just took them to an excellent local machinist, whom machined them, to be true for £20.  Needless to say, I will never, ever step in that s**thole again.

Its a shame genuine parts are such a rip-off, if they priced them a bit more sensibly, I’d use more of them.  

 

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Yes I can imagine that is frustrating.  I did like them as you could view the prices online, not having to phone up, like other motor factors around here.  They are good for fluids and lubricants, the Pagid OE brake pads they sell, are just as good as the OEM Mazda ones, to me anyway.  You don’t get the shims, but I just re-used mine, even if you buy Pagid shims it works out a lot cheaper.  This annoyed me a little though, still, you live and learn…

 

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I lost track years ago of what were  the quality brands of aftermarket bits, as the British manufacturers that I was familiar with,

eg Delphi, Quinton Hazell, Ferodo. etc were ground into the dust by cheap third world parts brought in by, for example

outfits like Eurocarparts, or taken over etc. . 
 
I seem to recall that one of Eurocarparts party pieces was to import cheap oil filters from India in bulk, and attach their own
'German' brand name to them. 
 
I've not yet had to replace any drop links on my MX5, but, on my former day car Peugeot 406, the brand that crops up 
regularly on the forum is that First LIne do decent quality drop links. 
 
My yardstick for the price of a good quality drop link is about £15 each.
Coincidently, I think that's about the same price as MX5Parts charge for their aftermarket links.