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I’m typically not one to air grievances publicly, but this is safety-related, so I felt I should share with the Z/G community.
I picked up some EMUSA Front LCAs off Amazon for a build I was finishing up. I have had a heck of a time getting the energy suspension poly bushes installed in the front LCAs in the past and figured the EMUSA arms were worth a try at the price.
They seemed to fit up well, but when driving slowly to the alignment shop, the steering seemed super nervous, and the car was hunting like crazy. I blamed it on some possible toe-out, but when we got it in the air at the shop, it turns out the ball-joint shanks were rocking in the LCAs. That seemed super odd, so I limped the car home and pulled the arms off to take a look.
It turns out the taper cut in the arms is too shallow (more towards a cylinder than a cone) for the Nissan cone spacer used on the ball joint shank. So while the broad part of the cone will land on the taper, the narrow end of the cone is free to move in the narrow end of the LCA taper opening. The opening on the EMUSA unit is about 1mm larger (21mm vs 20mm for stock) at the narrow end. This does a couple things:
- You end up with the cone spacer only engaging at the wide rim and not on the cone face, and;
- You’re likely tightening the ball joint castle nut against the bottom of the shank thread only.
These joints are mated with tapers for a reason, the load transmission through this joint is super high as this is the primary steering axis. While over tightening the joint may cut the cone into the EMUSA LCA taper enough that it doesn’t appear to shift in normal driving, there’s no guarantees when you need to swerve to avoid that stopped truck, or you slap those 275s on the front, that the joint won’t displace rock, or fail.
In short: The EMUSA arms are not safe. If you have some, you may want to look for the tell-tale groove.
I’m in communication with them right now about a refund, and I’ll update with any progress. As of yet, they don’t seem concerned at all, or inclined to suggest this was a one-off defect.
Keep it rubber-side down, all.
-Sundown
Stock narrow side EMUSA narrow side. Stock cone spacer rocking to one side in EMUSA arm. Stock cone spacer rocking to the other side in the EMUSA arm. Stock cone spacer centered in stock arm, no rocking. Cut line from spacer rocking in the EMUSA arm.
I don't see any benefit to this product over stock arms. I would take a stock arms with SPL bushings over the EMUSA arm. Or even Stock arm with White line type bushing.
The original plan was stock arms with energy suspension poly bushes, but after fighting with the spring/damper mounting ES bushing in one of the arms for ages (chamfer, press, didn’t close up the whole way, remove, chamfer more, press...) and a looming date with the alignment shop and dyno to follow, I figured I’d take a flyer on these via Amazon next day delivery. I had a spare set of stock arms with stock bushes as a backup I could swap in over an hour or so, and it turns out that’s what ended up happening.
Just posting the PSA so people know about the design flaw/manufacturing defect because it’s a safety concern.
I have the same issue and have replaced every component in thefront suspension/steering trying to chase down the issue; and the ball joints twice!!!
Aside from feeling the tiniest pebble when i drive over one they also squeek when you drive out of my driveway.
How did you contact the company for a refund?
im surprised more people havent had this issue since they have sold literally thousands of these LCA’s.
11-10-2020, 05:40 PM
PSA: EMUSA Front Lower Control Arms
