Fitment/Workmanship/Service quality??????

sclass

New member
Howzit,

Eish I'd like to relate my experience after having fitted new rims and Koni springs today. From the outset I'd like to point out that I'm from Swaziland and this weekend I drove all the way to Autoquip Centurion (+400kms) to have this done.
The rims are BMW MSport Style 194s and are practically brand new. I bought them last week (from a forum member), picked them up in Pretoria then went to Autoquip. They'd also offered me H&R lowered springs (25mm) which ended up being Konis for R3250 (incl. fitment & alignment), so I wanted them to do everything. This they did for me, but my alignment was so out they said they'd have to perform camber adjustments (extra cost) which they did also. After all was done they took the car for a spin around the block and gave the car a thumbs up. I'll be very honest, the car looked great, rode and steered superbly.
So now I'd driving back to Swaziland and still everythings lovely, no more highspeed wandering, no body roll, pitching or diving under acceleration/braking. Then about 5-10kms from home, mid right-hand corner BANG...the car goes veering towards the left, hit the brakes but the car felt like it was tramping, off the brakes regain some control then I let her coast to a stop, burning rubber in the air. My first thought is a blow out, but the tyres are fine. Turn steering lock-to-lock no clunking sounds, however the wheel is facing to the right even though car is moving straight. Then I notice the right fender looks like it's been sucked in, so I pulled it out. Nothing leaking from anywhere so I attempt to slowly drive on, accelerate to 30km/h with no problems, but under braking there is that tramping sensation, the tyre screetches, and the steering wheel turns. I stop and get out to check the car and again the front right fender is 'sucked' in. It's almost like the strut is pulling it in, especially under braking. Looking at the strut top the little cap in the middle is loose...

Where and how do I even begin to sort this mess out. I really need y'all best advice here, I've spent my money buying what I thought was a quality product at a quality fitment centre. Now there's the inconvenience of not having transport, let alone sorting out the other issues...

Hoping to hear from you guys soon, thanks.
 

Sankekur

///Member
Have you checked for anything loose in terms on the suspension, or the steering, my first guess would be that the shop did not tighten something properly (or maybe not at all even). Maybe post op some pics as well, that might also help.

I am really sorry to hear about this, but I am glad you got out uninjured.
 

Twinz

Forum - Support
Staff member
Holy crap...i want to reply to this in the morning when i can think straight...for now let me, say sorry for the bad experience:cry::argh:
 

sclass

New member
Sankekur@ Oh yah, I forgot to mention that I and my 2 passengers are fine! My mind is a blur right now thinking what would have happened that there been other cars around...thank GOD I tell you.

Twins@ Thanks Twins, looking forward to your response.
 

Cole

New member
i definitly think you will need to post some pics for the guys to be able to comment.
if they changed camber chances are the idiots forgot to tighten something back up properly and when you brake its pushing the wheel out.
 

moranor@axis

///Member
Official Advertiser
this does not sound good :yuck: do you have a jack and axle stands?

get the car up take the wheel off and see whats loose... they must have not tightened something properly...
 

P1000

///Member
Hmmm, I am not convinced this is the fault of the fitment centre, but it could be - I am guessing they had to bend some stuff to fix the camber, because they don't know a better way. This could have compromised an alu control arm which lead to its failure. Of course, it could be something like the stiffer suspension that just made something that was marginal before fail now. Iam leaning towards a top shock mount. If you did not ask them to replace it, they would not have, and it might be that this part does not work well with the konis...

That said, you should have gone to Autowiel in centurion - they know their stuff when it comes to suspensions. The suspension/alignment guy there sets up a lot of the cars racing on Zwartkops, and he found my problems within minutes.
 

moranor@axis

///Member
Official Advertiser
i was also thinking the stiffer springs could have broken something that was on its way out already(the 1st thing that came to mind was a ripped tower because of the distorted fender lets hope its not that), but without knowing what was broken its all just speculation...

once the wheel is off and the damage is seen it should be easy to work out if its the fitters fault or just wear...
 

herr bmw

///Member
i had a bad experince with autoquip centurion,and they will never see me again,took the wifes navara in for wheel alignment,excuse after excuse,eventually after fighting with them for 1,5 hours got the car back,on the highway back to pretoria east,car went all over the place,drove it slowly to tsw menlyn and found that they had left every nut and bolt loose,was lucky to get there alive.

phoned them back and they said it was impossible,got full report from tsw took it to them,well 3 years later still havent replied.

glad we now have a consumer act.
 

sclass

New member
Thanks everyone,

I jacked up the car this morning, unfortunately it's in an underground parking garage at work and the light isn't too good...I'll post the pics tomorrow.

It looks like perhaps Autoquip is in the clear, from what I can see (and you'll correct me of course), a ball joint popped out of the right control arm. It's the one closest to the steering rack. I'm sure when you see the pics it'll make sense. I'm having the car checked tomorrow to confirm.

I'm surprised because I had new ball joints and bushes press-fitted just over a week ago.

P1000@ I hear you, maybe something that was borderline now failed because of the stiffer setup. But what could that be because I made sure to change all the usual suspects; ball-joints,bushes,rack-ends,tie-rods,shocks and now finally the springs.

I suppose all will come to light tomorrow, and if there's nothing untoward on the spring fitment side I'll gladly apologise to Autoquip.

If it turns out to be the arm, then what next? 2 new control arms from the stealers for R5,000? The way I feel right now 5 grand is peanuts against my life...




 

Doomsdaya

///Member
Could it be that the ball joints were'nt pressed in properly ?

Now that is scary because I also had mines replaced recently and the car doesnt feel right....
 

P1000

///Member
I don't know exactly how the part looks that popped out, but I know that on alu control arms, you cannot replace only the ball joint, oyu need to replace the entire arm. If you try to replace only the ball joint, there's a very good chance of it popping back out.
 

mark_i

New member
Scarey stuff...Definitely speak to the guys who replaced the balljoints... +1 you cant replace the balljoints on an aluminium control arm.
 

moranor@axis

///Member
Official Advertiser
P1000 said:
I don't know exactly how the part looks that popped out, but I know that on alu control arms, you cannot replace only the ball joint, oyu need to replace the entire arm. If you try to replace only the ball joint, there's a very good chance of it popping back out.

i thought the e36 was different...
 

P1000

///Member
moranor said:
P1000 said:
I don't know exactly how the part looks that popped out, but I know that on alu control arms, you cannot replace only the ball joint, oyu need to replace the entire arm. If you try to replace only the ball joint, there's a very good chance of it popping back out.

i thought the e36 was different...

Which is why I said

P1000 said:
I don't know exactly how the part looks that popped out
 

sclass

New member
Hi guys,

Correction the ball-joint didn't pop out, it snapped clean off...the ball that is press fitted is still in place. I'm struggling to upload the pics as the page keeps timing out...

I wish you y'all could see this. But in such a case what could be the culprit? The quality of the ball-joint? Or the way in which it was press-fitted? Was is going to fail anyway or are the stiffer springs the cause?

If I replace with new OEM from BM will they also withstand the stiffer springs or do I need to upgrade to better than OEM? This brings out the question; if you upgrade your springs do you also have to upgrade associated components?
 

Doomsdaya

///Member
sclass said:
But in such a case what could be the culprit? The quality of the ball-joint? Or the way in which it was press-fitted? Was is going to fail anyway or are the stiffer springs the cause?

IMO its got to do with the way it was fitted, there are guys on the forum running non OEM ball joints, bushes and tie rod ends with stiffer springs and their cars are going just fine.

I had OEM ball joints fitted by BMW and after getting the car back, it felt even worse then what it was before. Those so called "professionals" at BMW did a K@K job and it could have been worse had it not been discovered at all.

AFAIK nothing else needs to be done when changing springs, its just like any other car.
 
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