Steeda LCA's

fobra559 · Dec 13, 2007

I was deciding on Steeda LCA's and came across on a decision of steel or aluminum. What's the difference besides the material and the price? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

gsjohnson · Dec 13, 2007

Weight savings for the hardcore racer. I just don't like it that they paint their aluminum ones.

fobra559 · Dec 13, 2007

gsjohnson said:
Weight savings for the hardcore racer. I just don't like it that they paint their aluminum ones.

Pretty much I'm not a hardcore racer, so the steel ones should be fine then and plus they are about a $120 cheaper than the aluminum ones. Any one have the Steeda steel one? If you do how are they?

wms004 · Dec 13, 2007

fobra559 said:
I was deciding on Steeda LCA's and came across on a decision of steel or aluminum. What's the difference besides the material and the price? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Aluminum is lighter but more prone to breaking. I went to a shop to have them installed and the shop wouldn't install them. They showed me a set where the weld had broken (which can cause a serious accident on the street or track).

If you hit a big pothole aluminum will be more prone to crack whereas steel will bend before cracking. Thus I ended up with some tubular steel Maximum Motorsports LCA's with spherical bearings on both ends.

fobra559 · Dec 13, 2007

wms004 said:
Aluminum is lighter but more prone to breaking. I went to a shop to have them installed and the shop wouldn't install them. They showed me a set where the weld had broken (which can cause a serious accident on the street or track).

If you hit a big pothole aluminum will be more prone to crack whereas steel will bend before cracking. Thus I ended up with some tubular steel Maximum Motorsports LCA's with spherical bearings on both ends.

I most likely will goes with the steel anyways because it's cheaper for me. I don't drive crazy in my car, just cruise basically and I try and avoid any bumps or potholes as much as I possibly can. Thanks for the info.

gsjohnson · Dec 13, 2007

I went with the tubular steel set from Maximum Motorsports.

san~man · Dec 13, 2007

What is your reason for replacing the LCA's? Straight line grip? Better handling in the twisties?

gsjohnson · Dec 14, 2007

I have a P1SC Charger on my car and when I hit the gas hard, I can feel the rearend windup from the control arms flexing. Not good. I selected the MM CA-5 lower arms with the heim joint at the axle and the urethane 3 piece bushing at the chassis. I could get the fully heim jointed setup, but I was trying to retain some sort of comfort level with the car. A fully heim jointed setup would be noisey and rough. These arms also incorporate the stock sway bar mounting. To answer your question, it is more a road racing application than drag racing, but MM states it can be used for both. I went with the CHE adjustable uppers so I could adjust the pinion angle because of the Eibach Sportlines I installed.
On another note, I have never heard of the aluminum lower control arms breaking unless the car suffered a hard impact. Afterall, Steeda sells them and there would be a huge liability if these things were failing. Additionally, aluminum lower control arms are standard equipment on the new Roush's.

fobra559 · Dec 14, 2007

san~man said:
What is your reason for replacing the LCA's? Straight line grip? Better handling in the twisties?

Mostly straight line grip. I'm not a hardcore racer or anything but it would be nice to put some power to the pavement I plan on doing 1/4 miles pretty much.

fobra559 · Dec 14, 2007

gsjohnson said:
I went with the tubular steel set from Maximum Motorsports.

Aren't those pricey though?

gsjohnson · Dec 14, 2007

They list for $259. I paid $246 to my door. MM stuff is hard to get a deal on. But I felt they were the best buy for the money. There are cheaper arms out there, but MM does a good job of R&D. And they're cheaper than the aluminum ones. Plus we know that all things being equal, the tubular style are stronger than the cheaper rectangular ones.

fobra559 · Dec 14, 2007

Are the J&M's any good?

gsjohnson · Dec 15, 2007

I'm not familiar with them, unless you're referring to J&M Performance which sells on Ebay.

fobra559 · Dec 15, 2007

gsjohnson said:
I'm not familiar with them, unless you're referring to J&M Performance which sells on Ebay.

These are the ones I might possibly get

http://www.americanmuscle.com/relocoarstpe.html

gsjohnson · Dec 15, 2007

Interesting...I bought my MM lower arms from American Muscle as well. It was cheapest price I could find on the MMs. The J&Ms look very similar in nature to the MMs. What really gets me is your J&Ms are more money than the MMs. The main difference I see is the J&M uses a urethane bushing at both ends. The MM unit utilizes a heim joint at the axle housing and a 3 piece urethane type bushing at the other end. All things being equal???, the J&M would problably be a little more street friendly without the heim joint. Certainly the heim joint would be more effective in the performance area.

fobra559 · Dec 15, 2007

gsjohnson said:
Interesting...I bought my MM lower arms from American Muscle as well. It was cheapest price I could find on the MMs. The J&Ms look very similar in nature to the MMs. What really gets me is your J&Ms are more money than the MMs. The main difference I see is the J&M uses a urethane bushing at both ends. The MM unit utilizes a heim joint at the axle housing and a 3 piece urethane type bushing at the other end. All things being equal???, the J&M would problably be a little more street friendly without the heim joint. Certainly the heim joint would be more effective in the performance area.

I heard a lot of people on here use J&M LCA's. It's advertised on this site a lot. How much performance difference would it be between the MM's and the J&M's? Is it that significant?

gsjohnson · Dec 15, 2007

Small diff. You'll be fine with either.

fobra559 · Dec 15, 2007

gsjohnson said:
Small diff. You'll be fine with either.

Hey thanks for the input man. I really appreciate it I'll be doing these next after I get my o/r X put on

Winters98GT · Dec 15, 2007

Id just go for the upr setup. Decent control arms, and the uppers and lowers can be had for 199 in a complete set on ebay.

twogts4us · Dec 15, 2007

I'm done with urethane bushings on my LCAs...after the first of the year, I'll be replacing em with Maximum Motorsport's MMRLCA-31, with spherical bearings at both ends, spring perches and sway bar mounts.
I tore up my Steeda bushings...yeah, those tough 3 piece bushings ripped into pieces (actually, only the outer pieces tore, but it then allowed tons of flex and felt like th erear axle was moving into the next lane...) This was with zero drag style launches, maybe a handful of burnouts and less than 250 RWHP.
I since swapped to Hotchkis (it was what the local speed shop had in stock on a Saturday afternoon when the Steeda bushings died...so I took what I could get). They also feel sloppy and can be noisy. I figure since I already have a rather harsh ride and little creaks and crap here and there, I really won't mind spherical bearings at both ends.

Steeda LCA's

fobra559

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gsjohnson

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wms004

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fobra559

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