I just ordered the Ichiba rear control arms - just to clarify you cut 1/4" inch off all 4 pieces that screw into the center piece, as opposed to 2 (1 on each side of the car)?

 

Ghozt, once you take it all apart yes there are 4 parts you take 1/4" off... make sure they rethread or you make sure the threads are still good to reassemble.

 

Thanks bro! Yeah I'm going to have the nut threaded on there, cut it, and then spin the nut off to clean the threads + file it a bit.

 

Great info!

I was thinking of doing this, as they couldn't get my car into proper alignment after I lowered it. I haven't really noticed any more wear on the inner part of the tires, but might still do this after I get new tires.

 

You should be fine with getting the rears into alignment. I'm running 27mm spacers on the rear and with the 350 arms I still have an issue with my right rear which didn't quite come into camber. They said that when they pushed for green on camber the toe went out. The left rear came in just fine??
Looking into this before changing out the RSA's....a bit of neg camber is good for handling but not at the expense of excessive inner tire wear. Good luck!

 

Did you get the Ichiba control arms? I have 25mm spacers in the rear. I may get it aligned again. Since its been quite a few potholes since my last alignment. I also didn't have the spacers installed back then.

 

Yes Ichiba's. I waited about 150-200 miles between the Eibach drop and the spacers before even getting the alignment. I'm no geometry expert but when I had a local tire service center mechanic which won't touch a car with spacers tell me that the addition of wheel spacers will not affect the alignment (including wheel camber) that made me nervous and a bit apprehensive.
The Goodyear center did my alignment and I watched the mechanic. He brought the lead tech in to double check and they still had an issue with the RR. Something with the car I think?

 

The included toe bolts should address your previous post about the camber affecting the toe.

When I put spacers on that's when I needed a 4 wheel alignment, I was fine on Eibach's until then. I think it says a lot that the shop "won't touch spacers" and also doesn't know that they affect the wheel geometry. That's like saying wheel offset doesn't matter

 

One other question - is it just the Ichiba ones that need to be modified? Do the SPC/Eibach ones need modification as well? They appear to be shorter than the Ichiba ones.

 

Stock toe's on the rears are the the same as the Ichiba's.....cam (lobe) adjustment dimensions likewise are the same.
I kept the stock because they are a beefier bolt.

 

Bumping because I'm still not clear on it.

Just ordered the SPC 350z Camber Arms. Do these need to be modified like the Ichibas? I understand the eyelet for the toe bolt will likely need to be widened using the provided template. Just not clear on the arms themselves, if they need to be cut or not, etc. Thanks!

 

They don't, just the toe bolt eyelet. I went with SPC in the end, read some crap about the Ichiba's breaking on the 350z forums.

 

Where did you guys pick up the SPC rear control arms?

 

I bought mine on Amazon last night but you can get them from Stillen as well.

Thanks for the heads up, Ghozt. You know, even the SPCs look iffy to me and I was considering the Megan 350z control arms. They looked much more durable but the degree of adjustment didn't seem as much. I'll have to look at that again.

 

Thanks bro

 

No doubt. Holding the OEM control arm in one hand and the SPC in the other, the SPC definitely feel like quality. In fact it makes me start thinking the OEM stuff is complete ****.

 

Heh, can't wait to see them then. I was holding off on getting them but after the choke amount of rain we got yesterday night and the instability of the car past 50mph, I figured I better not skimp on safety and get the damn camber kit and alignment done.

I probably need new tires too (still on those RSAs so that just ADDs to the near death hydroplaning experience).

These are those Megan Racing camber arms I mentioned. You see these? They look pretty durable in pics too. I wonder about their quality and would be interested in seeing if anyone's tried these babies.

http://www.meganracing.com/product.a...d=846&catid=90

 

Really? I haven't heard anything bad about them, I have no issues with mine the ones I got looks and felt really durable when I got them, got a link?

 

It's not just this specific unit either

http://my350z.com/forum/brakes-and-s...eck-yours.html


http://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-s...killed-me.html

http://www.myg37.com/forums/brakes-a...lly-break.html

 

The Ichiba control arms are poorly made. I had the front and rear Ichiba arms (with toe bolts) on my G35 coupe. The rear arms will seize after awhile and can't be adjusted. And the ball joint in the front arms will get stuck in the spindle upon removal. Which required me to use a blow torch and a lot of force to remove. They are also prone to rusting. When I lower my Max, I will be using SPC arms since I have nothing good to say about the Ichiba arms.

 

Yeah since the price difference is about $40 I figured this was an easy choice after I did more research. Kinda glad now that when I ordered the Ichiba's the dumb@sses sent me the wrong part so I just returned what they sent and got the SPC ones. I came across this info initially while looking on Youtube for install videos on the camber arms and came across one where a guy was replacing his Ichiba's with the SPC's due to greater adjustability + as he also mentioned the Ichiba's were known to break. That's when I dug in deeper and found lots of threads about it.

 

Thanks Ghozt for ruining my weekend dude! lol now I gotta go outside and inspect the damn thing! AutoX the car as well so I know I have put stress on those things.

 

Good info guys...
Not sure if I completely understand the issue with Ichiba. The wheel spacers they sell seem to be of very high quality yet the reported front and rear arm failures are disturbing to say the least.
Does anyone know if Ichiba ever responded publicly about these issues?

I was under the car today while doing a complete brake fluid change and did the normal look around at the underside of the car including the rear arms and all looks well.
After reading these reported failures I will be removing the arms to do a full inspection.

 

whos got the install video im rdyyy haha

 

I might have a shop do this for me as I do not have the proper cutting tools for the toe arm eyelet. I'd be there for hours with a file lol.

 

Yeah since installing them and adjusting for the camber changes the toe as well you need an alignment immediately afterwards, so unless you got an alignment machine I'd just take it to the shop

 

Just got mine installed today for the rears and now green at -0.7, -0.4 from -2.4 before. Happy about that. I didn't have to buy the filer and drill bit since the shop cut to enlarge the toe bolt hole.

 

Don't you hate it when you finally get some time off, you got all your tools ready, you're psyched, you jack the car up... Then find you don't have a 18mm socket or wrench (or that one missing tool)?

Was gonna put just the arms in today, let the shop do the cutting. Guess I either buy the parts and try another day or let the shop do it... *sigh*

 

Just wanted to update -

So, with SPC arms, did not need to open up the lower arm eyelet and install new toe bolt, All four corners green! They've been on the car about two months now.

I'm getting a slight bump steer/instability issues at speeds over 60mph though - could just be our crappy roads here as it's not consistent. I guess I'm just paranoid.

 

Buy these and good to go for rear?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sp...san/model/350z

 

^ thats just 1 arm

 

If I was to explain this to my mechanic, what part of the set up needs filing? I'm ordering the SPC arms but have no idea what needs to be filed.

 

It would be the hole towards the center of the car on both sides. Don't know the exact names of the parts these are connected to. I have a pic in my garage of my rear SPC Arms and you can see the silver bolt on the left in the pic.

 

The hole where the toe bolt goes through needs to be elongated sideways. There is a template that comes with the SPC kit.

 

You can show the video I posted above. It's fairly straight forward.

 

got it... thanks guys

 

Looking for a good place to have these installed without going to GoodYear... How much should I expect to pay at a regular mechanic for the instal of the rear arms, front bolts and alignment?

 

+alignment, the owner of the shop said they'd just charge me the hourly rate. Took two hours. $270 total.

But you know. They say everything's cheaper on the mainland.

So I'd expect about $150-200. They didn't have to cut the two bolt eyelet though, so if your car is lower than eibachs, it'll take longer and likely cost you more as they'd need to cut them to get the camber in spec.

 

im lowered on ksport coils with about a 2.5 to a 3 in drop all around. the only thing i bought to adjust the camber were the front eibach camber bolts, and nothing for the back. i got a fresh set of tires, pretty expensize ones to, they were some high end bridgestone ones, and right after install i went to get an alignment, got that done and everything was in spec, 2 months later those brand new tires went to **** and man was i pissed. so what i did was go with a harder base tire and a little tire stretch, to me rubber is rubber if your just doing everyday street use, so i went with the cheapest tires possible. these tires have been on my car for about 5 to 6 months now and loving every moment of them. what im trying to say is that sometimes it doesnt really matter if there is a little bit of camber in your set up, it just matters on what type of tire you get

 

People need to realize that camber doesn't shred tires, does it affect the way the tire wears? Yes! Does it wear your tires more? if its a minor camber its barely noticeable, an extreme camber will wear tires more and so on and so on.

TOE <--- This will kill tires!!! Get your toe adjusted within spec and you should be good with a minor camber issue, but me? I am picky and rather have everything within spec...