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Boots have no impact on them being a street friendly design or not. They use a teflon liner which can tolerate quite a lot of street driving before wearing out and developing some freeplay. The OEM spherical type joints will typically use a ball in a nylon/metal cage with grease - kinda the same thing.
The aftermarket spherical might have a lifespan more in the 30-45k mile range, but given you can refresh them for ~$30 in bearings, it's hardly a big factor.
And yes, the bearings are used all over the place, but the BMW M/Porsche GT cars *extensively* use them to where there typically isn't that much rubber left in the suspension. The suspensions are firm, but not unstreetable. And I'd hardly say they do massive "special designs" to incorporate them, with the same basic suspension geometry shared between the base model and the upgraded one.
Boots certainly play a part in street friendliness for cars driven on wet/salty roads. Polished steel spherical bearings located on low chassis points can (will) still pit and rust. Which is why OEM's use boots on their bearings, ball joints, tie rods, and end links.
It can't be assumed that a STREET CAR is only driven in fair weather.
Rubber bushings have a useful lifespan of 100K+++ in a lot of cases. I am assuming that factory bearings also have such a span...or possibly longer.
If aftermarket bearings need to be replaced at 30-40K, then its likely because of the lack of boots.
I'm not saying they're a bad idea or that they are RACE ONLY. But, they do certainly reduce the aspect of streetability.
They are *better suited* to race applications than they are street cars due to quite a few reasons.
Boots certainly play a part in street friendliness for cars driven on wet/salty roads. Polished steel spherical bearings located on low chassis points can (will) still pit and rust. Which is why OEM's use boots on their bearings, ball joints, tie rods, and end links.
It can't be assumed that a STREET CAR is only driven in fair weather.
Rubber bushings have a useful lifespan of 100K+++ in a lot of cases. I am assuming that factory bearings also have such a span...or possibly longer.
If aftermarket bearings need to be replaced at 30-40K, then its likely because of the lack of boots.
I'm not saying they're a bad idea or that they are RACE ONLY. But, they do certainly reduce the aspect of streetability.
They are *better suited* to race applications than they are street cars due to quite a few reasons.
Boots are not hard to add after the fact, but I don't think they'll make a huge difference in lifespan on the average street driven vehicle with a quality bearing.
The Teflon/nylon-PTFE liner is not comparable to what's used on OEM joints (for cost reasons), and it handles minor grit just fine.
I agree its more a high performance solution obviously, but I don't think you'll find spherical joints in high performance cars lasting 100k mi even if it's OEM.
Boots are not hard to add after the fact, but I don't think they'll make a huge difference in lifespan on the average street driven vehicle with a quality bearing.
The Teflon/nylon-PTFE liner is not comparable to what's used on OEM joints (for cost reasons), and it handles minor grit just fine.
I agree its more a high performance solution obviously, but I don't think you'll find spherical joints in high performance cars lasting 100k mi even if it's OEM.
The vast amount of bearings on Subaru STi's seem fine after 100K+.
I don't have personal experience with Porsches, but I imagine they're also fine after 100K+.
Just got my Hardrace sphericals, looks pretty nice and I really like the rubber boots.
Not going to install these until winter but first I'm going to try and get an answer why one of the rear uppers looks different, thinner bottom "collar".
The front ones had two of each so I'm guessing that's how it should be, but I'm not sure it would matter though? They are all same length.
How much was the full kit in total for the Hardrace ones? I take it you will be updating your build thread after install to report back on NVH differences (please don't make us wait until winter though )?
I didn't get the full kit, only the ones in the picture and they were €556 from https://www.akr-performance.com
Think they still have one set left at that discount price if you are quick to order.
My front lower lca already got the Powerflex bushings so I think I will keep those, also planning to keep the stock lower damper bushings.
Maybe a bad call? But I'm thinking it's not much turning movement down there and the rubber might be preferable to lessen some noise and harshness.
Summer is way to short here to keep wrenching on the car and when I remove those control arms they are gonna need the full treatment before going back on
04-25-2017, 12:14 PM
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