mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Because you seem to have taken this personally, I will continue to add details ...

1st ... "can be" is the operative word here. The catastrophic failure occurred on a warm up lap.

2nd ... left hand, uphill, off-camber sweeper, normally taken in 3rd gear. Giving it a degree angle can be misleading. A 180* turn can be a street cul-d-sac or turn 3 and 4 at Talledega

3rd ... again, wasn't racing. In MY terminolgy, racing is 10 tenths every lap. Fun is driving and getting home after the event.

The last comment is addressed in my first post ...

... lots of drivers are faster than me ... by choice!

SPANKY LS1

iTrader: (24)

No, I haven't taken it personally, I'm sorry that it broke and thankful that it didn't break in a harder or faster turn, or at higher speeds. Good luck with your new parts, and be careful when racing or just "having fun".

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Fair enough ... and in reality, I'm not hammering the car.

Realize, I bought a crap load of BMR stuff ... SFCs, LCAs, STB, PHB ... based upon recommendations that these parts were top quality and worked.

So far, in my case, I take serious issue with those characterizations ...

I also had to work through the fact that I had wasted a lot of money buying those parts.

Tin Indian

I don't Road Race my car, but I had a lot of wheelhop before. Installed the Hotchkis LCAs and Panhard rod. No more wheel hop.

The Hotchkis LCAs weigh a ton, but do to there heavy constuction, I can say for sure that they will NEVER break.

Ron,

Vents

iTrader: (9)

thats why i've got metco's ;D

9T7 Trans Am

iTrader: (2)

Personally I spent a lot of time looking at suspension components before I made my purchases. I have BMR LCA's, PHR, SFC's and STB. I also plan on purchasing some sway bars and a torque arm in the future. I feel the parts they produce are of good quality. Good welds, and good fit & finish. At least in my case. Everyone has issues with installing parts, so that is not news to me. I do consider that broken part a failure, but I still like the choices I made. Until something makes me change my mind, I am happy with my selection. Happy Modding!

glitch77

I have a BMR stb and non-adjustable panhard, and have had no trouble even while hammering on them (course, the stb is next to useless, aside from being pretty).

Maybe you shouldnt gripe about them here and should call BMR, or are you scared of the phone.

2001CamaroGuy

iTrader: (6)

NICE....LOL..


I have a BMR K-member, race upper a-arm, and rod end LCAs....after 9 months on the K-member/a-arm and 1.5 years on the LCAs, everything is just like it was the day I got it....

stuff brakes...that’s just the way it is.....hell...I have broken TWO of my LG coil-over shocks (the $1,650 set...) just daily driving....LG is STILL trying to figure that one out...(said they have NEVER EVER had someone brake the front ones....kind of fell special...)

WS6FirebirdTA00

iTrader: (33)

i have bmr sfc's, controll arm and i love em, gave me great traction and no wheel hop. im about to buy their non adjustable panhard bar too

BADZ

iTrader: (5)

I was very concerned about weight and heavy duty parts, I had a BMR regular adj tq arm and I snapped it into 2 pieces scaring up 2 brand new ET DRAGS and I turned around and bought the EXTREME Duty Tq arm, why? Not sure but it has been holding up so far but if it breaks, then I will get a MADMAN set up for sure!!! Everything he design's it always strong enough to bring down a house and never breaks!!!!! The phr and the lca's are really lightweight and very strong. He tends to over builds things to stay together but that to me is GREAT insurance and all I can say is that these parts are on some of the fastest 4th GEN ls1 cars today including my soon to be 9 sec car...

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

trackbird

iTrader: (4)

Mitch,

The racer types (road race/autocross) understand use/abuse and not getting killed in the process. For the other 99% of the cars on the road, those parts may last forever. Though, I agree that I was less than impressed with my BMR goodies (the STB works fine) from day one (noisy from the beginning) and terribly unimpressed after a year and seeing the heim joints nearly falling apart, their parts are "good enough" for some guys. They hopefully will never have a problem with part failure (I hope not, that could be ugly). I find the rods themselves to be of reasonable quality, but the Heim joints that they use are designed to maximize profit (though, in all fairness, they may not ever break....they will just sound like they did).

Many of us appreciate your learning the hard way and the resulting warnings, but I guess we can't change the world. I would like to think that these repeated posts would inspire BMR to update their products, but I'm a realist. BMR is making a killing off of $30 in materials and selling it for $199.00 and they are flying out the door....no reason to change. I actually paid about $360 plus freight for my BMR stuff (PHB/LCA's with heim/heim ends) and I bet they had less than $50 in all of it (including paying labor costs). I think we are in the wrong business....


As usual, just my thoughts.....(and ramblings)....

Dom

iTrader: (2)

Well your first mistake was to assume that any aftermarket company comes anywhere near GM as far as engineering, testing, quality control, etc. By exposing BMR you're exposing them all. Do they have anywhere near the engineering staffs, the testing staffs, etc of a car manufacturer? Or is it just one or two guys doing it all with backyard tools. I'm not talking just about BMR, I'm talking about them all. They make something, put it on their car, drive the car. If it kinda works, they paint it cool colors and sell it.

Remember how poly ruled back in the day. Everyone had poly/poly. Did those great companies, anyone of them do any testing on turns with those great poly LCAs? NOT ONE! Not until someone actually brought this to their attention they put up disclaimers that it's not a good choice for cornering. None of them did any testing. This process has not changed. They make something and we being dumb with money to waste, buy it. And they know it.

I wouldn't be surprised if everything aftermarket on my car broke. No company, I don't care what they say, goes through enough testing of those parts. Look how many torque arms from various companies are broken each year. Look at how many leaky headers came out. Look at how many bad cams are there. Look at how many horrible mods are there for sale. How many mods don't work at all yet they are being sold. Why do you think all this aftermarket stuff is so cheap? Money is saved in design and manufacturing and testing.

You are so lucky that you didn't break your LCAs, TA, rear end could have snapped your DS inside your trans, etc. Thank the Lord!

I understand your frustration.

2001CamaroGuy

iTrader: (6)

if/when my rod ends go out on my BMR LCAs, who would be a good company to buy new rod ends from (don't see any point in replacing the rod...just the rod ends...)?

Dom

iTrader: (2)

I believe it's QA1 rods that people replace the rods with when they wear out. The amazing thing is that I had mine for over 2 years and still no noise.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Dom, excellent post ... very insightful and brings together some very good points to think about.

Namely, which manufacturer do we use?

Unfortunately, when attempting to correct suspension geometry after changing parts, like ride height with different spring rates, GM didn't engineer in adjustability. So where does one go?

It has to be to the after market. So chosing the vendor is paramount.

Everyone has their threshold. I've discussed that. That is why I will no longer compromise.

The ONLY vendor I've found that has race designed, engineered and tested suspension parts specifically for a 4th Gen F-Body is LG Motorsports. I know I sound like a commercial for the place, but you just can't argue with results.

Every single time I've had an issue with handling (and now carnage) the answer has been to remove the BMR parts and replace with a quality part.

And for all of those who have these parts installed and still think they are good quality, I promise, here and now, I will not say "I told you so."

glitch77

I was joking mitch. Jost poking fun at myself through you.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Oh I know ... No problem

Scoobie

iTrader: (8)

BMR panhard bar FS

sorry about the incident mitch, thanks for posting up. Us 1le boys bought the car for a reason. Ill take a close look at mine tonight.

14u2nv

I have BMr tubular SFC and have no problems BUT they are just a piece of steel...not a working piece. I think I am going with LG products on my cars though. I hope BMr helps you out in some form.