Indian rear suspension arms

neilbaker86 · 5th September 2019, 00:40

I've spent the last month or so attempting to replace the rusty rear suspension arms on my 2005 ZT. What I thought would be a relatively easy job, rapidly turned in to a nightmare.

I purchased a set of 'genuine' arms, only to discover these are now reproduced in India and have a myriad of problems which have been well documented in several posts on this forum.

So I then found some used, but original arms in reasonable condition for sale in Portugal, which I had acid dipped and re-coated. This required the removal and replacement of the rubber bushes which are fitted in the end. I looked on Rimmer Brother's website, and they were indeed available, so I took the easy route and burnt out the old ones, and then used a hacksaw to cut a slot in the sleeve and knocked it out. I then duly purchased two new, genuine bushes (part number RGX101110), and when the arms finally came back, I went to fit them. I even had a bench press and a load of different sizes sockets standing by at the ready, only there was no need to worry about any of that, the damned things pushed straight through the hole!

(The two 'new' arms are the original set I've had re-coated from Portugal, and the two rusty looking ones are the originals removed from my car).

After some head scratching, I noticed the written on the packet for the bushes were the dreaded words 'made in india'.

I took some measurements of the bushes, and some of the hole in the arms. And I then contacted Rimmer Brothers who measured a set of ones they found at the bottom of their parts bin that had 'Made in GB' written on them, these seemed to measure slightly larger than the ones marked as being made in India.

They said they'd get a set out to me, which arrived the next day, I opened the box, only to find that they'd sent me the exact same bushes still with 'made in india' written on them, so I contacted them again and this time we finally got there, a lovely set of bushes marked 'Made in GB', still marked with the exact same part number as the Indian ones (RGX101110), but low and behold, they fit the original arms perfectly. With a nice interference fit.

So not only are X-Part supplying crappy arms that have pressings in the wrong place, welds missing, and springs that don't seat properly, to which they have attempted to get people to 'bodge' by cutting bits off their rubber spring seats. They also have different sized tubes welded on the end and therefore different sized bushes fitted.

They have clearly been royally shafted by this supplier in India who have supplied something that is nowhere near to spec, but it also very apparent that X-Part have performed no quality control inspections themselves whatsoever, and don't even realise that the bushes they are supplying on the same part number which are made in India are a slightly different size to the originals which were made in Great Britain. But neither are compatible. Indian bushes are too small for original arms, and presumably British made bushes will be too big to fit in the new Indian made arms. And they all have the same part numbers!

X-Part are now seemingly supplying utter rubbish, and it is now completely down to chance as to the quality of the parts that you will actually receive.

5th September 2019, 00:40	#1
neilbaker86 Gets stuck in MG ZT Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Oxford Posts: 847 Thanks: 124 Thanked 312 Times in 147 Posts	Indian rear suspension arms I've spent the last month or so attempting to replace the rusty rear suspension arms on my 2005 ZT. What I thought would be a relatively easy job, rapidly turned in to a nightmare. I purchased a set of 'genuine' arms, only to discover these are now reproduced in India and have a myriad of problems which have been well documented in several posts on this forum. So I then found some used, but original arms in reasonable condition for sale in Portugal, which I had acid dipped and re-coated. This required the removal and replacement of the rubber bushes which are fitted in the end. I looked on Rimmer Brother's website, and they were indeed available, so I took the easy route and burnt out the old ones, and then used a hacksaw to cut a slot in the sleeve and knocked it out. I then duly purchased two new, genuine bushes (part number RGX101110), and when the arms finally came back, I went to fit them. I even had a bench press and a load of different sizes sockets standing by at the ready, only there was no need to worry about any of that, the damned things pushed straight through the hole! (The two 'new' arms are the original set I've had re-coated from Portugal, and the two rusty looking ones are the originals removed from my car). After some head scratching, I noticed the written on the packet for the bushes were the dreaded words 'made in india'. I took some measurements of the bushes, and some of the hole in the arms. And I then contacted Rimmer Brothers who measured a set of ones they found at the bottom of their parts bin that had 'Made in GB' written on them, these seemed to measure slightly larger than the ones marked as being made in India. They said they'd get a set out to me, which arrived the next day, I opened the box, only to find that they'd sent me the exact same bushes still with 'made in india' written on them, so I contacted them again and this time we finally got there, a lovely set of bushes marked 'Made in GB', still marked with the exact same part number as the Indian ones (RGX101110), but low and behold, they fit the original arms perfectly. With a nice interference fit. So not only are X-Part supplying crappy arms that have pressings in the wrong place, welds missing, and springs that don't seat properly, to which they have attempted to get people to 'bodge' by cutting bits off their rubber spring seats. They also have different sized tubes welded on the end and therefore different sized bushes fitted. They have clearly been royally shafted by this supplier in India who have supplied something that is nowhere near to spec, but it also very apparent that X-Part have performed no quality control inspections themselves whatsoever, and don't even realise that the bushes they are supplying on the same part number which are made in India are a slightly different size to the originals which were made in Great Britain. But neither are compatible. Indian bushes are too small for original arms, and presumably British made bushes will be too big to fit in the new Indian made arms. And they all have the same part numbers! X-Part are now seemingly supplying utter rubbish, and it is now completely down to chance as to the quality of the parts that you will actually receive.