Control arm word of caution

[venturawildes]

Went to replace the front control arms and sway bar bushings on my 2002 C2 Convertible. Got the ones from vertexauto with the replaceable ball joints. Started with the passenger side, easy breazy. Now here is where it goes bad, the control arms on a convertible are different than a coupe. You won't see the difference until you get to the drivers side, there is a sensor mounted on the control arm, the ones that I got from vertex did not have the boss to mount the sensor. What is annoying is that there is no prompt on their website for coupe or convertible. They should know better. Now it's pay the shipping back and wait while car is up on jackstands in the driveway. To me this is just poor service. They should have known better.

[Loren]

The headlight sensor mounts to the lower wishbone not the upper control arm.

Did you mean lower wishbone?

item 3 is the control arm

item 6 in the wishbone

item 18 the headlight sensor (optional)

[venturawildes]

Sorry Loren, lower wishbone. I don't think I can use these as there is no way to mount the sensor. I'm concerned and don't know if I should take the pass side one back off. What a bummer, was really looking forward to seeing what difference new parts made.

[venturawildes]

what is even more annoying is that I just checked the vertex site and the picture they have is the correct lower wishbone.

[venturawildes]

The headlight sensor mounts to the lower wishbone not the upper control arm.

Did you mean lower wishbone?

item 3 is the control arm

item 6 in the wishbone

item 18 the headlight sensor (optional)

Loren, what is the sensor for? I thought it was for the roll bars.

[Loren]

The sensor is for automatic beam adjustment of the B-Xenon headlights (if you have option 601).

There were several wishbone versions so perhaps they gave you an older version?

[Silver_TT]

Vertex has good pricing. The caveat though is that you have to keep an eye on them because sometimes they send older versions of parts. Case in point: I ordered the RMS from them last year and they sent an old version (says my indy), not the latest one which is very good and doesn't leak.

[Dharn55]

The difference is not between the coupe and cab, but between cars with the litronic and the standard headlights.

[venturawildes]

I can't see Porsche making two different sets of wishbones. I can see there being a difference when litronic lights were offered. Regardless, vertex should know better, the sucky part is while yes, they are a bit cheaper, it's a wash when your car sits on jacks for two weeks and you pay shipping twice

Edited August 5, 2012 by venturawildes

[halik]

If the control arm has a hole in the middle part, you can definitely mount the xenon leveller on it. It just needs a small plastic bracket.

[venturawildes]

If the control arm has a hole in the middle part, you can definitely mount the xenon leveller on it. It just needs a small plastic bracket.

No hole where it needs to be, I had thought about going ghetto and zip tying it to the wishbone, but decided against it. This is definitely not a car one can easily work on, sure, once you know the tricks its ok. All about knowing the tricks.

Edited August 5, 2012 by venturawildes

[halik]

If the control arm has a hole in the middle part, you can definitely mount the xenon leveller on it. It just needs a small plastic bracket.

No hole where it needs to be, I had thought about going ghetto and zip tying it to the wishbone, but decided against it. This is definitely not a car one can easily work on, sure, once you know the tricks its ok. All about knowing the tricks.

I guess you could drill it, it's pretty soft aluminu.

[perryinva]

Not sure what boss you mean. Did they actually tell you the one they are sending has a boss on it? I also thought it was just a hole, with the bracket mounted through it.

[venturawildes]

Now I'm used to lousy service, it's the world in which we live. Vertex has somehow managed to transcend into the realm of how they stay in business is beyond me. I ordered lower wishbones with the screw in ball joint, the picture on their website is the correct one, the one with the boss/hole that allows for litronic headlights. Now keep in mind there is no way Porsche would make two different wishbones, so it's a model issue, likely V1 to V2. Ok fine, sent the other back and they put screw in ball joints in, fair enough.

I go to put the drivers side back together and they sent two right hand side sway bar links. Inexcusable. So now I can either deal with them or eat the 40 bucks or so and just go somewhere else. I think I'll go somewhere else.

I would caution against doing business against them. The pennies you save in no way make up for the hassle.

[wvicary]

I've also had many problems dealing with this company.

[venturawildes]

Just really can't begin to say how bad Vertex is, first of all the wishbones are essentially the same price as the TRW ones, as they don't refund the core charge like the are supposed to. Sure the Vertex wishbones have replaceable ball-joints, but really, how big of a deal is this? Plus the Vertex wishbones do not have new bushings, so for the same price you can get new wishbones, with new bushing and ball joints. I actually feel silly ever dealing with them. On the plus side, the sway bar links solved the front end noise. Live and learn.

[mortimersmythe]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd throw my two cents in as a word of caution for others:

I recently bought the rear track (diagonal brace) arms from Vertex Auto for my 986 S. They are the modified ones with urethane on the 'rattle-prone' end. It's a cool idea they had to modify them like this, but they are a real pain to get installed (due to the urethane stiffness) and the dimensions of their modified parts do not fit in the allocated space on the leading mount point (where it mounts to the body). I had to grind the copper colored washer/grommet down substantially to make it fit on the body of the car. The area that requires grinding does not affect the integrity of the part.

Just an FYI for everyone as I know this is a popular replacement part they sell - be prepared to grind the part to make it fit... :(

Edited January 10, 2013 by mortimersmythe