Front Control Arms

[mike740B58]

Has anyone installed front control arms made in China? Just wondering if the quality is good or is it better to stick with factory ones from Germany?

There are some on eBay selling for half the cost of the factory ones.

[Googsy]

I would stick with the originals .

[mike740B58]

Agreed, I found a site selling Authentic BMW parts wholesale at a lower price with no sales tax!

[TENCHI]

Originally Posted by mike740B58

Agreed, I found a site selling Authentic BMW parts wholesale at a lower price with no sales tax!

link?

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by mike740B58

Agreed, I found a site selling Authentic BMW parts wholesale at a lower price with no sales tax!

I don't know how readily the information is available since I have not looked, but do you know who makes BMWs' suspension parts? BMW doesn't. When I owned a Mercedes, it was well known that a German company called Lemforder made the suspension parts for my car. You could readily order Lemforder-branded parts online for half the price and they are literally identical.

[AlteBMW]

Originally Posted by Opie55

I don't know how readily the information is available since I have not looked, but do you know who makes BMWs' suspension parts? BMW doesn't. When I owned a Mercedes, it was well known that a German company called Lemforder made the suspension parts for my car. You could readily order Lemforder-branded parts online for half the price and they are literally identical.

Great idea. I would do that before buying a knock off from China (or anywhere else for that matter). But how do you find out who the actual manufacturer of OEM parts is?

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by AlteBMW

Great idea. I would do that before buying a knock off from China (or anywhere else for that matter). But how do you find out who the actual manufacturer of OEM parts is?

I would Google a few searches and see if it's out there. The Lemforder info was common knowledge on the Mercedes forums, but how it became known originally I do not know. I would also go on various aftermarket parts sites like Pelican Parts and see what brands of that part they sell. They typically will sell the BMW-branded part and several others, and if one of those is the OEM maker the Pelican site will say that. But there are typically a number of choices between a BMW-branded part and a Chinese part. Much like people do not hesitate to replace BMW brake rotors with Zimmerman rotors because they are a high quality German company, I would not hesitate to replace my suspension parts with parts from a similar company like Lemforder even if they do not supply the parts to BMW.