Wicked Tuning RUCA's

[davidarmy]

Just wanted to to let people know that Wicked Tuning just came out with Ruca's for the S14, at 89.00 it seems like a good deal. Circuit Sports is also starting to sell all the normal components for S14 muilti-link suspension. Wicked and CS parts look the same but you can bet that the Circuit Sports are going to cost a lot more.

[TKE SigO 258]

That is one sick 240!!

[IanS]

links, and pix?

[adrianfromthecastle]

is that the rucas you have on your s14?

[s14tan]

what size are those wheels? hottness

[davidarmy]

I'm going to use Wicked components on the car. The Circuit Sports parts I found without prices (coming soon) at Phase2 and the wicked parts where found at Eurosport garage. I have only had a chance to compare pictures and descriptions. I will tell you that in a an effort to save money the wicked stuff looks best. Megan stuff costs more and parts are substandard for the most part. I used megan rear toe rods and they did not even come with spacers for heim joints, they say you have to come up with your own, and bolts don't even fit through spacers that come with tension rods. Megan stuff is going into the trash. first pic wicked second CS
Modified by davidarmy at 11:11 AM 9/27/2007

[RB20DETodd]

they look like your average ebay arms, proly hit a diff paint booth in china before they are shipped out to the usa

[davidarmy]

Just got the Wicked RUCA's today and I can tell you they are the same as the new Circuit Sports arms from Phase2 and A LOT CHEAPER!

[CBARONYC]

word of advice, be careful with WICKED Tuning parts. I got the tie Rods and tie rod ends about 4 months ago and just yesterday my right side tie rod end drop out of its socket. No warning just BAM! thank God I was going less than 5mph or else I would have possibly lost my car or worse my life. And it happened to me during rush hour on woodhaven blvd!!! One of the busiest blvds in Queens NY. I ordered my replacement pair yesterday (both inner and outer TEIN) from 240SXmotoring and got them today. they look legit and strong! I know that a lot of people down talk Tein Rods but c'mon its Tein! they know more than Wicked Tuning.Anyway just a word of advice... BTW nice S14 very clean:)

[RB20DETodd]

hionestly its simple as **** you want quality buy any over 275+anything less uis withg ?????????????????

[AceInhole]

Any pics of the rod end? I know of a case similar to yours where the rod end froze and the liner dropped out. It shouldn't happen as long as you take proper care of the heim.

Knowing that, I'll probably replace mine and run a stronger capture plate (catches the heim if the ball pops out to retain some functionality). They seem to be OK so far, although mine are fully booted and filled with synthetic grease.

[94_240sx]

hionestly its simple as **** you want quality buy any over 275+anything less uis withg ?????????????????

That blue s14 doesn't deserve cheap parts...

[CBARONYC]

AMEN! I totally agree.From now on its only true JDM parts for my S14. Honestly I really believed the hype when I read it on ebay and all of a sudden I was hitting the buy now button. Lesson learned though...

[CBARONYC]

yeah I have one pic I took with my cell, but I cant seem to attach it!?!?!im new to this so how do I do it?Oh and BTW I must have greased the f#$rs at least 4 times... They just failed all of a sudden

[RB20DETodd]

That blue s14 doesn't deserve cheap parts...

maybe cheap rear aero???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[CBARONYC]

That blue s14 doesn't deserve cheap parts...

HES RIGHT!!! Its not worth it. Save up and do straight up JDM parts.Especially steering, suspension or brakes.

[AceInhole]

I'd find out where the parts are sourced for "JDM" peices before going that route. The mark-up on the suspension arms from there seems as though it isn't worth it considering it's likely they outsource heims and hardware from the same places as "lower end" companies.

The best route seems to be the smaller US brands that use standard thread heims from companies like QA1 and Aurora. Although metric heims are available from those companies, they cost about twice as much. Even with expensive heims, expect to replace them a fair amount, so having standard threads would help a lot with that. If you're daring enough to stay with cheaper metric heims, you can get metric rod ends pretty cheap from http://www.midwestcontrol.com . The DXTM-16's that I used in my Motoria arms are rated to some 17,711 lbs.

As for the Wicked rod ends, they seemed decent enough when I looked at them, but I'm assuming they seized in CBARONYC's case. Open faced rod ends require a LOT of maintenance, especially when located in an area that sees a lot of debris such as brake dust. It's also a good idea to keep them captive, in a way that if they pop off, they'll still be retained by some method, even an oversized washer. Still, having seen this happen twice makes me wonder if I should switch to a high-misalignment heim from another brand.

On a final note, if you're switching to spherical bearing rod ends on your suspension, expect to put a LOT of maintenance into them, especially if you don't run boots!! If you've ever been to a club racing event, you'll see people checking, cleaning, and regreasing rod ends on a race to race basis, which is pretty much ALL THE TIME.

[CBARONYC]

Yup! It's true. I suspect that although I did constantly grease my rod ends it wasn't enough for my daily driven s14. Unfortunately, the part that failed is the one that requires the most attention, especially in everyday driving. I drive and slide my s14 HARD and the Wicked Tuning Tie-Rods always held up. No Bends, no cracks and awesome angle adjustment. However, the lack of a boot and cotter pin is its weakness. the construction, finish and look is grade A. But again its not a part to run on a daily driven car. If Wicked Tuning corrected these 2 small deadly issues then the rod-ends would be the one of the best around. But for now im playing it safe and running Tein, most likely tein runs the OEM set up(with boots and cotter pins) but thicker anticipating that 90% of the time their parts are going on daily driven cars that get very dirty and expoesed to all sorts of solvents on the road. They've been on my car since last Thursday and I'm happy with them:) I highly recommend them

[davidarmy]

I understand rod ends and suspension components need a lot of maintanance but I never greased rod ends unless they had a zerk fitting. Some come with rubber boots over the end in order to reduce contaminants. Most ends are self lubricating and only need occational cleaning with a rag.

[AceInhole]

I understand rod ends and suspension components need a lot of maintanance but I never greased rod ends unless they had a zerk fitting. Some come with rubber boots over the end in order to reduce contaminants. Most ends are self lubricating and only need occational cleaning with a rag.

I've always wondered about the reliability of a self-lubricating rod end in a high corrosion, high load/ fatigue environment. It seems as though they're primarily used in applications where regular lubrication or lubrication itself is less than desired, for practical or chemical reasons. When you look at most OEM ball joints (the closest things to spherical bearings), they're generally immersed in grease or have grease fittings. Using full boots filled with grease on non-self lubricating rod ends is about as close as it gets to OEM (or possibly greater) reliability.