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Full Version: Radius Arm Bushes
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Im putting this out there as frankly after a brief interaction with Ed from DeloreanEurope, i think Ed is a bit of a charlatan.

If anyone is using his bushes, I urge you to check them. I saw a few people mention to me how thiers have failed so I checked mine and guess what? Theyve failed too and quite horrifically. 
All Ed did was blame me for driving hard or making my car powerful and claim in 9 years he has known none to fail. Utter BS! I dont drive my car hard and its a stock car. I have a freeflow exhaust as the only deviation from stock so not exactly a turbo. 
Ive also been messaged by an american vendor who've said in the last 2 years, they have seen at least 60 of these fail. I feel Ed knows exactly what he is selling and he is selling a part prone to failure quickly.

Best avoided if you can. Ive put in a NOS one so will keep an eye on these but from what Ive been told, these are far superior to what Ed supplies. Ill be changing the passenger side one tomorrow. 

Heres the drivers side I removed today...

[attachment=944]
[attachment=945]

And before anyone mentions it, having the rear suspension under load or not makes no difference. They will fail either way.
It certainly is strange. There is a history of clearly things being made to a price, rather than a proper spec for remade parts, but when it comes to safety related items, you'd definitely expect parts to be made properly, irrespective of what they will then cost the consumer to buy them. I'm sure everyone out there in the community would be prepared to put their money on to properly priced quality parts, meaning "do the job once" rather than using inferior cheap part causing rework (i really hate rework).

I've yet to refurb my rear end (ohh la la), so i'm still sitting on a back ends worth of superflex bushes, including radius arm ones. I'm hoping i don't have any issues with those when i finally get around to fitting them. I did the front end around 5yrs ago, and i'm very pleased with those. So fingers crossed for having the same results at the rear.
I have watched the Facebook post on this with great interest, as I also mentioned it's a huge shame that this is not just related to specific DeLorean parts. As some will know I have interests in other classics as well and unfortunately other marques are suffering similar issues with repro-parts. 
Indeed my newly manufactured clutch master cylinder I bought (about 8 years ago)  from Ed lasted the grand total of 14 months before failing! I have since fitted a sleeved original. This is also one of the reasons (amongst other things such as D-Go doing such a good job) of longer supplying parts, other than a few specific ones that were assured and could be traced and warranted by the manufacturer.
Our club insurance costs enough as it is without the worry of a safety critical part failing on someone and the consequences that this may incur for the driver and any by-standers. And this is what the suppliers/manufacturers need to be aware of, it's not just the driver and our cars it's potentially innocent people that can be injured or even killed.
Hopefully Ed will address this and get on to his suppliers to correct it, he's a good guy so I'm sure he will.
Chris
A brief update...

I have been made aware of some new information I wasnt aware of previous. My assertion of charlatan may very well be untrue and unworthy and I was likely speaking out of anger.

Firstly, the american vendor in question may very well have lied to me. Secondly, the way Ed replied to me I think is understandable due to some circumstances I wont mention as its not my place but I can relate.

So Ed, i apologise for the way I have gone about things and as such I have messaged him with an apology and hopefully something good will come out of this.

With all that aside, I still feel that these bushings need to be addressed. These arent just failing in LS swapped deloreans but stock ones too. Hopefully Ed will reply to my email and we can sort this. Im not looking for replacements (I bought NOS ones) or a refund. Im hoping these can be strengthened or maybe they were just a bad batch. I dont know.

From my new understanding, Ed has improved on some of his products and is a community guy so with a bit of luck these can be improved also.
That's good news, hopefully he will address the faulty ones.
Chris
Thats a shocking failure, but like Chris I've known Ed a long time, and he is a good guy, but sometimes
things get lost in translation which doesn't help.

Hope things get resolved to everyones satisfaction.