Suspension parts, $ vs. Quality?
 

So I'm planning to rebuild my entire suspension someday...

And in comparing parts I see...

TRW lower control are about 100$, vs OEM @ about 400$!!!

so are the TRW 1/4 as good. or the OEM 4 times as strong???

Is there any opinion out there as to any differences?

longevity? fitment issues?

examples of good and bad wanted, please.
and and specific suppliers or parts that stand out as being better,
or, conversely, any parts that should stay OEM? (& why)

thx, matt

No real comparison for you, but look up who makes the parts for porsche ... TRW.
Does that mean they are exactly the same? No, but the quality its probably pretty damn close. So maybe TRW is 90% of the OEM quality for 25% of the price... I always go with TRW when that's the ratio.

Porsche makes 4x the profit. Its that simple. :)

I just replaced all my rear suspension arms with lowest cost from Rock Auto. No fit issues and everything appeared high quality. I went with the vertex rebuilt trailing arms. I was able to do all the rear arms, drop links and brakes for <$900.

As long as you stay away from crappy aftermarket suspension parts sellers like Deutsch Parts I'm betting the suspension parts are a good value for the money.

Frankly, I've gone to just buying good used suspension parts from Woody. They won't last as long, but at his cheap prices I can afford to swap one or two out on a Saturday when needed.

From experience, I would definitely recommend against going with the cheapest available as Randall mentions above.

My front control arms wore out after years of service and I replaced them with a cheap pair. That pair was completely shot in under a year. I replaced them junk with TRW parts and they are in great shape after a couple years.

No the're not exactly the same, they have the porsche logo ground off :D

It was my belief that TRW and Porsche OEM are the same.
It took 6-8 months waiting for TRW inventory to finally be available to replace my front lower control arms. This is going to be your biggest problem with TRW is availability
Seems maybe TRW is limiting what they sell to the public and supplying it to Porsche because there was never a shortage of $450 Org Porsche lower control arms. Maybe their in on the extra $$$

How do you like the Vertex trailing arms ? These are the ones with the polyurethane bushings ?

Yes. They seem to be high quality. I've used urethane bushings before with good results and I was surprised there wasn't a kit for this.

I didn't have much trouble with installation. The first one took me about an hour and the 2nd one only about 20 minutes. These arms seem to have been the culprits for the worst of my clicks and clacks. All quiet after the change.

I am about to rip mine out and recycle the aluminum. The poly bushings aren't nearly as vibration and sound absorbing as the rubber used in the factory ones and they RATTLE when I go over bumps now after 2 years of light DD use and a couple of DE's.

They were quiet for the first year or so and then started making a racket and it's gotten louder and louder.