Upper Strut Bearing question

[BillWilliams]

The ones with the shorter bolts are from an e-21. That is the way to go. You cut your forearms with those longer ones in place. Yeah, a Dremel with a cut off wheel will cut the longer ones, but just start with the shorter ones for sure.

The washer positioning and order is CRITICAL for a quiet front end. One washer missing or out of place will cause a clunk that will make you think your shocks are coming through the fenders.

[zane]

I just got a response from BavAuto and they say the upper strut bearings they have now are right off the shelf from Germany. Not sure what to think at the moment.

That's BS, just ordered a set of bearings from BavAuto and they were made in Taiwan.

[BLUNT]

I just got a response from BavAuto and they say the upper strut bearings they have now are right off the shelf from Germany. Not sure what to think at the moment.

That's BS, just ordered a set of bearings from BavAuto and they were made in Taiwan.

thats probably true and its also possible bavauto is telling the truth. world pac contracts with a lot of manufacturers to get the cheapest stuff they can. i bet they have a bin full of german,chinese,india taiwan and who knows what else strut bearings. im only assuming but i bet scott has a working knowledge of how they do it.

[FunElan]

Can the shorter studs still accommodate a strut brace??

[BillWilliams]

yes

[FunElan]

I'm reviving this thread because this problem happened again after 2 years of use on bearings-not from BavAuto. Is there something in the suspension geometry that can cause premature wear, or should I just go with OE? I"m afraid to spend more money on the OE if there is a bigger problem.

-Matt

[c.d.iesel]

yup - that rubber looks like 35 years old

but maybe you drive like a madman over potholes, sever

road conditions and yumps which might explain

the excellarated wear

and put a flat washer under those nuts

[OriginalOwner]

Fun,

go over to Mesa Performance and talk to Spence, he's a wealth of info about a lot of things.

for a SoCal car, I'm surprised at that rubber cracking/tearing like that, I don't think it is a "local weather induced" failure since I've never had the problem. It's got me scratching my head ....

Cheers,

Carl

[Zenon]

About 5-6 years ago, I bought some upper strut bearings from BAS. They were branded Meyle. No mistake in installation, the bearing turned freely. However, when the car was lowered onto the wheels, the rubber was so soft they deformed enough to let the top spring plate contact the body and steering was almost impossible.

Clearly, there was no chance of these parts ever working since they were made with absolutely the wrong material. Bavarian said they had had no problems before me but refunded the purchase price and I ended up using some old ones that were still OK after the bearings were cleaned and re-lubed.

All that is just to say that there is a lot of crap on the market these days and sometimes even the reputable sellers can't tell (don't care?) they are getting incompetent or outright counterfeit goods. Seems to be especially bad for parts involving rubber. I'd also bet that critical suspension parts that were originally made of hi-grade performance-tested and certified materials are now repro'd or counterfeited with recycled mystery metal. Be very careful out there...

[bruno615]

I recently installed the Bav Auto strut bearings. No issues so far, but I do remember thinking to myself that the rubber seemed cruddy. We will have to see how it lasts with time.

[OriginalOwner]

about 4 years ago I bought new ones from 2002AD ..... so far no problems. Based on the info here, I'll be certain to keep a close eye on 'em.

Cheers,

Carl

[JohnS]

This makes me glad that I sprung for the OEM BMW strut bearings from Blunt. Mine have been on my daily driver for about a month and have no signs of cracking. The plastic dust covers also fit correctly on the OEM bearings too.

[AceAndrew]

This makes me glad that I sprung for the OEM BMW strut bearings

BavAuto, Blunt, Ireland Eng. are all going to be ordering from one of a few warehouse syndicates (Worldpac, imc, ssf, etc.) these warehouses make high volume purchases from the manufactures (meyle, Lemfordeor, etc.) these manufacturers can also supply BMW themselves (hence OEM). The manufacturers will have individual factories all over the world (spain, china, turkey, india, germany, mexico) etc.

So when.... say.... Meyle runs a batch of strut bearings (meaning they don't constantly make a slow stream of bearings, this would be highly time consuming and uneconomical) the bearings you receive can be either very fresh to fairly old depending how long they've sat on the warehouse's shelf and there is NO way for blunt, bavauto, IE to be able to tell you that.

For country of where the part was made..... these can also change depending on which factory was tooled up (or most cost effective) for the manufacturer. For example the "meyle' strut bearings which were once made in Germany are now made in Turkey. And any 'SKF' wheel bearings could now come from spain, china, mexico, or many other countries. The OEM motor mounts are now made from a noticeably softer rubber compound (though I cannot remember which country)

This is basic production, it's always changing, so your chinese guibo's might be usa made the next month.

[FunElan]

I'm debating going KMACs. Anyone like these over OEM?

[JohnS]

This makes me glad that I sprung for the OEM BMW strut bearings

Considering the OEM pieces are now made in Turkey that's not much consolation.

I guess I must have lucked out since mine were labeled "Made in Germany". They were the ones with the short 18mm studs. BMW Part#31 33 1 110 195. They had a little BMW logo molded into the rubber. I used them along with the fixed camber plates from you guys (Ireland Engineering). So far, so good. Keeping my fingers crossed that they last...