[Clipse3GT]

So I figured I would start a thread regarding this...

I put on the Whiteline RCA kit at about 5k miles with my new Swift springs.

We are now at about 46k miles and finally the kit is worn to the point of needing replacing.

I needed to replace both outer tie-rods. The drivers side was the worst with over 1cm of play on the wheel laterally side to side.

The ball joint themselves are in WNL condition. But, the boots are starting to show wear and some superficial cracking. Again, I replaced the tie-rods. But I might as well replace the ball joints as well and replace the entire kit.

Again I drive through winter, summer, autoX, track, bumpy Cleveland roads. Again, I would have expected this kit to last longer. I am slightly disappointed in regards that it needs replacing so soon.

The tie-rods themselves has extreme amount of play in them... ball joints are still okay. Just worn down a bit.

Luckily I had a spare kit so I will just swap it. But it is just a warning to check your tie-rods since they do go bad even with "RACE" components.

 

[SiliconTek]

I am glad you posted this, I was about to drop some bones on these. So far the stockers have lasted me just fine. Maybe reconsider these until the stockers fail.

 

[Clipse3GT]

I am glad you posted this, I was about to drop some bones on these. So far the stockers have lasted me just fine. Maybe reconsider these until the stockers fail.

Yeah, I don't think I would consider this keep beefer than the stock components. I think they are just about the same quality expect this one changes the steering geometry. In the end. It is a nice kit. Any really if you had to replace a ball joint or tie-rods for stock components again. This kit might be cheaper than the dealership OEM components.

I am just a bit surprised the tie-rods went out so quickly and they do start clunking over slow speed bumps plus the steering felt a bit sloppy when they started to go out. I wanted to last the rest of winter. But have no choice but to replace them early instead of damaging any other components and wearing the tires more.

 

[SiliconTek]

I am sure they are cheaper than stock. I am leaning towards the Moonface A-arms but I cannot find any info on them. They are JDM pricey but nice units. I am sure I will sucker up and get the WL RCK though...sigh.

 

[jimmi]

Mine is still good. How much is down to driving the car through Cleveland winters?

People down south or out west likely will fair better.

 

[Ryan P]

So I figured I would start a thread regarding this...

I put on the Whiteline RCA kit at about 5k miles with my new Swift springs.

We are now at about 46k miles and finally the kit is worn to the point of needing replacing.

I needed to replace both outer tie-rods. The drivers side was the worst with over 1cm of play on the wheel laterally side to side.

The ball joint themselves are in WNL condition. But, the boots are starting to show wear and some superficial cracking. Again, I replaced the tie-rods. But I might as well replace the ball joints as well and replace the entire kit.

Again I drive through winter, summer, autoX, track, bumpy Cleveland roads. Again, I would have expected this kit to last longer. I am slightly disappointed in regards that it needs replacing so soon.

The tie-rods themselves has extreme amount of play in them... ball joints are still okay. Just worn down a bit.

Luckily I had a spare kit so I will just swap it. But it is just a warning to check your tie-rods since they do go bad even with "RACE" components.

I posted a thread regarding this very issue over on the "other" site. I had a set on my IX and they lasted even less. Maybe 25k miles. In my case though it was the ball joints that went first. The boots on the ball joints were severely deteriorated, and one had started to clunk. The boots on the tie rods were also shot. I was pretty upset about the whole issue and contacted whiteline directly. Surprisingly, they stood behind their product and sent me a new set free of charge. This was after the car had been through two winters and over 25k miles. I was very pleased with their service. HOWEVER, I don't think I'd ever use them again, as I don't want to have to do that job more than once.

I reinstalled the new set that I got and within 6 months the grease inside the ball joint boot was black and the whole thing just felt gritty when you moved it (I pulled the spindle to change a bearing some time after installing the new ones). I drilled though the bottom of the ball joint and put in a grease fitting and greased them regularly after that. The boots don't do a good job of keeping out contaminants, they also don't last for shit when exposed to inclement weather. I won't be putting a set on my X. They aren't that great of a product. Their service is great though.

Some pics of what two year old ball joints boots looked like. Supposedly they have updated the material with something that holds up better. They also said that mine probably failed quicker than normal because I didn't run a brake rotor shield. I could agree with that, however I've not heard of any complaints with the stock boots failing for that same reason. Reusing the stock boots would be your best bet....if you can.

 

[Ryan P]

Another thing to note. A lot of people use them on the IX's because the lower ball joints aren't available as a separate component. You can only get them with the complete A-arm. Not sure if that is the case with the X's.

 

[jimmi]

Looks like you took your brake shields off. The extra heat can melt the boots leading to dust ect getting into the joints and increasing wear.

Have heard this happening on several cars without shields.

 

[Ryan P]

Looks like you took your brake shields off. The extra heat can melt the boots leading to dust ect getting into the joints and increasing wear.

Have heard this happening on several cars without shields.

True, and I noted that, but I put them back on for the second set. You could tell a whole lot of crap had already worked it's way into the joint. That is why I put in the grease fitting and pushed it all out from the bottom up. I also tie wrapped the top side of the boot to tighten the seal around the post.

 

[jyamona]

My RCK has been installed for about 12k miles now and two winters. I'll have to give it a close inspection.

 

[hollywood_X]

Good info, hopefully others with different mileage can post up some pics as well.