Suspension part brands

I am about to buy new inner tie rods and possibly outer tie rod ends for my manual steering rack swap. I notice a huge range of prices for these parts. On a light vehicle like the Miata, but which will be autoX'd fairly hard, how much of a compromise are the low-price options? I see that Moog and OEM are literally 4 times the cost of the fleabay packages, but I wonder if they are 4 times better? I don't want to save cash just to get crap parts, but I also am having trouble deciding if this is simply a name-brand markup or not? Is this about the strength of the metal? Will my alignment go out-of-whack easily with the cheaper tie rods?

No way I'd mess with E-bay no name China junk suspension parts, but I don't like slamming into course workers because of a cheap part failure.

But that's just me. ;)

If your lowered run R-Pack outers. There different.
You can get them from Trussville.

Also try Rockauto.com

Don't cheap out on parts between you and the road.

BTW have you checked www.Rockauto.com for your parts??

I've been doing some suspension work on my Cadillac and they had some darn good prices. I went with all Moog stuff, for similar reasons as I listed above.

Thanks. I've used rockauto in the past, but hadn't thought to look for these there.

DEEZA, MEVOTECH...not familiar with these brands. Any good, or chinese crap?
I do know Spicer from my 4x4 days, and obviously Moog.

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Originally Posted by Rogue

If your lowered run R-Pack outers. There different.
You can get them from Trussville.

Also try Rockauto.com

Don't cheap out on parts between you and the road.

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Oh really now? I'm suprised I did not have a clue the R-package had different outer tie rods. Thanks for the info. I assume that means the inners are not different? I'm about to replace an inner along with my heavily used AGX shocks!

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

DEEZA, MEVOTECH...not familiar with these brands. Any good, or Chinese crap?

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Shot the fine folks at Rockauto a e-mail, see if they can give you more information on those two companies.

Let us know what they say!

Will do.

I've put ebay suspension parts on maybe a dozen vehicles over the past few years. I have never seen any parts that were not safe. If anyone had a failure with the ebay tire rods/ball joints they probably over torqued them.

I rebuilt the front end on the Thunderbird a year or so ago, with Kanter parts.
It is already squeaking and boots are shot.
Crappy Indian parts, which are probably better than China parts.
They were not over torqued and have not "Failed", but I do not want to rebuild it every year.

Lesson learned, and never again.
A failure means your splattered all over the freeway.

I'm inclined to agree that the quality of the ball joint seals is probably affected by the price point. Since this isn't a cruiser or overbuilt P/U, I think the stresses of AUTOX, particularly on steering components, justify spending a bit more. If I was just repairing an old beater I might opt for the cheapies, but its only $25 (pair) more to buy the Spicers and $35 for the Moogs, so I'm gonna go that route. I got the OEM manual steering rack for $100, so this is still a cheaper project than replacing all the missing power steering components and hoping the power rack doesn't have other issues from being run dry w/o the holes plugged for ?? months/years. I definitely know I'm going to enjoy the manual steering more than power on the track.

I've been driving my manual steering car about a year now and I can tell you it is a real bear to drive if the alignment isn't perfect. I had too much toe in and it would jerk the wheel out of your hands coming out of a corner and never really take a set requiring constant heavy input through the corner. I know everybody says to use all the caster you can get without compromising the camber but I think you can overdo it in a manual steering car.
After last season my front tires had the most wear on the outside edge and was even on the rear. Trying more camber this year and a little less caster. I also bought a probe style pyrometer, probably as a toy because I don't know what I'm doing with it, but I'm trying to learn. With new shocks, bump stops and front sway bar this year I will be starting from scratch.

Interesting creek. I may ask you for any specific hints or suggestions I would want to give to the alignment person (BAM AJ) before I get mine done.

I wouldn't presume to tell AJ anything about alignment on a Miata.:D
I'm just hunting for a black cat in a coal bin on a dark night.

Oh I see. I didn't know if AJ would already know what he would want to do differently for my specific car or what differences would be needed for a manual steering car but I should have just assumed that because of how highly he is regarded and recommended on here that he's the best around and will already know exactly how to get the most out of an alignment on my individual car.

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Originally Posted by creek

I've been driving my manual steering car about a year now and I can tell you it is a real bear to drive if the alignment isn't perfect. I had too much toe in and it would jerk the wheel out of your hands coming out of a corner and never really take a set requiring constant heavy input through the corner. I know everybody says to use all the caster you can get without compromising the camber but I think you can overdo it in a manual steering car.
After last season my front tires had the most wear on the outside edge and was even on the rear. Trying more camber this year and a little less caster. I also bought a probe style pyrometer, probably as a toy because I don't know what I'm doing with it, but I'm trying to learn. With new shocks, bump stops and front sway bar this year I will be starting from scratch.

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I agree, Paul.
I also think the manual rack is one of the best mods I have done.

From RockAuto Customer Service:

Good Afternoon Michael,

Deeza and Mevotech are fairly new brands for our company, however, we have had
positive feedback with them so far. Beck/Arnley is a popular distributor that
often carries several different brands under their own name. These are
typically OEM standard or higher and have also received positive comments from
customers. If we find a particular brand to be a problem or issue in terms of
inventory, we typically pull them from our catalog. Please let us know if you
have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Christopher
RockAuto Customer Service

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Originally Posted by creek

I wouldn't presume to tell AJ anything about alignment on a Miata.:D
I'm just hunting for a black cat in a coal bin on a dark night.

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Depends, I have a specific alignment for my daily car that is aggressive and then one for the Spec Car. And I know autox probably wants something else.