What's the advantages of using an aftermarket rear LCA?

[subie]

Hi Guys,

Sorry if this has been covered before but I've have been looking around at an aftermarket rear lca for my ek hatch.

What's the advantages of running an aftermarket LCA? any at all or is it mostly for appearance.

what brand would be a best bang for buck?

Thanks in advance

[PHO]

I'd stick with oem unless you have money lying around.

The cheaper skunk2/blox ect are fine, its just that their bushes are not as good/durable as oem. If you wanted a swaybar mount just go to your wreckers and find a ek sedan/ek4/em1/ek1gli rear lca.

Only one i'd consider is function7 (which are pretty pricey and blingy) But they'd be the best bushes out of the bunch, and probably the only ones i'd use over oem (unless replace bushes in oem lca ect).

Because of the material of the F7 bushes, they tend to creak sometimes when going up driveways.

If you wanted budget, just go OEM, and hard race bushes if you wanted the hardened bushes. F7 if you got money to through around (or if you wanted to be able to use eyelet suspension [eg6/dc2r sussy] on your ek)

[PHO]

Oh, advantages

Bling
Bling
Swaybarmount (and sway bar adjustment, most will have Soft/Med/Hard/factory mounting for swaybar)
Weight saving
Bling
Bling

[subie]

Thanks for your inputs PHO, much appreciate

so, I have EK1 GLi, my LCAs should have the sway bar mount brackets right? cause, I'm looking at getting a rear sway bar as well. so, I need subframe brace? and end links?

also, is it ok to run just the rear sway bar? ek1 supposed to have standard front sway bar from factory?

cheers

[curtis265]

pho, repped

[bennjamin]

note that aftermarket LCA's are weaker than OEM parts - and will likely crack in an impact compared to bending like OEM.

[dougie_504]

Personally I've never seen the point of removing a standard LCA that competently does its job.

If you need rsb mount holes then get an oem LCA with them already there. Otherwise a good bush kit makes for a better alternative than something shiny.

Better yet just wire-wheel your oem ones or spray them nice and clean :)

[mugen_ctr]

I think the point of having more Swaybar holes on LCA, isnt for the purpose of making soft or harder setup, but more so allow for fine tuning of the geometry... Getting the links as vertices as possible. Some sway bars are longer or shorter, which can impact on the way the linkages sit and how they transfer the force, having crook links isnt gonna work as well as having parallel links that work in sync, simple physics really

IMO id go for Aftermarket LCA only if u have the adjust ability of a swaybar, (DC2R an Ek9 dont count as they are OEM and are hollow bars AND dont have any adjustments at all), aftermarket linkages than u can fine tune the suspension even more with aftermarket LCA

[subie]

awesome guys, thanks for all inputs