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TC Sportline RUCA's...

6K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  XCLR8TN 
#1 ·


Ok so I've been running these arms for 17,xxx miles.

Here are my main gripes about the TCs. And I'm not the only one having these issues, other people have consequently taken them off of their cars, because there is not a solution (doward, darkdrifter).

-They contact the subframe on bumps/dips. When they contact the subframe, there is no longer any travel. Since there is no travel, all of the momentum of the impact gets transferred to the adjustment bolt. Think... your control arm is now a solid, non-moving piece. Naturally, something has to give. And give it does. After repeated hits, the bolt bends. So far I think I am the only person that has managed to BREAK a bolt. And thank God I was going slow when it happened. When the bolt breaks, you have nothing keeping your camber in check. The top of your wheel/tire hits the inner fender on the inside, the subframe. There's a nice piece of sharp metal at that location, coincidentally. At high speeds, I'd be surprised if it didn't blow the tire immediately. I was only going 25-30mph.









I contacted grinder, who I bought the arms from, and they had TC send me a replacement adjustment bolt (it's welded onto the piece that attaches at the knuckle).

All was well until I decided to check on it a week later. The bolt was bent. That's when I figured out what was happening. The bolt just bends and bends and bends till it breaks.

I figured I could grind away a bit of my subframe where the contact was happening. So I did. Painted where I ground off material, installed everythign again, checked it again a week later. STILL HITTING. Ground some more, and it was as much as you can possibly grind away. Checked a week later. Still hitting.

There's nothing more I can do. I still hit on bumps. I took my old adjustment bolt and drilled it out of the mount for the knuckle (the U-shaped piece in pictures) and had a guy at work weld in a high strength bolt. I haven't noticed it bending at all yet. I have .25" of clearance between the TC arm and the subframe, even after grinding material away.

Here's where the arm hits:




Here's where it breaks:


And here's WHY it hits:



I am also having issues with their choice of bearing. I'm assuming that where it mounts in the subframe, their weird ball/cone type bearing is supposed to rotate. Except it refuses to. So now my entire control arm assembly is rotating within the subframe. Steel on steel, which is eating away at my subframe ears. I have no clue how long before the damage is irreversible. I thought about figuring out how to make a stock bushing fit in there, but the tubes are so much smaller than stock, and I'd still have the other issues.

I also had issues with the nuts backing off. I got my alignment done right after doing all my suspension work, and did a road rally. At the end, my right rear had like -6* of camber! The nut had backed off. I took it back and they locktighted the nuts. After replacing the first adjustment bolt, I locktighted with the blue compound. The nut backed off within a day. So I red locktighted. I can still here them making noise, it's from the threads being loose within the other threads. Whether or not that's from running them when they were loose until I could fix it remains to be determined.

The problem I have with all of this is, TC obviously didn't do their homework. The people who bought their **** are doing their R&D work for them. Or so I thought. I emailed grinder, got the phone # of the guy from TC who sent me that replacement bolt, and I called him. He told me to send the pics I've taken to info@tcsportline.com. Did I ever hear back? Nope. So apparently they don't give a ****, they're selling them and making money.

FWIW, I'm at 11" all around, with -2* of camber. Also, these arms weigh a little bit more than the stock arms.
 
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#3 ·
this is all great info. great pic showing what happens.
these are sitting in my garage right now because of this.
 
#4 ·
holy ****, Jess. This is horrible. Maybe the best bad-review thread I've ever read, though! Great pix and info. Perhaps this sort of this sort of thing should be stickied?

So why would you run this instead of the stock A-arm? I'm at 11.25" rear and -2.8 camber. That's not too much camber IMHO and... well... stock a-arms FTW? For the price you're paying for that .8 degrees of camber, I'd have ripped these a-arms out a while ago.
 
#7 ·
I was really trying to get away with a lot less negative camber lol. I had those Toyos that were pretty sticky and didn't want to wear the insides out fast. Turns out -2 is perfect for my driving style, the tire didn't wear unevenly at all (well, a little on the middle, but I think that's because the tire is a little wide for a 7" rim even tho it's a 195).

I'll have to see if I can get someone to mess around with the stock arms and get somewhere close to -2 :-/

Or just buy those AWRs and see if they have enough adjustment.

Or just wait till next year to worry about it lol.

I hope this thread helps potential buyers.
 
#6 ·
****, for the amount of trouble, I might decide to make some adjustable RUCAs of my own out of the stock arms. That's kind of lame on their part, but at least they sent you a new set. You'd figure they'd have a notch or a j-arm setup, but I guess most that run these aren't as slammed as we are in the community where it causes clearance issues and breakage. I'll have to check my stock arms and crossmember for wear now.
 
#8 ·
****, for the amount of trouble, I might decide to make some adjustable RUCAs of my own out of the stock arms. That's kind of lame on their part, but at least they sent you a new set. You'd figure they'd have a notch or a j-arm setup, but I guess most that run these aren't as slammed as we are in the community where it causes clearance issues and breakage. I'll have to check my stock arms and crossmember for wear now.
they just sent me that little piece that broke. i want chelsea to make some baller one arm pieces like the 240s have had for a while.
 
#12 ·
Sorry to hear that Jess. I tried my best talking to them into replacing them for you but all I got are those threaded parts. Also I have to bug them almost everyday for 2 weeks before I can get those replacement parts. I stopped dealing with them after that. Again, I'm sorry!

Mike
 
#13 ·
Sorry to hear that Jess. I tried my best talking to them into replacing them for you but all I got are those threaded parts. Also I have to bug them almost everyday for 2 weeks before I can get those replacement parts. I stopped dealing with them after that. Again, I'm sorry!

Mike
Oh, I totally understand. You did everything you could, and did it damn good. I understand the suckage is on their part.
No need to be sorry, I just wish they would have done more R&D on their part.
 
#14 ·
fwiw I was at -4(ish) before the arms, and got to -1.5 with them.
that part was pretty rad. then there was the bending thing, and it was pretty not rad.
 
#19 ·
I took them off the other day, sick of the noise and the car was down for the turbo install.

The "teflon-lined pillowball mounts" they use had completely seized. They refused to turn in any direction, which is why the whole arm chose (didn't really have a choice tho) to turn within the subframe.

I'll post pics later, I tried to clean them up some to see if they'd rotate, but the ball itself is rusted and has a groove.
 
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