Front control arms hitting my AP Racing rotors with Buddy Club Ball Joints

[AndyBRZ]

Hey guys, I have AP Racing brakes and STANCE coil-over suspension on my Track BRZ. I recently found that the ball joint in the passenger side was shut. I had factory ball joints in factory control arms. As you all know, they do not sell the ball joint from Subaru anymore, they will try to sell you a complete control arm so I figured to replace both ball joints with the buddy club ones which are designed to actually help out with lowered suspensions. I installed them in my factory front controls arms and to my dismay while installing them, the outer edge of the control arms hit the rotors in both sides. I ended up grinding material out of the side edge of both control arms in order to be able to fully lock turning side to side.
I think it should be fine but honestly I will feel better if I have proper and stronger control arms that do not hit my brakes from the get go.
I thought about spacing my rotors and calipers but I really do not want to do that at all.
I looked at other front control arm options which some are super expensive (Cusco, SPL) but then I saw the MEGAN RACING ones and they seem nice and fairly priced. I have 2 questions:
Has anyone experienced the issue I encountered and have you tried the MEGAN RACING front control arms?
All comments are very welcome. Thank you!

[endless_pain]

Originally Posted by AndyBRZ

Hey guys, I have AP Racing brakes and STANCE coil-over suspension on my Track BRZ. I recently found that the ball joint in the passenger side was shut. I had factory ball joints in factory control arms. As you all know, they do not sell the ball joint from Subaru anymore, they will try to sell you a complete control arm so I figured to replace both ball joints with the buddy club ones which are designed to actually help out with lowered suspensions. I installed them in my factory front controls arms and to my dismay while installing them, the outer edge of the control arms hit the rotors in both sides. I ended up grinding material out of the side edge of both control arms in order to be able to fully lock turning side to side.
I think it should be fine but honestly I will feel better if I have proper and stronger control arms that do not hit my brakes from the get go.
I thought about spacing my rotors and calipers but I really do not want to do that at all.
I looked at other front control arm options which some are super expensive (Cusco, SPL) but then I saw the MEGAN RACING ones and they seem nice and fairly priced. I have 2 questions:
Has anyone experienced the issue I encountered and have you tried the MEGAN RACING front control arms?
All comments are very welcome. Thank you!

I have the Racer X Front LCA which have integrated correction and didn't have a problem with my AP Rotors.
http://racerxfabrication.com/frs-brz...r-control-arms


If you track your car, I would stay away from Megan. The racer X have been very durable in the last 2 years of hard racing.


You could also buy the OEM replacement ball joints:
http://racerxfabrication.com/frs-brz...er-ball-joints


If I didn't have any and had the money, I would get the SPL's, but I'm very happy with my purchase.

[AndyBRZ]

Your advice is very much appreciated. My car has 14,500 miles which about 12,000 are track miles and I drive it hard alright. I just ordered the SPL's. They are the best and they are American made. I liked the Racer - X too but I am sold on the HEIM joints.
I will try to sell the current ones in the car with buddy club ball joints.

[endless_pain]

Originally Posted by AndyBRZ

Your advice is very much appreciated. My car has 14,500 miles which about 12,000 are track miles and I drive it hard alright. I just ordered the SPL's. They are the best and they are American made. I liked the Racer - X too but I am sold on the HEIM joints.
I will try to sell the current ones in the car with buddy club ball joints.

My Racer-X are all spherical except the ball joints. Is the same price for both options.


Good choice. Is worth paying a little more to do it right the first time.

[MINOCIN]

I have the AP Racing Sprint kit and I also encountered rubbing with the Buddy Club ball joints on the oem front lower control arms. I too thought about fabricating some spacers for the calipers (only need about 5-7 mm of space), but I had a track day coming up and an appointment for an alignment the next day so I went back to stock. I decided to revisit the problem the next time I decided to get an alignment.

This was back in August 2016. I should have posted on the forums back then. If anyone else has managed to get the ball joints to work on the stock control arms then I would love to hear how. It looks like you got the spl control arms, very nice, but those control arms are pretty new to market. How were people dealing with this problem before that? Was everyone just buying the racer x control arms or was no one with the AP brake kit buying the buddy club ball joint because they knew it would rub?

[kingkenny]

Just find this now ... I have the same problem , buddy club ball joint rubbing OEM rotor . I think I try to grind the LCA , if anyone has other solution ?

[AndyBRZ]

I ended up shelling the cash for the SPL and I am very pleased.
The HEIM joints give the BRZ telepathic abilities.....

Originally Posted by kingkenny

Just find this now ... I have the same problem , buddy club ball joint rubbing OEM rotor . I think I try to grind the LCA , if anyone has other solution ?

[ka-t_240]

What is rubbing on this?

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by AndyBRZ

I ended up shelling the cash for the SPL and I am very pleased.
The HEIM joints give the BRZ telepathic abilities.....

Yes! People underestimate the effect of sphericals...

[j_motion]

I've just install the buddy club ball joint..
Wish I had read this post earlier ..

Now I'm rubbing on both side ..
How much did you guys shave off in order prevent rubbing ..

I even increase camber to about 5 degree to see if t help...but nope

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

[j_motion]

New update...
I trim 2 to 3mm out of the outter edge of the Control arm off and no more rub.


It seem like buddy club when they sell the whole arm assembly, they already grounded off the edge on their repainted oem arm . (was comparing images yesterday).

[Hyper4mance2k]

The Buddy Club ball joints seem to scrape in all setups without modification. The amount you need to grind off varies by car, by how much camber you're running, and where you're adding camber.

Adding camber with the strut bolt adds much more clearance since you're actually moving the hub in relation to the lower control arm, instead of adding camber at the top-hat which moves the entire assembly together. If you max out the camber with the factory crash bolt, or Whiteline bolt, you may only need to grind off a mm or two.

If you run the stock strut bolts, and are only adjusting camber at the top hat, it's going to need a few mm of grinding up and across the entire front of the arm to get enough clearance from lock-to-lock.