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Aftermarket Front Endlinks Annoy Me.
Long component life is important to me. Having to pay a premium for a shorter lifespan is something I prefer to avoid with all of my cars. So I don't use too many aftermarket parts unless the operating cost is well understood. A place where this has been most challenging has been front end links.
With my previous M3 and current M2C, I went through several brand/designs and none of them would last for more than 12 months before clunking. Only OE links would last and be quiet.
The failure point would always be the upper spherical bearing itself which would produce play (even reproduceable by hand) and would get magnified with the car's mass pushing and pulling.
In my final search for a front link that I could corner balance with, I installed SPL's product. Looks like a black version of Turner's. They have a much larger ball which is promising and they've spaced out the stud head from the shock mount so that a normal wrench can be used which is a big plus.
So I installed one on the driver's side. On the passenger side, I still have the OE link (which is still quiet). This way, if the current SPL link fails, I can then install the second one to get double the life, haha.
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