alright... i have had numerous requests for a review and comparison of the Chassis Tech upper control arms with camber plate that i puchased and used in my build thread.
THESE ARE AVAILABLE FOR 3rd, 4th and 5th gen preludes.
THIS REVIEW IS ON A 4th GEN!
comparison picture between oem and Chassis Tech.
the Chassis Tech unit feels slightly heavier then the OEM unit. this is expected considering it is made of thick steel and has a large camber plate with matching hardware.
you can also see that the Chassis Tech is slightly longer. This created a bit of an issue... this is explained below.
as you can see, the welds are pretty clean/decent. it also uses some pretty heavy duty hardware.
the chassis tech obviously come with a new ball joint, so for the price you are definitely getting your moneys worth.
the adjustment is a quoted +2.5 to -2.5 which is the best front camber adjustment offered for the prelude.
it is also very solid.. i dont see this thing breaking. and after 6 months of use it has held up very well.
these pieces are not all perfect.. getting the joints in place can be a bit tricky because it is a tight fit on some. with a rubber mallet you can knock them into place though.
after using these Chassis Tech control arms on my 94 JDM prelude and also just recently installing them on my brothers 1995 USDM prelude i have come to the conclusion that these arms are somewhat poorly assembled. i am sure the company has to be using a jig of some sort to make sure all of the arms are build the same but they either rush or the jig isnt very effecient. the outter piece that holds the camber plate in place seems to be in a slightly different location, like it was guess fitting and then they just welded it in place. it is not noticeably off (as far as looking at them go) though so the difference is very minimal. however... my brother ran into rubbing issues. the inside of the shock tower was rubbing really bad on both edges of the portion that the camber plate bolts onto (see picture below). my brother and i are both running the same suspension and the same ride height.
to start with you can see that with the Chassis Tech arm being longer then the OEM arm is creates a tiny bit of a clearance issue. the arm may rest on this little section circled below when lowering the car off the jack stand after installation. this is not a big deal. if you take a hammer and knock spine out just a hair it clears with ease. this is not an issue when the car is being driven... only when you are lowering the car back down after having it in the air.
here is the clearance issue. we couldnt source the problem of the rubbing (squeeking noise for about a week and a half). we thought it was the upper control arm bushings we we replaced those with poly bushings and grease fittings. this wasnt the issue. as shown below you can see where the edge of the metal on both outter corners (circled in red) were rubbing against the inside of the shock tower.
to remedy this we took the suspension off and took a mallet to the inner fender. after a few good hits the UCAs cleared with no more rubbing issue. the inner shock tower is double layered and the layers are spaced out from eachother. knocking in the inner portion a little will not effect the outter shock tower so this will not be visible in the bay.
overall i like the Chassis Tech arms. they are very sturdy, extremely well priced, it offers the most camber adjustment available for preludes, it comes with a new ball joint, and they have numerous powder coat options for a minimal additional $15 cost. the company also has good customer service from what ive had to deal with.
the price when i purchased them was $125 with $15 for powder coating and free s/h.
this price has gone up over the past year and is now $144.95 with $15 powder coating and $9.99 s/h.
but still for $170 you are getting a new ball joint, maximum camber adjustment and a strong UCA. compared to SPC ball joint camber kits (which i am running in the rear of my lude, so is my brother) which are normally around $150 for 2 and offer -1.5 to +1.5 of camber or ingalls camber kits which replace the UCA bushings that cost around the same price but only offer +.75 to -.75 of camber these UCAs are very well priced.
WARNING: if by chance you are trying to get even more camber adjustment for some reason. the ingalls camber kits that replace the UCA bushings will not work when using Chassis Tech UCAs... it pushed the arms out a little bit farther even on the lowest setting and the UCA will not clear and your car all be resting on top of the arm (i tested this). however, replacing the ball joint on the Chassis Tech arm with a SPC ball joint camber kit should, in theory, allow an additional -1.5 to +1.5 of camber. however i dont know if this will create clearance issues.
these can be purchased off ebay: (the sellers name is: pricebusterchris)
92-96 Honda Prelude 4 Degree Adjustable Control Arms : eBay Motors (item 370137942458 end time Feb-23-10 16:35:18 PST)
or you can go onto their distributers site:
upper lower control arms
if anyone has any further questions or concerns let me know and i will do my best to answer them.
i hope this helps for those who are interested.
thanks for looking.
_zac
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