Aluminum strut rods on the street?
Your opinion.
Nothing wrong with the aluminum ones. I drive the crap out of my car, dirt roads, pot holes, rain, shine, snow etc, and have had no issues with these. Which is not something I can say about some of my other suspension components- these strut rods have survived the failure of a weld on one of my CAP lower control arms, as well as outlasted the rod ends on my Hotchkis UCA's (only 7k miles on those, replaced by Hotchkis at no cost to me).
That said, compared to the set of moly adjustable strut rods I bought for my Duster, there isn't a ton of weight savings with the aluminum strut rods. Both the moly and aluminum version are quite a bit lighter than the original strut rods, but by comparison the aluminum ones have a thicker wall than the moly ones do, so there isn't as much weight savings as you might think vs the steel strut rods.
I'd still buy Badart's stuff though vs Mancini's/QA1's, he does great work and I'd rather support another FABO member.
**UPDATE**
Sorry, didn't see that. I was referring to the adjustable style, wasn't aware that Mancini had a non-adjustable aluminum style strut rod. No experience with those, but I don't see the point. The tubular adjustable style in aluminum or moly is probably just as light, and the real advantage to the aftermarket strut rods is their adjustability, not their weight anyway. Unlike the original style you can actually use the adjustables with poly or nylon LCA bushings and still maintain the proper adjustment on the strut rods. I wouldn't use the stock strut rods on anything other than perfectly stock LCA's with stock rubber bushings. Even then, I think an argument can be made for the adjustable strut rods because you can adjust them to the proper tension regardless of your suspension set up, factory tolerances (lack thereof) etc.
These are the ones you're talking about right?
From Mancini:
• Aluminum struts are CNC machined to correct length and tolerances using 7075-T651 material and are .875 inch diameter compared to about .700 for the original steel struts
• Weight is 36 percent as much as the equivalent amount of steel
• These struts are stronger and lighter than the original steel components.
Your opinion.
Nothing wrong with the aluminum ones. I drive the crap out of my car, dirt roads, pot holes, rain, shine, snow etc, and have had no issues with these. Which is not something I can say about some of my other suspension components- these strut rods have survived the failure of a weld on one of my CAP lower control arms, as well as outlasted the rod ends on my Hotchkis UCA's (only 7k miles on those, replaced by Hotchkis at no cost to me).
That said, compared to the set of moly adjustable strut rods I bought for my Duster, there isn't a ton of weight savings with the aluminum strut rods. Both the moly and aluminum version are quite a bit lighter than the original strut rods, but by comparison the aluminum ones have a thicker wall than the moly ones do, so there isn't as much weight savings as you might think vs the steel strut rods.
I'd still buy Badart's stuff though vs Mancini's/QA1's, he does great work and I'd rather support another FABO member.
**UPDATE**
Sorry, didn't see that. I was referring to the adjustable style, wasn't aware that Mancini had a non-adjustable aluminum style strut rod. No experience with those, but I don't see the point. The tubular adjustable style in aluminum or moly is probably just as light, and the real advantage to the aftermarket strut rods is their adjustability, not their weight anyway. Unlike the original style you can actually use the adjustables with poly or nylon LCA bushings and still maintain the proper adjustment on the strut rods. I wouldn't use the stock strut rods on anything other than perfectly stock LCA's with stock rubber bushings. Even then, I think an argument can be made for the adjustable strut rods because you can adjust them to the proper tension regardless of your suspension set up, factory tolerances (lack thereof) etc.
These are the ones you're talking about right?
From Mancini:
• Aluminum struts are CNC machined to correct length and tolerances using 7075-T651 material and are .875 inch diameter compared to about .700 for the original steel struts
• Weight is 36 percent as much as the equivalent amount of steel
• These struts are stronger and lighter than the original steel components.
