Hi all,

So the front suspension on my little 206 diesel daily driver is falling apart a bit - lovely clunking and grinding noises at anything that might involve suspension movement at all. I'm looking at lower suspension arms and have found 2 options so far. Eurocarparts offer two varieties, one for £50 ish and one for £80 ish.

Looking on ebay I spotted these: PEUGEOT 206 LOWER FRONT SUSPENSION WISHBONE ARM NEW LH on eBay (end time 16-Feb-11 13:11:13 GMT) £25 delivered suits me much better but I'm very aware of the old motto 'you get what you pay for'.

Does anyone have any experience of these cheaper parts? Are they really half the quality (or less) of the Eurocarparts versions?

Also, do they generally come with the correct nuts and bolts to fit them and if not, where would you advise getting these?

I know I must sound like a complete noob but I want to be sure of these things and not just dive in blind, wasting money as I go.

thanks,

John

Do a buy it now through paypal and if you don't like it send it back, you have the distance selling regulations and paypal on your side. Most likely they are exactly the same parts as Euro but with less profit margin. My wife works for a car spares as a driver and things bought on account can be up to 60% less than retail.

Genuine parts unfortunately in most cases ARE (in my experience at least) better, and probably worth the premium if you find them somewhere outside a dealer.

The alternative is getting stuff from a known OEM for your specific model (e.g. Lemforder), they are usually very good but cheaper than genuine parts.

Almost all the rest "pattern" parts will have similar standards, and so won't be far distinguishable between one another. At least not to any degree that you can say that the bit you get from Eurocarparts will be any better. I've had some bushes from ECP that disintegrated within 6 months. Equally a random pattern bit from ebay outlasted it, and actually looked far better manufactured (i.e. the holes lined up properly etc.)


If you're not going for genuine parts, then I'd just get the cheapos from ebay.

Don't buy !


I bought two R75 wishbone off ebay about 18 months back --- one to replace a wishbone I had torn the outer ball joint dust seal on and the other as a spare.
Fiited it August 209 come last November's MOT time it was knackered ---- really knackered the ball was ready to jump out the socket. needless to say I replaced it with genuine QH part.
I now I a new wishbone sitting in my garage that I will not fit and wouldn't be happy sell on to anybody else.

To make matters I since discovered Rimmer Bros stock replacement dust seals.


The cheap wishbones come with light blue plastic protective cups over the ball joints the ones on QH are orange.

[Edited on 2/2/11 by britishtrident]

quote:

---

Originally posted by britishtrident
genuine QH part.

---

Hmmm, might give the ebay ones a miss then. Spotted some reasonably priced ones on pugspares - £42 plus delivery. I'd love to go for genuine peugeot parts but my budget just can't stretch that far at the minute. Both Pugspares and Eurocarparts are pretty reputable firms, not that the ebay seller isn't - i've just never heard of them.

Any ideas about the fitting bolts? Would it be acceptable to reuse the bolts and get new nyloc nuts from halfords?

I appreciate the advice, thanks!

John