I finally had enough of the alta psrs. I gave them more than a year, started without welding, then welded. I couldn't take the noise. Today begins a new phase with the Powerflex, hoping its a lot better...
I know that from your experience and the experience of other of your local mini owners, you are a believer. However, from mine and the experience of others, I have reached the conclusion that the manufacturing of the psrs has got to be inconsistent, leading to good batches and bad batches. It's the only explanation, because from what I saw on Friday, there is just no way that my psrs were to work without ridiculous noise.
I experienced a worst case scenario, where the welding of the psrs actually damaged both control arms. (I can hear Lynn from all the way over here "I told you!") Maybe unrelated to the use of the psrs, both bearings were also damaged.
After removing the damaged control arms with the psrs installed, my mechanic showed me the play, and resulting rattling of the psrs just with hand movements. After having to pay for new control arms, bearings, replacements bushings, and associated man-hours, it's safe to say that I am not a fan.:incazzato:
It is too bad that some have had problems, it maybe due to environmental conditions?
I live in the high desert area and don't have a lot of rain, but do have a lot of snow to contend with in the winter (along with the req'd gravel/cinders on the road)
How did the tack welding of the sleeve affect the control arms? And what bearings are you talking about.....wheel bearings?
Any idea what is causing the noise? Sleeve hitting the housing, control arm moving around in the sleeve?
I wonder if this has to do with the installation process and technique?
I wish I had my camera to take pictures of the end result, but I took the car to another shop to do the welds (not my usual trustworthy tech) and they over did them. Since they overdid the welds, the end of the control arm and the sleeves they were fused together and they would have had to hack them up to remove them.
I don't know exactly what was causing the noise to be honest. He just moved the thing around and it rattled like crazy. The wheel bearings had to be replaced, I know they tend to fail so I'm not really blaming the psrs. My car has 40k miles and is an '05 MCs, for clarity purposes. My only other mod in the front suspension are fixed Ireland plates.
