It looks to me that the arm broke "clean" which would suggest material failure. It doesn't look like any of the points where it is welded failed.

 

I am very curious as to how it failed myself. Heres one guess, only a guess people. I see what appears in the pictures to be a branded hoseclamp to left left side of one of the pictures. You have to look close but it is there. It is the same type of clamped used to hol most manufacturers CV joint boots onto the CV joint. Just a guess but I wonder if the axle snapped and smacked the control arm? Only a guess!

 

How do you know something wasn't said to the owner of the car?
The owner of the car is the one who should make sure that all the other mods are able to handle the increased power output of twin charging, and address them accordingly.

 

So after all this discussion, the bottom line is you have a customer that had a failure with an aftermarket part.He expects the distributor to replace the part or offer compensation or take an interest in the problem.If in fact the customer emailed without response from the distributor this shows no interest in either the customer or the problem.This is an invitation to a lawsuit,it has nothing to do with the failure, it just shows a disregard for the customer.The only opinion that matters here is what the forensic engineer says when they look at the failed part. Once the cause of failure is determined then you know who to point the finger at.Its cheaper to get the customer in replace the part with another part or a stock Mini part and get the failed part for test.This is the only productive and customer friendly way to handle it.

 

The owner of the car is depending on the expertise of the distributor.I am assuming the customer did not install the turbo kit so I am afraid the distributor is responsible.If he didnt recommend an upgrade if he had a concern on a arms.If he didnt, then is it the customers problem because he didnt ask the question?If He supplied or installed the product then he is representing that the part is siutable for its intended use.

 

PARTSMAN109: How do you know something wasn't said to the owner of the car?

I know the owner of the car, and your suggestion about having been informed just isn't the case.

The owner of the car is the one who should make sure that all the other mods are able to handle the increased power output of twin charging, and address them accordingly.

Yes, perhaps the owner could have considered the compatability of all the parts on his car, but why would he question the control arms if they had been sold as a performance item? Even if the owner was a structural or materials engineer, M7 still had a responsibility to inform the owner and/or the Mini community of potential problems if they truly believed the control arms were meant for much lower powered cars. Furthermore, and as implied by others, what safety factor or margin was built into these control arms?

 

If the customer emailed and didn't get a response, why didn't he just call?
None of us know exactly what went on, so don't speculate.

 

Did you even read my post, he decided to send attachments with no explanation of what they contained, I trashed them as propably 99%
of NAM members would have done. There was no phone calls, no letter,
no warning of any kind period. I have litterally known this problem for 2 days.
I could not inspect the damage as he had it fixed before he told me about the
incident.
Please don't blame us for not reacting fast enough, why not ask, when did it happen?????? and why were we not informed earlier.

peter

 

Exactly......thanks

 

Recoop you are right.Its not like someone else sold and installed the part!

 

In Peter's defence (not like he needs it from me of all people.......lol) I totally agree with Peter's response. I would have deleted the emails also if I didn't know who they were from or what they were. I hope you will all give M7 the time they need to sort this out. Yes I did see the date on the pic, but the cameras date could have been wrong too.

 

And to be honest, Jan has badmouthed absolutly everything we have made, or make as he is now afiliated with a competitor......And I will find the posts where
he literally told everyone that our parts are crap and he has a garage full of these crap parts. The only thing that he liked was the front Ultimate grille.
From that I took that he had nothing left on the car that was ours.

And Bob you are now affiliated (partner) with a Vendor who sells JDM parts
for the MINI here on NAM, could your knocking M7 have anything to do with you being a vendor???? not very ethical do you think.

peter

 

My post is clear,The customer said he emailed without response.Did you respond to his email?Did you not like the attachments?Again Ive been in exactly the same situation as you and know how this goes if not addressed promptly.I am sure the customer has keep a copy of his email to you.If he hasnt then you have no problem,if he has you cant argue the point.

 

As a further point of information, after the control broke, the car was towed to one of the local Mini dealers in Southern California. Factory control arms were installed, but the M7 control arms were saved by the owner of the car. They are indeed available for analysis.

While the Southern California Mini community is the largest in the nation, it really is like a close knit community, at least for those who have modified cars. The problem with the fractured control arm was not a secret, because many people in our area knew of the situation. Word spreads fast...

IMO, damage control shouldn't be finger pointing and providing very tenuous excuses, but a truly sincere effort to find out what went wrong! This is major product liability, and to suggest otherwise is being very myopic and disingenuous.

 

As Peter clearly states in the first post of this thread, these arms are to improve the handling of the vehicle. I don't think they were designed to handle 300hp hooking up on the tar.
We have to get real here, the owner of the car knew the potential power output after the twin charge. Why wouldn't he question any and all parts on the car, factory or aftermarket if they are up to the task at hand, in this case, harnessing 300hp. I don't get it, it's just common sense. To inject that kind of power and not making absolutely sure that the rest of the car will handle it, is just ridiculous. I have mods on my MINI and i've had muscle cars in the past that put out some serious power. You have to have some common sense when you are modifying a vehicle. For each level of power you want to make you have to make sure that everything curently on the car will handle it. I wouldn't put a 500hp big block in a '69 Camaro with the factory
drum brakes still on it. Modify the vehicle as a whole, and use common sense.
If you don't have any common sense, then let someone else build the car.

It's not m7's responsibility to hover over this guy telling him what is safe to do to his car with what he has on it. It's a risk we all take when modifying a vehicle.

 

A few things here that strike me as weird.
First, If this was my car and I had done as much business with m7 as had been claimed here then there is no way in hell I would be “emailing” M7. I would be on the phone ASAP.
Two, there is also NO WAY I would be asking for replacement parts. Why would I take a chance that this would happen again? Unless …… I knew that it was not the fault of the arm itself.; Not saying that this is what happened, but it’s kind of weird that someone would want to put a part back on their car that had such a sudden failure.

I know these are only pictures, but in looking at them it looks to me like there is some rust on the break of the one of the arms, specifically where the weald is. The two close up shots seem to show clearly that this is something that has been going on for a while. Just looking at the photos it’s a bit obvious that the owner of this car does not maintain it very well. With these kids of mods one really needs to be on top of there car and UNDER it. I am.
To feel that M7 should keep track of all of Jan’s mods is a bit ludicrous to say the least. It’s not their obligation to do so.
It’s quite unfortunate that Andy felt he needed to deal with this in this manner. If he was any kind of a man he would have insisted that Jan make some serious attempts to gat a hold of M7 before he posted the photos. Uncool move in the highest degree Andy.

Just to note, photos also show an aftermarket sway bar at it's stiffest setting.

 

So again did the customer install the kit or m7?The responsibility is with the installer for suitability of use.

 

My participation in a business venture has nothing to do with my comments about any M7 product(s). For you to question my ethics is a bit ironic, and, IMO, you might not want to go down that slippery slope...

 

It’s quite unfortunate that onasled felt he needed to deal with this in this manner. If he was any kind of a man he would have asked Andy whether he had insisted that Jan make some serious attempts to gat a hold of M7 [which I did] before he posted the photos. Uncool move in the highest degree onasled.

 

Gotcha, so these forums should only be open to posting by people whose companies build competing products to M7? Isn't that exactly what M7 is complaining about here?

 

So, Jan did call M7 Andy. If so, then I do appologise.
When you studied the break Andy what was your conclusion?

 

As an example, most automakers issue a recall whenever a part has shown a risk for failure. Remember all those tires from Ford Explorers?

If I were in M7's position, I would immediately contact every buyer of those arms and recall them. It cannot possibly be worth the risk and would be a paradigm of good customer relations.

 

Jan never called us ......ever.
And he did not offer us the arms for any investigation either.

peter

 

No mention of what the car was doing when they broke. Was it just traveling along at x speed and just failed. Or was it during acceleration, or running over a curb etc?

Of course it failure of the materials...Thats obvious. What isn't obvious it what forces caused this failure. All material will fail when their limits are exceeded. The questions to be asked are what was this vehicle doing at the time of failure and what has this vehicle been doing since the install.

I really didn't think dyno pulls would be that dramatic of a force of suspension parts though.

Paul

 

so based on what you say and assuming the truth, Jan does not have good intentions. Why are you guys getting into deep conversations, i would not. Just wait for the **** to pile up and make one reader's digest kind of long comment, and get over with it. You guys are really trying hard to justify yourselves. I think you are all reliable and helpful sources, but why getting into this crap with people and lower your standards?