Competitor Benchmarking

Steering the right – or wrong direction? Putting European S&S parts manufacturers to the test

With safety critical product such as steering & suspension (S&S) parts, ALL manufacturers in the field should offer perfectly formed components in good working order as standard. Common sense tells us that anything falling outside of the vehicle manufacturers specifications – or failing in terms of quality, materials or standards of performance could be detrimental and lead to accidents.

There are many S&S manufacturers in the European aftermarket – many of who promise the world in terms of quality, standards and safety.

To find out the truth – and confident in its own product quality – TRW enlisted the help of an independent testing company – FKA – to test a selection of these products against a set number of criteria.

The results of the first products tested – stabilizer links – are now in. And they make interesting reading……

	Break away torque		Rotational torque		Radial Elasticity		Pull out force
	< 8 Nm		1.5 - 3 Nm		< 150μm		> 1/5 kN
	pre	after	pre	after	pre	after	pre	after
Competitor A		CRACK		CRACK		CRACK	CRACK	CRACK
Competitor B
Competitor C		CRACK		CRACK		CRACK	CRACK	CRACK
Competitor D
Competitor E
Competitor F

In short:

• Two of the seven manufacturers did not bear up to the load test
• Scratched dust covers and fatigue fracture of the ball pins are causes for failure during the endurance run
• ONLY TRW’s part met ALL of the given tolerances of the testing specification.

Over the next few months, we will explore the testing of radial ball joints and how we are going to communicate the results.