My SPC UCA experience. It's not good.

But do you have any squeaking?

 

Tight as I can get them with a 1/2 drive socket and 19mm combination wrench. No popping..

 

My point exactly

 

I'm in the same boat. Brand New Defective SPC LR UCAs!!! Buyer Beware!!!

First off the SPC Rep said they've fixed the "Bad Batch of Bushings", whatever mine are lemons. Also, customer service hasn't been good at all. Calling them did no good & I wish I hadn't called. I could tell in the first 5 minutes the guy was having a bad day. Getting them to email me has been spotty that's why I called. I'm well within the 1 year warranty - the UCA bushings failed in less than 6 weeks. Confirmed by Toytec its the bad batch. Bought through a vendor that gets them from their authorized distributor - like I was supposed to do! SPC did finally admit (over the phone) mine were purchased with the "Bad Batch of Bushings". So why are we pulling teeth SPC? Man the fuck up & stand behind your products.

If SPC wont fix these, I haven't the slightest clue what to do with these Brand New Defective SPC LR UCAs? Not going to buy the when that $$ can go towards my JBAs. Holding out for SPC to make it right. All the correct paperwork is there....we shall see. If not - I'm buying HD JBAs in August - that's the best good news!

 

@Kolter45 I dealt with the same issue regarding the bad bushings. and ordered from toytec.

I called Toytec and they contacted SPC.. Few days passed i didnt get a call so i called SPC and they sent me a replacement and shipping and took a $50 deposit until the defective ones were returned. I have no issues.

sucks you have to wait until toytec sends the proof of purchase/warranty calim to SPC, then follow up with SPC..

be patient. they will take care of you, it wont be over night fix but will be taken care of.. hard when you work hard and drop that kinda dime and get a defective part.

torque while wheels on the ground, no clunking.

 

Was the $50 deposit for replacement bushings?
I recall SPC wanted $600 deposit from me to get the replacement arms shipped or ship out my bad SPC's for review while my truck is down. I picked up Total Chaos arms, sent the bad SPC's back, and got a replacement pair. Sold it locally, but ate installation and additional alignment costs since those costs aren't reimbursed.

 

thanks! I’m hoping for them to man up

It feels like they hand pick who gets to use their 1 year warranty. I don’t think they liked my vendor & once I said who the distributor was they walked back some. He’s probably talking about the retrofit bushings. You can buy them separate & replace the defective bushings. But they’re $200+. If u have to replace the entire arms then yes the core charge is a lot more. I offered to do a core charge + shipping & they said they still might not refund me. I then said I’m not buying anything till I get a guarantee.

I’m going to do the same - get HD JBAs & mail the lemons back to SPC. What a pain in the ass & I live in Colorado.

 

$50 was for the arms with bushings only

 

This thread is odd. I've had nothing but fantastic customer service from SPC over the years. They've sent me numerous upgrades and replacement parts for free.

 

u buy them directly from SPC? & what rep helped you?

 

I originally bought them through Headstrong, but the rep that helped me the most was Pepi Stout. This was a couple years ago though, with the older style uca's. The X-axis ones they sent me have been solid.

 

I'm going to call SPC tomorrow to see if my (new in box) UCAs have bushings from the bad batch. I have a demanding work schedule and this truck is my daily driver, so I have exactly one chance to do this right. Anyone know what specific bushing batch is considered "bad"?

 

Update: just got off the phone with Justin at SPC. My bushings (batch 039) aren't part of the bad batch, so they should be fine. I'll be able to confirm that once I find the time to get them installed.

 

Going to bump this thread..... i have fallen victim to this exact problem

" Back in September of 2019 (09/06/2019) I purchased an xAxis upgrade kit (25022) to get rid of the horrible squeaky specride bushings on my 25470 uca's on my 2013 tacoma. I installed them on 12/1/2019 with 99875 miles on the truck. Over the last month (Truck has under 7k miles on the joints, current mileage = 106535) I have noticed a clunking at low speeds and small suspension movements (like going over cracks in a parking lot etc) coming from the front end, unfortunately I had a hunch that it came from the xAxis joints as there have been quite a few reports of this exact clunk from xAxis joint kits / arms from a bad batch as others have been told by you guys.

So I checked myself, loosened the UCA bolt and sure enough clunking gone, tighten UCA bolt up and it comes right back. The Joints have been properly pressed in the right amount to the UCA. "

the xAxis joints that were installed were 018 or 810 depending on which way you read it.... curious to see what they are going to do, cus this is BS, spent a fuggin chunk of time pressing in the the xAxis joints, i dread the thought of pressing them out and back in again.

 

Yep that’s the problem & sounds like your in the club. It’s still painful to have to jump through multiple hoops to just get them to man the fuck up. I’m going to buy some JBAs & swap them out & mail mine back to them. They want a video of the sound that my arms are causing which is BS cause they admitted I bought them during the bad batch. I wouldnt dare buy SPC at this moment. The half ass customer service doesn’t warrant complete lack of quality control on this scale.

 

Was your customer rep named Todd? He was an absolute ass to me over the same issue.

 

Yep. He even said in the first 10 minutes, “I don’t want to be an ass.” It’s like when you hear that, you know the dude might be a dick.

 

Haha no shit. I called his supervisor and she seemed to be aware that he's a dick. I usually have no issues with customer service and whatnot so It's rare I followup with expressing a poor customer service experience. Sucks others have had the same experience.

 

That sucks man...

If a company screws the pooch they should do everything in there ability to make it right..

Being a dick after you spent your hard earned money on their junk is just rubbing salt in the wound. They fixed the issue for me, I don’t think I spoke with that dip shit cause I don’t do well with them. Thanks for the update I will not buy from them or refer them now.

@TOTAL CHAOS has been great, they always answer and reply promptly. I personally have not met anyone with a parts company that had bad customer service.

good luck guys

 

Going to call them tomorrow if I dont get an email back. TBH, im hoping to not get anything less than them sending me brand new arms, as the time and money to spend uninstalling arms, pressing out shitty batch of xAxis joints, and pressing in new ones does not sound like fun.