HI-JET BORG & BECK& FIRST LINE INCORRECTLY MADE TRACK CONTROL ARMS FROM MOTOR FACTORS.

A couple of years ago I had several Forum Members contact me for Used  Track Control Arms. They had bought new ones but the Threaded Tie Bar was 3" too long.
I have recently found a supplier and bought a pair for my MPV. They arrived in a couple of days. But low and behold the Tie Bar was 3" too long. Borg and Beck making a critical mistake like that?? Surely not. Nope not one mistake. I have found five mistakes in the manufacture of the Track Control Arms. Which leads me to to conclude that they were made for another vehicle, DEFINITELY  NOT for  a 1993 to 2009 Hi-Jet /Porter.

I have broken up well over 250 Hi-Jets and every single one of them has had the same Track Control Arms - - not this Hybrid  Monstrosity on Steroids.
I would like to hear from everyone of you that have had this problem OR if you have been supplied with correct ones I would like to particularly like to hear from you at my Email address :  thehijetmaniow@gmail.com. Please contact me because I am trying to present a case to BORG & BECK  for goods wrongly supplied and therefore " Not fit for purpose."





The faults that I have found are : Tie Bar 75mm too long, Bush Shoulder in the wrong place, the last 140mm of the Bushed end doesn't have a bend on the steel pressing., the Metalastic  Bush that fits into the Cross Member is the wrong angle, and the Metal tube through the Bush is 15mm too long so impossible to fit into the crossmember anyway. The angle of the Threaded Tie bar relative to the Pressed Steel Arm is only 130° whereas the correct angle should be 140°. The pressed rececess in the Arm is pressed at 130° so obviously the Tie Bar is automatically welded at the wrong angle. Finally the ball joint that fits the Brake Disc Hub and Strut holder is tapered with a castellated nut and split pin, whereas the genuine one is parallel with an Annular Ring Groove all round it and located in place with a bolt that pinches up the bottom of the Hub Carrier.

So if ANY OF YOU have come across this problem in the last 2-4 years - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Email me and let me know. The more pressure we can put on BORG and BECK  and First Line the better the chance of getting something done about this blatant mis-sale of goods by both of them or their suppliers as chances are they import them into the country.

Well that’s either a mighty cockup or somewhere along the line someone has mislabelled a part for a hijet (have also even stuff described as Diaahastsu Atari hijet where the mistake could come from). We had some computer memory with this miss match issue and it turned out it had been incorrectly barcoded at the manufacture point so seller just accepted it was correct as it said so on the label. Similar thing in this case I fear but as Woodie says he needs more info to back up the case that it’s just not a one off.

David who I have been working with on this problem has been very helpful and cooperative. He has a whole batch of them and they are all identical. It would be physically impossible for it to be a one off because the steel pressed arm is wrong in three dimensions so it is not as if it could even be a computer error or a Draftsman mistake.
It is clearly for a different vehicle.

Most likely one of the lovely looking DAIHATSU HYBRIDS sold in different countries that we never get the chance to see in this country.

So if you have had an incorrect arm supplied, or your garage has, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you. So many of us need new Track Control Arms.
I will also look into the chance of finding the inner Metalastic Bushes as that is what usually fails the mot on the Arms.

I have purchased one of these firstline arms and guess what, it didn't fit my 2003 pickup. I just presumed it was maybe for the van or earlier models etc but obviously not.

Thanks for your reply. Can you remember where you got it from, presumably near to Kidderminster. Ta very much.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me on thehijetmaniow@gmail.com and on here regarding these wrongly manufactured Track Control Arms. Please keep the Posts coming in to help build this case up. Many thanks once again.

I have been searching Ebay and found some Track Control Arms that are correctly made. The easiest way to tell is to look at the Metalastic Bush. The wrong arms have the metal tube sticking out further one side than the other. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO BUY THESE FROM ANY OF THE ADVERTISERS.

The ones that we need have an equal length of tube protruding from either side of the Bush. The angle of the last 140 mm of the arm is much more pronounced too plus other differences - like having a Castellated Nut on the Ball Joint.

Unfortunately the ones we need are the expensive ones by SWAG, at a cost of £239-60, buycarspares2 at a cost of £205-56, and I did find someone selling correct ones for £156, but of course typical Ebay, you go back to have another look and it ain't there - - disappeared. I will keep looking and post it up when I find it going back through my browsing history.

Found it. Yippee.

Got the whole Advert in this time. Looks like Mister Auto is our main man.

Mister Auto isn't the company I have been working along with. I have been through their site and they have quite a lot of erroneous listings.
The Gentleman I have been dealing with has been very helpful indeed and if he can manage to come up with a better price than the other correct listings then I will let you all know who he is and his contact details - if that is alright with him. So keep your fingers and legs crossed and maybe we can get some correct Track Control Arms at last.

I have also tracked down a supplier of the Metalastic TCA Bushes too for around a Tenner each.

Sorry for the late reply, I rarely get on the forum these days. I got my arm off eBay.

OK. But not the BORG and BECK one I have got pictures of. They are totally wrong.

I am working with Roger Nightingale at First Line to get these incorrect Track Control Arms off the market and to get the details that I have given him with pictures and dimensions and get the correct ones made by the Manufacturer they use to make these incorrect ones.
They were very concerned about this because of the huge number of incorrect ones already made.

He is phoning me again tomorrow morning to let me know how far they have got in the two days since he got my email.
So I will keep you all posted on the progress.

Well First Line/BORG & BECK have been back in touch with me and they have withdrawn all the Arms from their Stockholders and have made the arms obsolete. So no more problems with the wrong TCA'S now unless unscrupulous Ebay sellers do not return their stock and carry on advertising them.
Can't see the point of it if they do but obviously they have known about this ( not First Line) but the retailers.
I have taken 2 Screenshots of Roger Nightingale's email to me for you all to have a look at.
It seems that only Blue Print sell the correct Track Control Arms - besides the robbers, Daihatsu.

Bugger, been out of the loop for the last two years as the HiJet went to the back of the queue of all my cars and has only just made it to the front of the queue. I bought a FirstLine arm off EBay, been and checked it and low and behold it's wrong as you've stated Woodie. More expense!