ISIS V2 Adjustable Arms Review

[Hoffman5982]

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd share my experience so far with the version 2 control arms from ISIS. They aren't supposed to hit the market for another month or two, but I've gotten my hands on them. The rumored price for the complete package is ~$550 shipped, so a tad bit more than the v1 arms.

Now, before I start, let's keep this thread free of any hate. Before anyone chimes in calling me a cheap ass or fanboy, let it be known that I am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for". I'm rocking SPL arms in the rear and Kazama/Tein in the front of my s14, but this car is my budget weekend warrior so I wanted to keep the costs down.

I originally ordered the v1 arms, not knowing that these arms were even in production. A few of the V1 arms were on backorder, but after paying a little extra, I had these being shipped my way.

I helped my friend install the V1's on his car, but wasn't impressed with the quality of the rod ends. They didn't move near as smoothly as the ends on my SPL arms, and to even get them to move much at all we had to lube them up before install. But they worked. I have another friend who was running them on his s14 that he put into a pole, and the toe rod mount on the cast iron upright snapped off, but the toe rod itself was fine. So after witnessing that, I decided to try them out. I figured if anything went wrong, ISIS is known to replace them with little hassle.

Unfortunately all I had to take pics with was my phone. Fortunately, it's a Samsung S5, so it's not too bad. I do apologize, regardless.

I arrived at my parents house(they have the garage) right as the UPS guy was dropping the box off. I quickly opened it up. I know with the V1 arms, you got a large box with a bunch of plain white boxes inside. It's pretty much the same deal, but they've actually started putting their label on the individual boxes.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/95e68349-35fb-4b5d-b3e5-3b22379a98f8_zps91c9de12.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_174422_zps0e8e148b.jpg

Now, after seeing the v1 arms looking exactly like repainted Godspeed arms, I expected these to look like GSP Gen2 arms. They didn't. They actually look quite nice.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_154247_zps4437845c.jpg

You will notice that these new arms are quite a bit beefier. I was told the bearings are much better quality, although they didn't say what kind they were. I highly doubt they are QA1 or Aurora, but anything is an improvement over the v1's. I do like the rubber dust boots on them though:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155645_zpseff1c1a7.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155653_zpsde7312dd.jpg

The RUCA is angled for more clearance on lowered cars, not that that's an issue with s13's. The toe rod, however, isn't. The RUCA also has some extra bracing welded on, which makes me feel better about them. No, the welds aren't anything to write home about.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155632_zps517f4837.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155725_zps377fbc6b.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155708_zps743511ca.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155640_zps02bb175d.jpg

The rest of the arms:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155821_zpsad7cd44b.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155908_zps1c95d39e.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155924_zps6beb4097.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_160003_zpscaabe1d7.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155947_zpsed7dd96a.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_155941_zps157e1799.jpg

And the lucky candidate:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_170847_zps9b67f735.jpg

I first started with the front tension rod. Simple, except the passenger side bolt seized to the bushing inside, which took way too long to get out. Luckily, a friend reminded me that the tension rod brackets come out individually so I was able to take it off and pound the bolt out. With that said, I didn't take many more pictures.

Tension rod:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_175819_zpscc8abc11.jpg

Rear arms before:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_192118_zpsef340dc5.jpg

Rear arms after:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_204616_zps1b1790f6.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_204636_zps4a8b234a.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140529_204711_zpsb66458e7.jpg


Final Thoughts:

I'm really happy with these arms, considering the price I paid. They are a significant improvement over the V1 arms, and while they aren't the SPL arms I have on my s14, I'm confident in saying that they were accomplish what I want out of them. The finish is also very nice. I believe they are powder coated, or have a very strong painted finish. After the install, I looked over them and found no nicks or anything, and I know I slipped a wrench or two.

I have yet to drive the car, so I'll have to update later on the driving feel after installing these.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If there's any more pictures you'd like me to take, I'll do my best. Hopefully when these arms hit the market, this can help people make an educated decision as to whether this is right for them or not.

Lastly, I'd like to give a big shout out to Vitaly at AceUpMotorsports for once again hooking me up.

[azndan2]

Thanks for taking the time to review these for us!:faint:

[DreamN]

They don't look half bad. I'm still debating buying ISIS suspension components, but for a car that will pretty much be a daily/parking lot whore I might just do it.

[Fries]

Hey man, if you were willing to run these I'm down. $500ish shipped is alright for my budget. I'll be looking forward to their release.

[DreamN]

Any updates on how these ride? In car video would be great.

[Hoffman5982]

So I got the car aligned the next day with absolutely no issue. Still no chips on the arms, even though the guy wasn't being super careful(again, not that I care about scratches or anything, just an observation).
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/hoffman91/20140530_145314_zps02dc77bd.jpg

As far as driving impressions, I haven't been able to drive it hard. I went from -4.0 camber in the rear to -0.8, and I desperately need to pull the quarters more before I can drive aggressively. I will say that so far, after a few days of daily driving, one rainy day drift session, and a couple of slightly aggressive on ramps, that the car feels 100% more solid now. I have always been able to drive this car hard with no real issue, but the rear has felt slightly unstable in the past. Now it seems very predictable and stable. As for daily driving, there isn't a huge difference. No new pops or pings or anything. It still rides smooth, but hitting a bump is slightly more harsh now, which is to be expected.

As far as in car video, I have a drift even coming up and I'd be glad to take come footage from inside.

[Drift_86]

This are sweet I'm I love isis stuff the quality of there parts are getting better and better with out being so expesive. Im defiantly getting a set of these with there coilover in the near future.

[Scope240sx]

thanks for posting this review. looks like the difference in arms say comparing isis &kazama are the welds, at least visibly.
you should post a video from your drift event just cause lol

[nekrodev]

thanks for posting this review. looks like the difference in arms say comparing isis &kazama are the welds, at least visibly.
you should post a video from your drift event just cause lol

This is pretty much what I thought. The welding on pretty much all ISIS parts is terrible, but I'd imagine the rest of it is okay.

I've learned my lesson, though, and will never buy ISIS again for suspension / engine parts.

[smoketherear]

These look dope, was about to order v1 arms for my spare subframe, but i think i could wait for these. Any realistic eta and where we could order from?

[xilovelsdx]

So who sells these?

[WERDdabuilder]

Maybe email/PM enjuku since they're a vender.

[DreamN]

$460 Shipped from Ace Up Motorsports

http://aceupmotorsports.com/products/ISIS-Pro-Series-Arm-Package-%252d-Nissan-240sx-S13%7B47%7DS14-***FREE-SHIPPING!!***.html


No listing for these on Enjuku yet, surprised by seeing as there is one eBay already selling for $500 shipped on there as well.

[vJilly]

^are those not just the normal ones?

[DreamN]

No. Read the description and look at the pictures.

V1 are now Street Series while these V2 are Pro Series.

[Hoffman5982]

V2's are definitely worth the price difference

[Standard]

nice review, they look pretty good. Is that a stock 'graphic package' on the car? Car looks neat dude

[Hoffman5982]

Yeah it was dealer installed

[DreamN]

Damn just noticed the price difference. You paid $90 more for these. Did you buy from Enjuku?

[Hoffman5982]

No, AceUpMotorsports. Would have cost like $50+(FL tax + shipping) more if I had bought the v1 arms from Enjuku, and probably would have taken twice as long to ship to me even though they're in the same state

[zfortune]

Any update of how they're holding up.

[ComicArtist]

Very nice, I've been looking at picking up a set of these since the PO of my car put all GodSpeed arms on and they're pretty much worn out. Despite the bad reviews they get, a lot of my buddies are running their v1 arms on their track cars without a problem. Buddy actually dropped a back wheel off the rumble strip at Texas Motor Speedway at 80mph and broke the rear upright but the RUCA was fine. Looks like they put a lot more time into building these, and unless I come across a deal on some PBM arms, I'll be picking up this set.

[Hoffman5982]

The arms are still holding up great. I check them from time to time to make sure the lock nuts haven't loosened and to give them a quick wipe down and have never had an issue. My buddy put the same arms on his s14, and upon clipping a tree and bending the RLCA, the ISIS arms were perfectly fine.

Also just noticed the comment about posting a video from an event. Sorry I never delivered. Better late than never right?
xxZOvCjB-Oc

[Gostlrs]

I have the ISIS Pros all the way around as well, to include the front and rear sway bars and the ISIS Pro Coils. I love it so far. It feels really tight and responds nicely. For the price its a great setup

[jxw]

Do not buy the Isis V2 RUCA's!!!! Enjuku finally admitted they built the fixture for these wrong and they are longer than the stock arms fully adjusted in. They are almost a full 2 inches longer than the SPL RUCA's! So unless you want to run either a little or a lot of positive camber in the rear don't order them!


As a side note, I don't usually flame on products or companies, but it has been since November '14 that I ordered these from Enjuku, and they still don't have a correct length batch of them in, and they still wont comp me other arms. Crappy part, crappy customer service.


BTW, the other 3 sets of arms seem nice and have a good range of adjustment.


Also, I am a manufacturing engineer and own and operate a machine and fabrication shop before you tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. Even one of Enjuku's employees was planning to use these and now wont after our discussions and his checking the dims per my request of their stock. I am fine with them making a mistake. I am pissed they aren't fixing it.

[Hoffman5982]

Umm, not calling you a liar but my rear was at -3* camber when when I went to get it aligned(-0.8 after). I set them at the same length as the stock RUCA's and had to adjust them out to get them there. So yeah, I don't have this problem at all. With that said, if they issue a recall to replace them with an updated design, I'll happily take it

[jxw]

Yeah I asked them repeatedly if it was just somehow the set I got. I cant imagine they built multiple jigs to build the same product, but there is a chance they drilled the rear holes in the wrong location on some sets?? The nissan RUCA bolts would not fit through the holes either in my set, I would have had to ream them out. Maybe that played into the issue?

[Enjuku Racing]

Do not buy the Isis V2 RUCA's!!!! Enjuku finally admitted they built the fixture for these wrong and they are longer than the stock arms fully adjusted in. They are almost a full 2 inches longer than the SPL RUCA's! So unless you want to run either a little or a lot of positive camber in the rear don't order them!


As a side note, I don't usually flame on products or companies, but it has been since November '14 that I ordered these from Enjuku, and they still don't have a correct length batch of them in, and they still wont comp me other arms. Crappy part, crappy customer service.


Also, I am a manufacturing engineer and own and operate a machine and fabrication shop before you tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I am pissed they aren't fixing it.

This is a bit of an inaccurate statement.
A label was sent to ship the unit in question back to our warehouse the day after you had contacted us initially via e-mail (1/27/15) so we could inspect it and then ship it to the manufacturer for further analysis.

We then offered you full credit for that arm which you could apply towards any other manufacturer of your choice once it was determined there seemed to be an inconsistency with that RUCA, you declined swapping to a different manufacturer, then after we found that it may take some time for the manufacturer Isis Performance to have revised units available you inquired about switching to a different manufacturer (2/13/15) and we provided you with availability and pricing that same day (less than 10 minutes from your initial e-mail inquiry) on the other unit.

You elected to go this route some time later, at which point we provided you with a very generous discount on top of applying a full credit from the Isis Performance RUCA to try to help you out as much as possible. The other manufacturers RUCA's were unfortunately on back order and delayed due to an unforeseen issue that they had in production (they received only 1 side of the RUCA into their warehouse) and they will not be able to ship until the new components arrive in the USA.

We do not manufacture any parts here and deal with each vendor or manufacturer to resolve any issues with their products in accordance with their policies. When a resolution cannot be reached with that particular manufacturer we attempt to offer a number of different options to resolve the issue effectively, as we did here.

Unfortunately we cannot 'Comp' arms from different manufacturers, especially ones with retail pricing over 70% more than what you had purchased, but we did offer a 100% refund and also provided a large discount on the arms you did eventually decide to exchange to as a courtesy to you.

[hellaslows13]

Thanks for the review. It is nice that you reviewed these arms having owned a set of quality arms previously. I personally would not buy these for my own build, but for the price these do the job. Definitely look better than the v1's! I have owned the v1's in the past (when I was a broke college student) and have not had any issues with them. Yes the look cheap as hell, but they did what they were supposed to. The v1 camber arms surprisingly didn't crack on me after contacting the subframe many times from drifting at a low ride height.

It's nice that they welded on the extra reinforcement tab on the v2 camber arms, but I am not sure how much strong that would make the arm if it were to come in constant contact with the subframe on load.

Regardless, if you need adjustable arms without the bling bling factor these are definitely worth the money.

[Gostlrs]

I have ISIS Pro for everything and its working out great personally.

[240sxTuck]

Hate to resurrect a 2 year old thread but....

Considering these ISR Pro Series (aka ISIS V2) arms for my s13, but my main concern are the welds, and lifespan. Anyone still running these? Are they still holding up after a couple years of abuse? I've heard ugly welds are bad welds, but a buddy of mine checked out these pics and said they were fine.
I would rather get SPL or Nismo arms, but i'm on that broke college kid budget.

[Koukiii]

Hate to resurrect a 2 year old thread but....

Considering these ISR Pro Series (aka ISIS V2) arms for my s13, but my main concern are the welds, and lifespan. Anyone still running these? Are they still holding up after a couple years of abuse? I've heard ugly welds are bad welds, but a buddy of mine checked out these pics and said they were fine.
I would rather get SPL or Nismo arms, but i'm on that broke college kid budget.

I have no technical data to support my claims but there is a reason ISIS is considered the lowest of the low for S-chassis. Buy used quality arms instead of cheap low quality ISIS/ISR...

[theStig880]

If it's any consolation, I've had ISIS Ruca's and Toe arms for like five years with no problems. Pretty much daily duty and a few drift events. The powder coat has a couple chips and lock nuts have some surface rust but they were fine for the price. I'm in the market for something new but for the price they fit the bill and after using them I'm not concerned about their safety or structural integrity. Also, they're not the pro version which should indicated that the pros would be better.

[Hoffman5982]

I'm still running these with no issues. Every few months I will wipe them down and minus the stickers falling off, they still look almost new. Nothing has seized or anything. I'm definitely very happy with these arms and would recommend them to anyone.

[Standard]

If it's any consolation, I've had ISIS Ruca's and Toe arms for like five years with no problems. Pretty much daily duty and a few drift events. The powder coat has a couple chips and lock nuts have some surface rust but they were fine for the price. I'm in the market for something new but for the price they fit the bill and I'm not concerned about safety or structural integrity in the slightest Also, they're not the pro version which should indicated that the pros would be better.

That's nice :facepalm:

[tuzzio]

I have the regular ones for 3 years now, with zero issues.

[240sxTuck]

I'm still running these with no issues. Every few months I will wipe them down and minus the stickers falling off, they still look almost new. Nothing has seized or anything. I'm definitely very happy with these arms and would recommend them to anyone.

Awesome, thanks for coming back and answering, Hoffman. :)

[theStig880]

That's nice :facepalm:

I worded that weird, but I was just emphasizing that I am confident they will hold up after using them for a while. Yea, I care about safety in general.

[Standard]

Hahah gotcha

So you meant you don't have any concerns about the structural rigidity of these products

That makes more sense lol

I know this thread is old but I'll chime in. Honestly in my experience as long as the welds look professional, and the metal used is decent I don't see any problems using cheaper suspension arms. The real drawback on the cheaper arms are the rod ends, but those can be replaced.
That being said, I've learned the hard way, cheaping out on things costs more in the long run. Do it right, buy nice stuff once. Heard a quote once I always liked. "If you have something of great quality, and you take good care of it, it will last you a lifetime."
I have been building my car on a budget, but right now I can honestly say I don't have any knockoff/copy parts on my car, and the suspension is built pretty extensively. It's a long term project, but I'm doing it once and doing it right!

[240sxTuck]

Hahah gotcha

So you meant you don't have any concerns about the structural rigidity of these products

That makes more sense lol

I know this thread is old but I'll chime in. Honestly in my experience as long as the welds look professional, and the metal used is decent I don't see any problems using cheaper suspension arms. The real drawback on the cheaper arms are the rod ends, but those can be replaced.
That being said, I've learned the hard way, cheaping out on things costs more in the long run. Do it right, buy nice stuff once. Heard a quote once I always liked. "If you have something of great quality, and you take good care of it, it will last you a lifetime."
I have been building my car on a budget, but right now I can honestly say I don't have any knockoff/copy parts on my car, and the suspension is built pretty extensively. It's a long term project, but I'm doing it once and doing it right!

Yea, i wanna do everything right, so i only gotta do it once. Posted to some local FB groups looking for used SPL arms, but these ISR Pros are my fallback

[Hoffman5982]

The real drawback on the cheaper arms are the rod ends, but those can be replaced.


This is the biggest issue with cheaper arms. While I don't know what these have, I'm quite sure they aren't QA1 or Aurua(sp?) which are 2 of the top quality companies for rod ends. With that said, these did and still do move smoothly. I also like that they have the dust shields. I think I stated it in the original post, but I've helped a friend install the v1/standard isis arms and the rod ends were terrible. It took me and another person to get the rod end to move and it wasn't smooth at all. We sprayed it pretty heavily with some lubricant and moved it around to work it in, which helped, but that turned me away from them completely. That said(again), my SPL rod ends move like friggin butter. I believe they are QA1.

On the same not, replacing them IS an option. You just have to know the thread pitch. Rod ends in general aren't expensive but from what I've heard cheap arms use a weird thread pitch, and rod ends with that pitch are more expensive than normal. Still something to look into though.