The wife's Ka needs some new lower arm bushes. The suspension creaks badly and this may be down to the bushes or possibly the ball joint on the lower arm.
To make sure I eliminate the creaking (and to make the job a bit easier), I intend to replace the lower arms complete. The Ford arms are around £60 each. I haven't checked but I suspect that pattern ones will be about half that.
Now a lot of people here have said previously that aftermarket lower arms don't always last long but with the original bushes reported to be splitting on the first service at 8k from new, the creaking starting at around the same time and the bushes definitely knackered at 25K miles, I can't see how a pattern arm could be any worse than the Ford one.
Any thoughts on this please?