PuckPuck, I see where you guys are coming from with the affordability of your kit. And I hope I didn't come out as agressive.
The kit we will be selling is a lot more expensive, like you stated it is complete overkill, but at this point I had just had it with mine. We're not in for the money anyways and I wasn't aware of the availability of your solution. I guess that would be a great opportunity for those that are more on a budget.
Antonio is running a set of our bearings, without the dust boots and I recall that he liked the difference it made in the steering's feel. They nicely wheigh it down to a really solid feel, I don't remember if stock was like that or not, but the GC kit wasn't for sure..
Maybe you guys could look into a dust boot of some sort? I agree that the weight causes the failure but for the people that drive in a lot of road salt and grime, I think dirt contamination can really speed things up. The dust boot we're using seals out the assembly as it rests against the aluminium top hat and is held on to the bearing cup at the top. We're hoping that this will add to the longevity of the whole system.
EDIT: There's another problem with the original GC kit.. As the bearing takes a "set" in the upper black mounting cup, it's so thin that you can have the aluminium CG hat contact the black hat. At that point they bind together and the black hat starts rotating in the strut tower, acting as a bearing. Thus destroying them and causing you to need the 30$ pieces that BAT is selling.
Mine are worn down so thin that the centering cap that goes topside under that last bolt in the engine compartment doesn't even touch the strut tower any more... leaving the strut to potentially come off-center while cornering, fcuking up the alignment. Bad. The thick bearing definitely prevents this from happening.
You do lose around 3/8" drop potential. I was't running at the bottom so I didn't consider that...
