I disagree.

The AE parts quality has gone down hill on a few critical places. Outdrives wear out mega fast now and seem to be made of softer stuff. The 1/8 scale rear hubs rarely fit their bearings correctly without grinding, and my latest set of b4.1 diff outdrives required grinding to get the bearing in the center of the diff to fit. They did something to their metal manufacturing lately that has dropped their build quality down a notch in my opinion.

Additionally, one of my big bore shock shafts was all marred up when I got it brand new and needed wet sanding, and the coating on the shock caps is a joke -- it cracks off if you breathe on it funny.

Not even remotely on par with their the standards from just a few years back.

Every A-Arm I have broken, I deserved. If the losi can clip a pipe at full speed and not break, then that must be nice. Yeah, the hubs suck. I was kinda hopng they "fixed" them for the b4.2. But the durango guys now have a really sweet +8 chassis that last 1-2 heats, lol. Kyosho have many weaknesses also, just check their thread, lol. I dont see a lot of losi's with parts issues, most people complain about chasing setups. I have researched all of the major brand and driven a few and talk to owners, and I will stay with the b4 with all of its "issues". IMO if the car was stiffer and made from a "better" plastic, it might handle like crap. careful what you wish for.

You are not wrong in that it has dropped a notch or two. My biggest issue is the hubs. I also "believe" that the other cars are built with some better parts, my point was they also have very noticeable weaknesses. Overall, my b4 finishes races aside from the occasional front arms breaking. After reading the other cars threads, I am not confident I could race for 6 months and only break arms. In the last 6 months, I have only replaced 4 a-arms and 1 ubrace. My outdrives show no wear (but i have seen some tore up ones). Maybe I am just lucky or maybe those of you running mod wear things out a lot faster. But in stock, the car has been fine.

Also, I see quality dropping all over. Futaba, Airtonics and a few others have some seriously cheap feeling radio compared to 15 years ago. My guess is, they are cutting corners to compete with the Chinese. The hobby has changed a lot in the last 25 years since I bought my first car, not all of those changes are good.

did ae at one time release a shim kit or whatever to use to tighten things up (not car specific).

ive noticed the losi breaks hubs and king pins more than the associated, i have never broken anything that i didnot deserve to break (my chassis)

Too much slop = bad

Too little slop = bad

Somewhere in the middle = Just right :) Go æ

All I break on my buggy is front arms.

I dont recall any. I asked the question a while back. Someone posted a link to an onroad site that sold shims that fit the hinge pins and came in various thicknesses. You might have to search for it, it was last summer. When I said quality earlier, I was not referring to fit and finish. I was referring to abnormal breakage. The fit and finish could be better for sure. But the car is plenty durable for racing.

used to break the steering arms back in the day with the b4. pretty durable considering.

now the T4 and its previous front a-arms ...

I will say one (more) thing... I much rather the a-arms be a "fuse" and break before transmitting the force of catching a pipe and breaking a chassis or something else. Those of us that race B4's, particularly with power screwdrivers can replace a $3 front a-arm in only a couple mins. Keeping spares of one part is better than several parts. I always have at least 2 or 3 spares at any given time in my box. If I run out, I replenish my spares before actually needing them since broken front a-arms is inevitable.

Story bout the Cav & Nose plate
 

You tell me , reason I asked ....

did here its something like they are doing with the other new rides , adjusting the stiffness of the chassis ..

+1 I would rather replace an arm than a chassis. On that note, I have noticed that alum pivot plates alum bulkheads (not top plate) seem to cause more frequent breakage. I am thinking of trying the plastic/carbon front hinge brace. I removed my kids alum bulkhead and she stopped breaking arms on her sc10 considerably. I guess the alum does not give so the arms break. The question would be how often will the composite pin brace break. I have 3 plastic pin braces at home, might try it out.

back when the b4 and t4s came with the plastic hingepin brace unlike the previous model which had a metal one, you would snap the plastic bulkhead which could be a bit more of a pain to replace and would snap a whole lot easier than the a-arm, see a guy back in the day snap like 4 in 1 night, very light hits and the material still appears to be the same.

I would say use only the aluminum front hingepin brace only personally.

on my t4 i broke front arms then i got rpm arms and bulkhead and since then not had a problem(knock on wood).

i guess rpm does not make the arms for a b4? rest assured when i build my t4.2 it will have rpm arms on front.

Probably the same people who lined up to "upgrade" to the iPhone5 from their 4.5.
Sheep drinking the Kool Aid.

I just sent 2 broken a arms to RPM for warranty replacement. My kid has skills, lol. Thank god for life time warranty.