Last time I was under the car I noticed the bushings on my control arms are looking pretty sad. They aren’t torn completely, but they look dry rotted with cracks all throughout the rubber.
On normal roads it still feels pretty good, but most roads around here look like the surface of the moon. On those really rough roads, I can feel excessive vibration coming through the steering wheel.
Think I should throw some new control arms on there to improve the ride quality on rough roads? How often do y’all replace yours on this vehicle?
Current mileage: 113k, vehicle age: 9 years. Shocks/struts replaced @ 100k.
I just did mine. Don’t wait until the bolts are rusted. My 14 has 145k.
I have a hot tip for anyone doing theirs. Right above the bracket/clamp that the control arm bolts into on the passenger side, you have about 1 1/2” space between it and the electric power steering. Those two bolts were seized on mine. So I decided to cut the bolt heads off and just punch them through with them screwed into the clamp. Bad idea because you won’t be able to get the clamp off. It will hit the electric power steering motor and housing. I ended up cracking my power steering housing and I broke my power steering. I was using a crowbar to pry the bracket off, not knowing I was damaging the power steering.
Of course the drivers side came off once I heated up the clamp where the bolts screwed into it.
Those two rear bolts will be the most difficult ones to break loose. You’ll need 6 point metric sockets, 1/2” breaker bar and pipe on the end of it. Or if you have air impact wrenches, you might be able to break them loose. Soak them in penetrant for as long as you can and as many times as you can.
I won’t work on my car again until I get some pneumatic tools and a big air compressor. My dad had one in his garage that he used before he passed away. I just have to go over to my mom’s house and pick it up.
Thankfully our good friend’s brother works on cars and found a used steering system and rack and pinion with only 42k miles on it for $150. He is going to come pick up my car and fix it for me for free. It could have been a $2k+ mistake but thankfully it’s only going to cost us about $150-$200.
@Ira
The clamp is also so close to the inner tie rod boot, I had to be extra careful with the torch so I didn’t melt the boot when I was heating it up. How I ended up getting the bracket off was I had to use a recip saw with a metal blade to cut the rest of the bolt off above the frame.
2008, 120k. Every rubber mount in the entire front end of the car was completely torn when removed. Probably rubber degradation solely by age, though I’m sure the oil leaks didn’t help either.
'14 SE, 190+k. One lower ball joint died @ 185k, I bought all new suspension (& then just did the LCA - been lazy about it, ngl - struts are/have been gone, but tires wear even, though it definitely sits lower than it should & the ride still isn’t horrible.
On my 2010, I did them at like 175,000 miles. They were bad, some were completely torn through. It resolved my clunking noise and definitely feels tighter. I probably should have done them at around 140,000, which would likely have helped with some weird tire wear I was having.
With your mileage, you might as well do all of it now. Sway bar links, all 6 control arms, tie rods, tie rod ends, etc. Especially if you live in the Midwest. Buy aftermarket greasable parts.
Genuinely never because on the 2010-2012 the LCAs involve loosening the subframe at least and potentially disconnecting the exhaust and dropping the subframe. Fuck that.