Lower Control Arm Replacement - Help

Lol - I can't believe my luck. I took it to get an alignment done yesterday (2 wheel vs. 4 wheel was a $45 price diff, FYI), and they said my front wheel bearings were shot, so they couldn't do the alignment. I took it to a mechanic buddy and he confirmed it for me. So now I've got two wheel bearing replacements on my hands, and I won't have time or money to do it for 3 weeks. Horray public transit!

This car has been an absolute nightmare for me. I bought it for $5,900 in January used, and I've had to do the following:

- 2 ignition coils replaced
- 2 catalytic converters (1 after each ignition coil failed separately)
- 2 oxygen sensors (along with catalytic converters)
- 1 valve cover gasket and PCV valve (valve got clogged and sprayed oil all over my engine bay)
- 2 front struts after they suddenly gave out and leaked oil everywhere
- 2 engine mounts (front and back)
- 1 passenger side half-axle and steering knuckle after a CV joint failed on the highway
- 1 Driver side control arm after ball joint failure
- (soon to be) 2 front wheel bearings
- 2 failed wheel studs

I'm sort of at the point where I'd like for someone to just steal the car so I can collect the insurance money. Oh well, back to the garage :)
 
Last edited:
god bless son i thought i had bad luck i sorry dude...it is a good car....m only bad luck is people hitting mine
 
thanks man... my only regret is that with the money I've put into this thing fixing it, I could've had a brand new (cheap) car almost paid off. Oh well, that's life.
 
well if you got a mech friend, can he help ya out and save a few bucks, don't know about the front bearing on mazdas or how hard they are(easy on my old s10 and common to go out) but can't be all that hard, just time consuming especially the first time
 
Thanks, man. I contacted a friend who has a garage, and he may be able to let me use the lift and all of their air tools :). So far, I've done all the repairs myself - I don't even want to think about how much it would cost if I'd hired them out.

All in all, it's not the price of fixing everything that bothers me - it's the "what's going to break this week?" and then actually watching something break mentality.
 
slavrenz said:
Thanks, man. I contacted a friend who has a garage, and he may be able to let me use the lift and all of their air tools :). So far, I've done all the repairs myself - I don't even want to think about how much it would cost if I'd hired them out.

All in all, it's not the price of fixing everything that bothers me - it's the "what's going to break this week?" and then actually watching something break mentality.
Click to expand...


i stopped doing that with my old truck....i just drive it like i stole and have fun and then fix what ever goes wrong when it does.....yeah speaking of this i think my alt is finally starting to die...BOOOHOOOO
 
Bringing this post back from the dead in case anyone needs help replacing the lower control arm. Thought I'd post a few tips after replacing the driver side lower control arm today. The instructions are documented in the Mazda factory shop manual, page 02-13-5. Although the procedure looks straight forward, I couldn't complete it using the technique in the shop manual.

Removal:
The lower control arm is fairly straightforward to remove. First, the 17mm front bolt needs to be removed. Then the 14mm lower control arm bolt/nut clamping the ball joint are removed. A ball joint removal fork ($10 or free rental at Autozone) is needed to get the ball joint out of the knuckle. The fork needed some forceful hammering to lever off the ball joint. Then the 3 17mm bolts holding on the bracket and 1 17mm bolt attaching the rear bushing of the lower control arm to the frame are removed. These required an impact wrench to remove as they were stuck on tightly. The lower control arm should be easy to remove at this point. To make reassembly easier, you might want to clean up the bolts you removed.

Reassembly:
This is trickier. The shop manual recommends the reverse of the removal procedure, but I wasn't able to get everything lined up this way.

1. The first bolt to reinstall is the long 17mm bolt attaching the rear lower control arm bushing to the frame (also install the bracket with it). It should be left a little loose. Then the three 17mm bolts holding the bracket to the frame of the car can be attached, again leaving them a bit loose.

2. The manual recommends next inserting the ball joint into the knuckle (reverse of disassembly)... but this didn't let me line up the last bolt easily. Instead, I reinstalled the long 17mm bolt toward the front of the lower control arm. This required a bit of hammering and pulling/pushing to get the holes to line up. Again, the bolt was screwed in but left a little loose.

3. Finally, the ball joint was inserted into the knuckle. This takes some work. You have to move the steering knuckle around to line it up with the ball joint. You also need to ensure the ball joint is pointing straight up. Then you have to hammer the lower control arm below the ball joint to insert the ball joint into the knuckle. Hammer forcefully until it fully seats. I tried using a jack to push the ball joint into the lower control arm, but that didn't work at all.

4. Finally tighten everything to spec: for the five 17mm bolts it's 68.8-96.9ft-lbf (I tightened to 80ft-lbf.) For the 14mm lower control arm ball joint clamping nut/bolt it's 32-43ft-lbf.

If you follow this technique and have an impact wrench, it should take 1-2 hours.
 
MaxPower said:
Bringing this post back from the dead in case anyone needs help replacing the lower control arm. Thought I'd post a few tips after replacing the driver side lower control arm today. The instructions are documented in the Mazda factory shop manual, page 02-13-5. Although the procedure looks straight forward, I couldn't complete it using the technique in the shop manual.

Removal:
The lower control arm is fairly straightforward to remove. First, the 17mm front bolt needs to be removed. Then the 14mm lower control arm bolt/nut clamping the ball joint are removed. A ball joint removal fork ($10 or free rental at Autozone) is needed to get the ball joint out of the knuckle. The fork needed some forceful hammering to lever off the ball joint. Then the 3 17mm bolts holding on the bracket and 1 17mm bolt attaching the rear bushing of the lower control arm to the frame are removed. These required an impact wrench to remove as they were stuck on tightly. The lower control arm should be easy to remove at this point. To make reassembly easier, you might want to clean up the bolts you removed.

Reassembly:
This is trickier. The shop manual recommends the reverse of the removal procedure, but I wasn't able to get everything lined up this way.

1. The first bolt to reinstall is the long 17mm bolt attaching the rear lower control arm bushing to the frame (also install the bracket with it). It should be left a little loose. Then the three 17mm bolts holding the bracket to the frame of the car can be attached, again leaving them a bit loose.

2. The manual recommends next inserting the ball joint into the knuckle (reverse of disassembly)... but this didn't let me line up the last bolt easily. Instead, I reinstalled the long 17mm bolt toward the front of the lower control arm. This required a bit of hammering and pulling/pushing to get the holes to line up. Again, the bolt was screwed in but left a little loose.

3. Finally, the ball joint was inserted into the knuckle. This takes some work. You have to move the steering knuckle around to line it up with the ball joint. You also need to ensure the ball joint is pointing straight up. Then you have to hammer the lower control arm below the ball joint to insert the ball joint into the knuckle. Hammer forcefully until it fully seats. I tried using a jack to push the ball joint into the lower control arm, but that didn't work at all.

4. Finally tighten everything to spec: for the five 17mm bolts it's 68.8-96.9ft-lbf (I tightened to 80ft-lbf.) For the 14mm lower control arm ball joint clamping nut/bolt it's 32-43ft-lbf.

If you follow this technique and have an impact wrench, it should take 1-2 hours.
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this.It took my brother and I about two hours to do the entire install for the driver and passenger side.
 
How hard is it to do with basic hand tools in a driveway?

And is it worthwhile to do them anyway (not knowing when they were last done) if I am going to be putting in new springs anyway?
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
1999 Protege 1.8L Transmission issues? Help!
Replies
11
Views
3K
Bloodymic
B
U
Need help with cruise control install (2000 Protege DX)
Replies
0
Views
847
USBLynx
U
J
    • Like
    • Love
1st to 2nd Gen CX-5 Front control arm upgrade
Replies
4
Views
254
Boland01
B

Latest posts

Back