Lower Control Arm Replacement - Help

slavrenz · Nov 21, 2008

So I have been getting a weird clunking sound when going over large bumps, and when I accelerate, so I crawled underneath my '01 Protege LX 2.0 yesterday and found that my driver side ball joint dust boot on the lower control arm was torn. I have ordered a new control arm assembly and it should be here on Monday.

My question is, has anyone ever replaced one of these? If so, is it just a straight-forward swap, or are there things I need to be aware of going into this? It looks like there is a pinch bolt holding the b-joint into the steering knuckle, so hopefully after I remove this, some PB Blaster and a couple fo smacks to the knuckle will free it.

Thanks in advance!

Tom03es · Nov 21, 2008

Do you have the workshop manuals?

http://www.floptical.net/mazda/

Probably isn't too hard.

slavrenz · Nov 21, 2008

Tom03es said:
Do you have the workshop manuals?

Yeah, I have a manual, but it doesn't really talk a whole lot about the control arm replacement itself - just about the bushing replacement (the new control arm has the bushings and everything already). I was just wondering if there was anything I needed to be careful about that people might have picked up from firsthand experience.

bgibb68 · Nov 21, 2008

it's easy i replaced mine without the manual. just unbolt from the frame an strut then pry it off. when ya put the new one on, bolt it to the frame, put a jack up where it pops onto the ball and jack it up and will slip on, i'm away from my car or i'ld throw up pics. shoule take about an hour or 2

edit: make sure you get it alligned afterwards

slavrenz · Nov 21, 2008

Thanks for the reply - it sounds like its pretty straightforward. Btw, why do you have to get it aligned. I know that I had to get an alignment done when I replaced my struts, but if I am careful and mark the locations of things, is it really necessary?

I ask because I'm a poor college student who doesn't really want to dole out an extra $50-$60 if I don't have to. Being poor sux (sad2)

bgibb68 · Nov 21, 2008

well any change to suspension components imo requires an alignment. just good idea to do, even if eveything looks the same doesn't mean it is, your old one could be bent a lil bit or just moved and putting in a new one could knock the alignment out.

slavrenz · Nov 21, 2008

That's a good point.

bgibb68 · Nov 21, 2008

my amily rule of thumb.....if you touch the suspension get it aligned....if you have a firestone around, they used to have a lifetime alignment which is about the price of getting your car aligned twice....i got it 5 years ago and it's more than paid for itself....considering i've had my car aligned about twice a year

slavrenz · Nov 22, 2008

Thanks again - you've been a great help. I don't know if there's a firestone here in ames, but there's a few in Cedar Rapids where I'm from. I'm home for Thanksgiving from college right now, so I'll check it out.

slavrenz · Nov 25, 2008

So I got the control arm replaced - no problem. Got in the car, drove around the block...everything seemed fine. Then as I backed into my driveway, a horrible metal-on-metal screeching sound came from the left front side of the car (the side with the new control arm).

It seems as if this sound can only be made in reverse, and it drives fine otherwise. If I sit in my car when it's in park, and rock it long enough, I can also produce a very faint creaking sound.

Any ideas on what this could be? I'm sorta scared to drive the car because I don't want to break anything.

bgibb68 · Nov 25, 2008

i never got that when i replaced mine.....is the caliper to tight?

edit: the creaking could just be your strut when you rock it.....

slavrenz · Nov 25, 2008

bgibb68 said:
i never got that when i replaced mine.....is the caliper to tight?

edit: the creaking could just be your strut when you rock it.....

Thanks for the reply. I didn't remove my caliper when I replaced the arm, and it definitelty never made a sound like this before today. I noticed that if I put some force on the rotor, I could make it contact the control arm, so I took off the rotor and ground down the edge of the control arm. I replaced the rotor, and it didn't look like it was hitting anymore, but as soon as I got everything put together, the sound came again.

Like I said, the car runs fine with no sound in "drive", but it makes the horrible screeching sound in reverse. I'm done trying to work on it tonight, but if I can't figure it out tomorrow, I might just drive it to a shop and see what they think.

edit: bgibb68, is there any specific tightening order that you used when you attached the new control arm? I am thinking about the possibility that something is not tightened down correctly and may be rubbing. At this point I'm just sort of stabbing in the dark.

bgibb68 · Nov 25, 2008

any order.....not that i know of....i replaced mine w/o the manual or any help and suggestions.....as long as it's all tight there shouldn't be any problems....

with the sound happening only in rev....it's got to be the rotor.....try jacking up that corner and just free spinning that one wheel and see if you can narrow down where the sound is coming from

slavrenz · Nov 25, 2008

bgibb68 said:
any order.....not that i know of....i replaced mine w/o the manual or any help and suggestions.....as long as it's all tight there shouldn't be any problems....

with the sound happening only in rev....it's got to be the rotor.....try jacking up that corner and just free spinning that one wheel and see if you can narrow down where the sound is coming from

I'm thinking the rotor is still the culprit as well, but I wonder just how much more I can grind off the end of the control arm without affecting its structural integrity. The control arm was not ordered from the dealer - it was aftermarket, so I'm wondering if it just wasn't made to precisely OEM specs.

I see that you mentioned something earlier about a caliper being too tight. What did you mean by this? And could this somehow cause the rotor to come into contact with the control arm?

edit: The good news is that the clunking noise is fixed

bgibb68 · Nov 25, 2008

no that the pds are holding tight.....that's why i talked about jacking the car up and spinning that one wheel, see if you can isolate the noise, or if the caliper is tight and won;t let the wheel free spin

slavrenz · Nov 26, 2008

Wow...talk about boy genius here. I accidentally bent the front dust shield when I replaced the control arm, and I forgot to bend it back. That was what was making the noise on the rotor, and everything is fine now. (2thumbs)

I just had my wisdom teeth pulled on Monday, so I was a little bit out on Painkiller last night (I took it after I replaced the arm), so that may have hindered my diagnostic abilities slightly.

low_psi · Nov 26, 2008

I was about to mention the dust shield. Glad you got it sorted out.

bgibb68 · Nov 26, 2008

good to hear you got together dude.....just more money rapers(shops) won't get YAY

slavrenz · Nov 28, 2008

So, one more question about alignment. I just got a 4-wheel alignment done about 2 months ago when I replaced my front struts. Can I get by with a simple 2-wheel alignment on the front. I have found hundreds of articles explaining why 2 wheel alignments are obsolete, but none seem to address this unique situation.

bgibb68 · Nov 28, 2008

slavrenz said:
So, one more question about alignment. I just got a 4-wheel alignment done about 2 months ago when I replaced my front struts. Can I get by with a simple 2-wheel alignment on the front. I have found hundreds of articles explaining why 2 wheel alignments are obsolete, but none seem to address this unique situation.

if it's big price diff go for the 2

Lower Control Arm Replacement - Help

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