Putting on "new" steering knuckle. Lower control arm bolt not fitting....

So like the title says, this bolt will not even enter any of the two holes on either side. Everything else fit fine though. Am i looking at getting the hole machined slightly bigger or is there an undersized bolt i could buy?

Thanks!

Hi

If you're talking about the bolt that holds the ball joint in place, then it should fit perfectly. Go to the mazda dealer and buy a new bolt and nut, don't bother putting the old one in. I changed both control arms on my p5 and everything was seized, so just be patient and don't rush anything; the bolt was pitted and showed signs of fatigue. When you're ready to put in the new bolt through the knuckle, you might need to take a hammer and ligthly tap the bolt through the holes and presto!!! Remeber to put a little antiseize compound on the threads and go get an alignment once you're done. Hope this helps

madmaz

That's odd. Are all the parts oem Mazda? I would try tapping it in as suggested above. However, I will warn you that the bolts are expensive! I think I paid $24 for two from Mazda. Ridiculous. Let us know how it turns out.

Just so its clear, I am talking about the bolt that runs horizontally through the steering knuckle, not the actual control arm ball joint stud (which fits fine). I will try then to get a new one but in all honesty, when I compare the old steering knuckle to the new one I bought in a local junkyard, the hole is just slightly smaller that the bolt won't slide through at all. That's why I'm wondering, is my bolt the wrong size or were the holes on this steering knuckle made smaller?

The knuckle has got to be OEM right? I mean, when I did an internet search I could not even find a steering knuckle that was not OEM and this knuckle came off another Protege5.

I figure too its not the steering knuckle because every other part transferred with no problem: tie rod, bearing, bearing seal, strut bolts, lower control arm bolt, ABS sensor which it came with with matched with old one, and the axle. The one thing that does not fit is that one last bolt.

The only bolt that goes through the knuckle and is related to the control arm is the bolt that prevents the ball joint from slipping out of the knuckle. Notice how the ball joint has a rounded out part on the shaft? thats for the bolt to go throught the knuckle and pinch the ball joint firmly into place. So what you have to do is get new bolts from the dealer (to prevent problems in the future), place it in the hole and lightly tap it through with a hammer.

What happened in my case was that the bolts were reused in the previous control arm change and got seized to hard this time that nothing wanted to turn. Everything stripped off and I was forced to drill the bolt out of the knuckle. Save yourself a headache and get new bolts and nuts. I remember I paid around $14 for both.

If the holes on your old knuckle are bigger than the ones you got from the scrap yard, then maybe (if you're not the original owner) there was some previous work done where the knuckle was machined and a bigger bolt was put. But if nothing like that happened then everything should be fine with the new bolts.

Either way, try the simplest solution to the repair first and if that doesn't work then think about the next course of action. Hope your repair goes well.

Madmaz

From another forum...(bobistheoilguy)

"Are you sure you got the right one? WE are a Mazda dealer also and there are 4 different uprights listed for a 2003 Protege 5 w/ABS. All are different based on vehicle build date."

Well that sucks...where should I go from here?

Call your local dealer, talk to the parts department, and ask to confirm.

Well phoned Destination Mazda here in Winnipeg. From what the parts department was able to pull up it was simply w/ABS or w/oABS. I tried bringing up what was said and they had never heard of multiple uprights. They said the old one maybe was machined bigger. I'm still going to try the $10 easier solution and go from there. Thanks for all the suggestions!