Thread: Control arm bushings pulling out

Ok this is repair number two that the dealership pointed out my car needed. I'm in no position to investigate any of this myself, and so I'm going to post on here and find out if any are dangerous to ignore until I can start digging into my car.

I've been told the control arm bushings on my car are pulling out. The car is a 98 with 167K miles on it, so this is understandable I suppose.

How dangerous is this to leave alone for a while? Could it wait a few weeks until I'm home for school or can it be left even a year or two? (probably not but worth a shot)

Thanks guys.

Well I'm generally not rough on my car so I'm not sure how nimble it really is. But I'd say there's less handling than when I bought the car 4 years ago. I would think this is normal though.

Alright, then I'm going to replace them then.

I've read it's easier to just replace the entire control arm rather than just the bushings. Is this something that I could do if I've never worked on a car before?

Awesome man thanks! I'm going to do it in a couple weeks once I'm home from my internship. I'll post back how it turns out I'm pretty mechanically inclined so it shouldn't be too bad.

Originally Posted by Swash

It would be easier to just replace the control ("A") arm. As for "can you do it?". Sure - it's just a few bolts, and it should only take you about an hour each side.

Oh...and this might help.

Set the e-brake, and jack up the car. I'd do both that the same time - so set a couple jack stands in place. Just be sure to allow the control arms to hang.
Remove the wheels/tires
Remove the outer tie rod end from the steering knuckle
Disconnect the stabilizer bar from the control arm
Disconnect the ABS sensor - make sure it's out of harm's way.
When removing the control arm from the spindle, note the direction of the bent ends of the cotter pin in the castle nut. You don't want the bent ends of the cotter pin facing the half shaft or the ABS sensor
Remove the cotter pin and loosen, but do not remove the nut from the ball joint stud - this is fairly important...read on and I'll tell you why.
Separate the ball joint stud from the steering knuckle - do not use a hammer to try and beat the stud down through the spindle. This probably sounds like common sense - but I've seen it done. No bueno. I have a 5' long piece of 1 1/4" round steel that I put in the hole you'll see on the left side of the control arm towards the back, and I use it for leverage to push the arm down enough to separate, but not completely thanks to the nut you left on; the arm from the spindle.
Remove the castle nut
Remove the 2 control arm mounting bolts and remove the control arm from the frame.

Take this time to clean up anything that you feel needs it - it would also be a good time to replace the half shafts if you think they need it.

Reassemble in the reverse order.

Torque specs:
Castle nut @ ball joint - 40 ft lb (Don't forget, you have to put the cotter pin back in - so you have to keep that in mind when torquing it down)
Stabilizer bar bolts - 17 ft lb
Control arm bolts - 83 ft lb


HTH - Swash

I just did this repair and I didn't have to disconnect the outer tie rod end. Could save you some time. The only tip I can give you is to remove the front control arm bolt first (the horizontal one with the torx bit on it). That one is the hardest to remove and it helps if the control arm is as straight as possible.

Here are the instructions I found;

Tools needed: 10 mm socket, 18 mm socket, 21 mm wrench, 18mm wrench, T55 torx, pry bar, and BFH.

The first step is get the respective side to be worked on jacked up. Be sure to use a jackstand, if possible or good floor jack to hold the side up at a decent elevation. Remove wheel.

Un-snap the plastic retainers that hold the wheel sensor wiring harness to the lower control arm.

Then undo the nut and bolt holding the sway bar link bushings on and remove bolt from the link bushings. Next remove the cotter pin securing the nut on the ball joint and then remove ball joint nut. At this point take a hammer to the old control arm around the area of the ball joint and carefully beat downwards. (I used an pickle fork for this part) The object is to get the ball joint separated from the steering knuckle. Once you get that off then remove the vertical and horizontal control arms bolts fastening the control arm to the sub-frame assembly. You'll have to rock one side of the control arm and then pull out (horizontal bushing). The control arm should be off in your hands at this point.

Assembly is reverse of above.

Other helpful hints:

Use PB Blaster or WD40 all bolts that need to be removed above first and let sit for a few hours.

You can rent a ball joint separator tool.

And some people rent strut coil spring compressors and tighten down to relieve the downward tension of the strut on the steering knuckle and hub. This may not be necessary.

Once replacement control arm is on it may be hard to get the ball joint to align with the hole in the steering knuckle. You may need a friend to help pull up on the control arm to help align it or you can use a small hydraulic jack to apply upward pressure.

BTW - Don't forget to have alignment checked afterwards but it may be OK if no other parts were replaced like a tie rod, strut, etc.
*Tighten the nut in order to align the cotter pin hole with the front lower
control arm ball stud. Do NOT loosen the nut in order to align the cotter pin
hole.

Torque specs;
* Front Lower Control Arm Ball Stud to Steering Knuckle Nut
15 lb ft + 120 degrees
Front Lower Control Ball Stud Nuts to Control Arm (New Ball Joint)
50 lb ft
Front Lower Control Arm Mounting Nuts
77 lb ft
Front Stabilizer Shaft Bracket Bolt
35 lb ft
Front Stabilizer Shaft Link Nut
17 lb ft

Cool thanks dude.

Got the arms from Rock Auto. They're Moog brand I believe.

I just did control arms, axles, sway bar on my car (2000GTP), the arms I got from Rockauto. but when you look under GP GTP, they only show one set of arms, which were over $100, but if you look up for a 2000 Buick Regal, they have ones from Dorman for only $67. Yes, one was made in Tiawan, and the other was made in China, but hell what isn't these days. They fit perfect, and the car drives perfect I am not going to get another alighnment yet, I will wait and check the tires for wear later on.
I changed my arms because for some reason they were very rusty, as for wear on the ball joints, they were still tight, and that is with 140,000 miles on them. One rubber bushing was loose in the bore, it was a front bushing. The GMPP 34mm sway bar made a big improvment in the cornereing too. My axles were still tight too, I'm going to clean and regrease with new boots and keep them in storage for later because they are still tight too, I changes them because I thought they were causing some noise in the front end, well long story short, the noise is still there, but the car handles bettter too. Also, It's a good idea to change the transmission axles seal when changing axles, I had one seal leaking some bit, the other was not leaking yet, but I know that if I did not change the seal now, it WILL leak in 500 miles later.

dean

Originally Posted by QUICKSILVER462

I just did control arms, axles, sway bar on my car (2000GTP), the arms I got from Rockauto. but when you look under GP GTP, they only show one set of arms, which were over $100, but if you look up for a 2000 Buick Regal, they have ones from Dorman for only $67. Yes, one was made in Tiawan, and the other was made in China, but hell what isn't these days. They fit perfect, and the car drives perfect I am not going to get another alighnment yet, I will wait and check the tires for wear later on.
I changed my arms because for some reason they were very rusty, as for wear on the ball joints, they were still tight, and that is with 140,000 miles on them. One rubber bushing was loose in the bore, it was a front bushing. The GMPP 34mm sway bar made a big improvment in the cornereing too. My axles were still tight too, I'm going to clean and regrease with new boots and keep them in storage for later because they are still tight too, I changes them because I thought they were causing some noise in the front end, well long story short, the noise is still there, but the car handles bettter too. Also, It's a good idea to change the transmission axles seal when changing axles, I had one seal leaking some bit, the other was not leaking yet, but I know that if I did not change the seal now, it WILL leak in 500 miles later.

dean

Can you recall what the Dorman part number was for the lower control arm assembly? and was it the drivers or passengers side? The reason I ask is because advance auto parts game me a dorman part number for the 2002 grand prix lower control arm that was different than the one listed for the 2000 regal dorman. How can I be sure it will work?

Here is what I orderd for my 2000 GTP
The arms have new bushings and new ball joints.
From Rockauto:
520155, and 520156, one is left, the other is rightside.
My noise ended up being loose rack and pinion mount bolts, LOL

Dean

Great info on the control arm. I had a question on my 2000 3.1 SE. I thought my driver side front vertical bushing was coming out because it did not look like the passenger side. The little lip edge on top like in the picture.


After more careful examination, my driver side bushing is mounted upside down in the control arm. The lip is on the bottom not the top! Does anyone know if this is normal or is this a factory goof?
To my knowledge the car has not had any suspension work done on the control arms.
I have an alldata subscription and the service notes do not make any mention of mounting the bushing differently on either side.
I guess now that I see this the bushing might not be bad. I'm just wondering if I now need to correct it's orientation?
Thanks!
Russell

Well, I think I answered my own question. I went to RockAuto and looked at the images they have for the left and right control arms. Sure enough the bushing is placed rim up like in the image in the right arm and upside down in the left arm. Guess I just would have figured a mirrored setup.
Anyway, I'm now guessing I don't have a problem at all.
Thanks,
Russell

FYI, the front bushing in my control arms were installed opposite on one side also, it's like they put one in from the bottom and the other from the top, I noticed this before I installed the news, and the new one's were also the same way.
I gues the guy that drew the blueprints for the front control arms was lazy and just did the "mirror" part in AUTOCAD and call it the other arm, LOL.