In February of 2013, I had my drivers side lower control arm replaced, as they noticed it was bad while investigating an ABS issue. It ended up being 117 for the part, and 82.50 for labor for the control arm. The part number on the receipt for the repair shows CAR-CA354B, which I found to be a carquest part selling for around 66 bucks.
Now fast forward to today, I rotated my tires, and since I have been noticing some minor things with the front end lately, I took a look. Here is what I found.
This is an image of the passenger side ball joint, which AFAIK is factory. Now below is the drivers side ball joint which was replaced with the control arm around a year and a half ago.
Now, is this something that is concerning, and should I go ahead and replace this control arm again? ( I plan to do the work myself as I have garage space to work now, and would do an entire control arm rather than just the ball joint in order to save time. ) Any specific brand to go with? I see that dorman parts are about half the price of moog.
Second, is it advisable to do these things in pairs, or just the side that has issues?
Are there any other things that should be looked at / replaced while I am in there? I did notice the sway bar bushings looked slightly deformed, but maybe that is just me.
Lastly, is an alignment required after control arm replacement? If so, I may end up holding out on any repairs as I am planning on a new set of tires and an alignment before the snow falls.