Front Control Arm Bushing... What's the procedure to replace?
 

Hey everyone,

A buddy of mine has an 02 ford escape xlt. His rear most passenger side control arm bushing seems to be shot (is that called the lower control arm bushing? not sure). We took it to a mechanic and they said to replace that bushing it would be about 460. I'm wondering what the procedure is.

Basically the problem is that he was hearing a lot of knocking in the front end when he went over bumps.... Upon inspection we see that there is no clearance between the top of the bushing (metal part) and the truck. The other side has at least a centimeter of clearance. I'm guessing the one that has no clearance is bad and needs replacing.

How hard is it to do this. Is it a matter of removing that bolt that holds it in, and pulling the control arm away from the bracket, pulling out the old and pressing in the new and putting the bolt back in? My buddy seems to think he read that somewhere, however, i'm skeptical of his findings. Or do i have to drop out the whole control arm? The mechanic seems to think you have to pull the whole control arm, ball joints and all.. I'm not so convinced.

any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been looking for some DIY's on the subject but haven't found any and I dont have a repair manual for his truck.

thanks
Todd

the hole control arm should be replaced ,thats why it was so much. try to price out for a mazda tribute some times pricing is better at the mazda dealer.

yeah my sister just had to do hers on an 06, they had to replace both control arms, it is expensive as they don't just replace the bushings.

Knocking noise on the front end is often the sway bar endlinks, they are much easier and cheaper to replace if you can determine them to be the problem, they are more likely the source of knocking noise, but that isn't to say the control arm bushings can't be a problem either.

We've had a knocking in the front of ours for about a year. Got new tires put on last week and had them check the suspension- front left lower control arm bushing shot. You can get new ones for about $20 at napa if I remember corretly. I do not, however, know what it takes to replace them. I am going to do it when I replace the shocks in a few weeks so I will have the front torn down already.

If I find anything I will post it.

x2 on the sway bar end links mine only clunked over speed bumps have some one bounce the front and someone watch the end links.

Sway bar links
 

I have a 06 that had a noise in the front end. I thought it was the struts but I checked closer and found one link to have some play in it. I didn't think the amount that it had would make that much noise but it did. Always check these frist & it also is the cheapest thing to do. :-D

You don't need to replace the entire control arm but you do need to remove it so you can press the bushings in and out. The reason why most shops replace the entire arm is it's easier and takes less time than to remove the bushings and ball joint (and they pass the cost on to you). Just pull the control arm out and take it down to a shop and they can press the new bushings in for you for about $20 each. It still beats the $460 for the new ones + labor

If you have high miles, I would replace the whole control arm. Why put a lower ball joint back in that has 100,000 miles on it. Rockauto has the complete control arm with bushings and ball joint already pressed in. Cost about $50.00. The knocking and creeking you hear could be sway bar end links. These cars are notorious for wheel bearings going bad too. Make sure you check for play in tire which could be the wheel bearing. My last failed bearing started out with low speed thump over bumps but got worse until it howled going down the highway.

So replace the ball joint too. Your can get all of the parts and have it done for a little more than you'll pay for the Dorman crap that's $50, and get a lot better quality. Remember, you get what you pay for; and there are only few exceptions to that rule. The reason it's so expensive to have it all done at a shop is labor (usually about $80 an hour, and they still use the cheap parts and mark them up to sell to you).

I bought replacement control arms from Car Quest and in less then a year the ball joints where bad.Less then 20,000 miles the original control arms had 160,000 and weren't as bad as the car quest ones.I put Motorcraft ones on this time $80.00 a piece they have been on for 7 months and no issues so far.

Rock Auto, in my opinion, is a joke. I ordered replacement sway bar links for our Escape. The first set they sent (both ends of each) had a slit in each of the boots. When I greased them th egrease came right out. The second set they sent had one just like the first and the other had the grease zirks installed already. But they would not accept grease. When I removed the zirk there was nowhere for the grease to go, it was solid.

bmuhlbach- you paid $80 for each control arm with the bushinds and ball joints installed? That's cheap!

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I got supplier discount andit drops about 20% off the cost of parts.