Lower Control Arms + Ball Joints
Has anyone here tackled this job DIY? I need to hear from someone else that I’m not crazy for thinking it was such a battle.
My god that sucked. Far worse than changing the wheel bearing hub assemblies. I just finished changing out the lower control arms because they came with new bushings and ball joints. I also put in new front and rear sway bar end links and sway bar bushings. The rear was pretty easy.
The videos online did not give this job its due respect. 2014 Outback with 162,000 miles. Well maintained, but in a high elevation winter climate. Needless to say things were fused/rusted together. Maybe even welded together.
Tips for the next person trying to DIY this job.
- Get a big hammer, 5lb minimum
- Get the Subaru specific ball joints puller tool. Best $35 you can spend
- Make sure you have lots of pry bars, short and long, and the hook attachment to pull down on the lower arm
- Disassembly is hard, but maybe not the hardest part. Each side took 30 minutes of beating on things with a hammer to the point where I wanted to quit, but it eventually came apart. You really need to hit things hard.
- Be gentle with the ball joint pinch bolts. These are known to commonly break
- The dang rear arm bolt was so fused to the bushing that the bushing tore out before the bolt would even think about moving. See photos. This made me want to quit, but also made me feel invincible when they finally budged. Took a box end wrench and a 5’ cheater bar to move it. The impact wrench helped a ton too.
- You will need a torch to heat all the bolts and a full bottle of PB Blaster
If you suspect your car has rust order new rear lower arm bolts and axle nuts.
- Assembly was tricky too. A mechanic on a lift may not need to do this, but I found it would be impossible otherwise. I had to remove the axle nut and unseat the CV axle in order to align the new ball joints.
- Start with the rear control arm bolt.
- Next seat the ball joint
- Next insert the sway bar end link. (Don’t forget this)
- Last is the front control arm bolts.
- Torque ball joints and end links in the air. Torque everything else after the suspension is under load.
Pretty much every single video and shop manual was either done or written for cars that are not rusted. As far as DIY jobs go I would rank this a 7 out of 10 in difficulty. About as hard as it gets without pulling an engine. Also, my bushings didn’t feel that loose before, but after feeling them disintegrate upon removal made me happy I didn’t put it off longer.
Good luck if you are going to try this. I hope there is some helpful info in here.