'01 Legacy broken lower A-arm

[freekraz]

Hello all,

 

I have an '01 Legacy L 5-speed sedan, 93,000 miles, runs like a champ.

 

Started getting bad noises from the front end passenger side every time I touched the brakes. Jacked the car up and took off the wheel: YIKES! The lower a-arm/control arm was completely rusted through right near the rear mounting. 

 

So, a few questions:

 

1) Should I buy a new or used part?

2) What bushings, hardware, etc., do I need to replace when I do the a-arm?

3) Anything else I should check out while I'm messing around down there?

 

BTW, I checked the driver's side and it's quite solid and rust-free, so just bad luck on the passenger side.

 

Thanks in advance for any tips,

 

Jeff in Boston

[1 Lucky Texan]

if you need that rear bushing/transverse link - look at Febest brand on Amazon.

 

RockAuto has those arms - some even come with a new balljoint I think.

[freekraz]

Wow -- great call Texan. Rock Auto has a new A-arm with ball joint for 65 bucks. Unbelievable.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

[1 Lucky Texan]

hope you started daily PB Blaster use on the ball joint last week - that part won't be fun to change.

 

Start putting penetrating oil on every bolt and nut today!

[idosubaru]

just replace the arm - you'll need a new ball joint (i've never seen rusty ball joints come out).  

 

familiarize yourself with how hard balljoints can be to remove - hopefully it's easy but they can vary widely, some will be impossible for some DIY folks to remove at home or require far more work than they ever would have anticipated.  hopefully yours is easy - but if this needs done in a day you might want to know how bad it can be.  it is by far the single hardest front fastener/part to work with in the rust belt.

 

since you're replacing the arm you only need to get it out of the knuckle....good luck!

[ocei77]

If it is stuck in socket, I've found that a chisel works. Just keep hitting the round section at an angle so that the when the rust breaks free it'll start to rotate. Keep working until it rotates at least 270 deg. Put castle nut back on and either pry or hit the a  arm with a bfh. It';ll come out.

Obviously an air hammer would be a lot quicker, but most BYM don't have that at their disposal.

 

O.