Lower control arms - regular replacement needed?

[VR457]

Just saw this thread on the OZ forum: http://ozvr4.com/forums/showthread.p...r-control-arms..

What are members experience of this? How often do we need to replace these items?

[Nick Mann]

I haven't read the link, so apologies if I miss the point here, but I haven't heard of genuine parts failing catastrophically. Therefore if running genuine parts I would only change them once the ball joint/bushes are wearing.

[TAR]

There was much discussion about non genuine arms on here some time back. There were some worrying failures on arms supplied by Camskill. They have now STOPPED suppling non genuine, so they are fine to use.

Mitsubishi had a recall on these arms and if you haven't had them done, the Colt Car Company (Mitsubishi in the UK) will arrange for this free of charge.

Any failure of the lower control arm ball joint will result in major damage to the front of your car.

The latest part numbers for Mitsubishi OEM (recall) arms are:

Recall Front Left: MR972465
Recall Front Right: MR972466

Mitsi ASA part numbers:
Front Left - MR296295
Front Right - MR296296


Both Nutter John and myself have seen cars with the non genuine arms fitted and they are not a good fit - they do not sit very well in the subframe mountings. I believe that this is due to the bushing not being correctly aligned. as a consequence of this, I think that more stress is placed on the ball joints which can lead to premature failure.

I have attached some pictures to show genuine arms and the offset of the bushing.

Mitsi Front Lower Control Arms 001a.JPGMitsi Front Lower Control Arms 006a.JPG
Mitsi Front Lower Control Arms 002.jpgMitsi Front Lower Control Arms 005.jpg
Mitsi Front Lower Control Arms 004.jpg

[ex-derv]

Both Nutter John and myself have seen cars with the non genuine arms fitted and they are not a good fit - they do not sit very well in the subframe mountings. I believe that this is due to the bushing not being correctly aligned. as a consequence of this, I think that more stress is placed on the ball joints which can lead to premature failure.

mine were some of the said pattern, as seen by John,, crappy arms and they lasted about 28 000 miles before being in a shocking state. Having had them changed now the difference in the handling is significant.

[foxdie]

Interesting, the ones listed on Camskill have different part numbers, does that mean they're selling pre-recall arms?

[aboo]

I haven't read the link, so apologies if I miss the point here, but I haven't heard of genuine parts failing catastrophically. Therefore if running genuine parts I would only change them once the ball joint/bushes are wearing.

Post 13 on the link Nick he says they weren't genuine ones. They were of ebay.

[funkstardelux]

Interesting, the ones listed on Camskill have different part numbers, does that mean they're selling pre-recall arms?

i contacted mitso parts the part numbers are different only due to internal use of their system exactly same arms

[TAR]

Interesting, the ones listed on Camskill have different part numbers, does that mean they're selling pre-recall arms?

i have just checked with Mitsubishi and the part numbers quoted on the Camskill site are correct and will be the ones offered if you ask Mitsi for some. The part numbers I have listed are the ones assigned to the arms produced to be used for the recall work. I and the guy I spoke to at Mitsi have no idea why they would have a different part number except if it was an administration thing. It does appear that they have very large quantities of stock of the recall arms.

I've updated my origional post to quote both sets of part numbers; any of which are suitable replacements for any VR4 lower lateral arm.

[sampsulo]

these arms are expensive my goodness...are they interchangable with the eclipse one?

[VR457]

Guess who's failed recently?

Yep, it was mine.

Car sat on drive with one wheel needing replacement and a slightly bent wing.

Could have been worse, it skidded to a stop from 50mph with front wheel at an angle.

[TAR]

Sorry to hear this Jamil. Its seems like you doomed yourself by starting this thread.

[wintertidenz]

Has anyone ever tried pulling the bottom of the arm out where the joint sits? Looks like this is the last thing to go in, so it may be possible to rebuild the joints or put in a grease nipple for regular maintenance.

I would treat the lower arms as a regular service item - I'm currently using non-genuine lower arms but they are holding up well after 25,000kms. If they do start to fail then I will replace them with Mitsi ones - it isn't really just a replace and forget item, considering the amount of stress that are placed on these joints.

And that's a pretty scary speed for the joints to fail - just out of curiosity, have you lowered the car or changed any suspension items? Lowering the car seems to put more stress on these parts.

[VR457]

My car seemed to have the recall done and its just pased 100k miles so perhaps it should be a service item def at this mileage.

No suspension changes were done at the front. The mounts were changed to polybush, the four main ones and rear dampers were changed recently. Their was clunking noises but only one or two for the first mile or so in the last two weeks. I just thought it was rear shock spring settling in, stupid i know. In fact when the ball joint went, i thought the problem was in the rear.

The good thing was it was on the way back from handing in my assignments that i had been screwing over for at least six months and two extensions...

[orionn2o]

Guess who's failed recently?

Yep, it was mine.

Car sat on drive with one wheel needing replacement and a slightly bent wing.

Could have been worse, it skidded to a stop from 50mph with front wheel at an angle.

Sorry to hear that bud. I had exactly the same thing happen to me twice! After the damage it caused it really slowed down my spending on the VR4 !

[VR457]

Sorry to hear that bud. I had exactly the same thing happen to me twice! After the damage it caused it really slowed down my spending on the VR4 !

It must have slowed it right down - you have an Evo now!

[elnevio]

Wow, that is by far the quickest speed I am aware of a failure occurring at. Glad you're okay, and that there doesn't seem to be much more that the 'usual' damage associated with this type of failure caused .

[orionn2o]

It must have slowed it right down - you have an Evo now!

Ha yes slowed to the point that I opted for another toy. I was fed up trying to make my car handle and be as fast as an evo. Then got offered and evo! Still loved the VR4 though. Maybe another one one day!

[VR457]

Must try out an Evo one day, you're right, we are always trying to make our cars handle like its on rails.

Nev, you mentioned that the failure happens when going round bends but this happened in a straight line. I was approaching A38 / A446 on the dual carriageway when it happened. Left a 200 metre skid mark. Will take photo to show the effect on the wheel rubber.

A few miles before i would have been doing 80-90 mph easily.

[wintertidenz]

Did you hit any rough road before it happened? It's possible that you hit a pothole or something similar in the road which caused it to snap.

Either that or it was already snapped, and just sitting on top of the ball joint ready to move.

[VR457]

No pot holes. It must have died some time after the engine / gearbox box mounts got done, on the basis of the weakest link. And i had just been getting lined up for replacing the front dampers. Mind, from what is written there seems to be no way of forecasting failure short of direct testing of the part.