It definitely doesn't help when the guys that sell them change their minds of what to call them.

Other than the lower/upper adding additional confusion, sticking to behind or forward of axle can eliminate any confusion as there are only two per side and only one in front one in back.

The one behind the axle is the wishbone/control arm and has an integral ball joint

The one forward of the axle is the tension strut aka radius arm and has a hole on the end near the wheel that attaches to the independent ball joint.

Hopefully that can help clear things up.

When wishbone fails you will usually get shopping cart wobble felt in the steering

When the tension strut fails you will feel a pronounced thud any time you hit the brakes as the front wheels will move up to 2 cm rearward.

Amazingly neither will usually cause steering/alignment/wear issues. I've driven 1000s of miles with each badly worn and no quick wear off tires or odd steering

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)