Quote:
Originally Posted by Weasel
Eh, that's a double edged sword... if the control arm is bent or cracked they would say it is from impact damage and decline. I'd be curious as to what defects they say are covored. The bushings on those rear upper control arms are solid, so 19 times of 20 the problem is with the ball joint end of it, which is what you would think is covered.
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I know I'm late to this post, I am experiencing something similar. I replaced the front LL control arm May 2010 because I had a wicked shimmy on high speed braking. It started again a bit more than two weeks ago. Knowing I had replaced the lower arms on both sides I figured it must be the uppers. Yesterday I took it to my Indy and he said the LL front control arm was bad - rubber boot was torn and there was no grease. I bought the parts at the dealer (time constraint) and replaced the control arm again last night (so daughter could drive up to DE).
He also told me the front control arm bushes were going bad (cracked and dry). I have an '02 3.0i with 152,000 miles. So my answer to part of your original question is that I don't think it's "normal wear and tear" at 70,000 miles as I am only now beginning the replacements of suspension parts.
That said, I thought I saw a post a while back for a "make shift" press when replacing the bushes. I am not going to buy that specialty tool for what will surely be the only time in my life I will do this kind of repair. If I do it.
Does anybody recall a post about a bush replacement where such a tool is unavailable???