I replaced my entire control arm assy in 2008 with a Febi kit then got an alignment.
I immedately noticed that the steering was a bit stiffer than before and the steering would not come back to center without assistance.
As time progressed it became creaky and began to knock when I hit bumps


Last night I had a blow out in my right tire. Fortunatley it was in a parking lot. When I took the tire off it looked like.....well, way worse than the one below, which is the left tire.



Notice how the center tread is really good.
The inner tire is completely worn. The left tire is not as bad as the right. The right tire has exposed radials all the way around.

So my question.
In 2008 when i replaced the CA's I torqued the bolts with the car in the air and no load on the wheel bracket or ca's.

Could that have caused the CA's to fail again?

The only ca that is loose (that i can find) is the right lower rear.

I really don't think replacing just that one will fix the creaking and knocking. It seems to be coming from both sides.

I've hit all of them with a rubber mallet.

Thanks for any tips.

 

Not sure what's up with your car but all the suspension components with rubber bushing have to be tightened with the weight of the car on them. If they are tightened with the suspension hanging it will put undo stress on the bushings leading to premature failure.
BTW it is a good idea to make sure the outer tie rods are free before taking it in for a alignment.

 

You are either riding the inside edge of your tire very badly or something on your car is rubbing on the tire. Check to make sure that a suspension component or the car fender is not rubbing. Did you change wheels when you changed the control arm? If so, do you have the correct offset?

 

That is not from rubbing. The wear on that tire is caused by 1 under inflation & 2 toe or camber being out of spec.
Ask for a printout of the alignment when it is to be done!

 

Thanks for the replies.

I kinda figured the control arms would be shot. What a pain.

Now I get to spend $500 again and do that whole job over.

 

i noticed that the inside edges of my tires are wearing down like that too. Could it be the coil-overs?

 

Has anyone made some type of support that screws into the wheel lug holes that can load the control arms?

 

That doesn't even look like wear - more like the entire inside strip of the tread separated violently. iIf that part of the tread dramatically overheated, it might do that. Extreme negative camber could cause that, I suppose - do the front wheels look like they are straight vertically from the front of the car? If the bushing(s) were completely gone on one or more control arms, that might change the alignment so much that you'd see something like this.
If several people are seeing the same thing, that's a little scary... Anyone else seeing tire issues like this?
Jim

 

The inside of both left and right tires are worn like this. The right tire was the one that eroded to the point of failure first.

Here are 2 points to consider.

1. I torqued the entire CA assembly with no load on the wheels.
2. I drove on this set of tires from around June 2008 to present. (they were purchased after I replaced the CA's in '08)


Here is a pic of one of the uppers. I took this pic of the rotting strut pad, but notice the CA rubber. It is split.




Would that bushing split in less that 4 years if they had been torqued properly?