I'm not a trained mechanic but I do have quite a bit of common sense and a strong attention to detail. In any case, I decided to tackle it myself at a friend's auto shop. After reading through the posts and forums, it sounded like a PITA. However, once my friend explained it to me and loosening some bolts it was quite easy and I could probably do it in an hour instead of the 3 hours I spent my first time on one side. His other mechanics said that they could do one complete side in half an hour. The hardest part for me was lining up the lower shock mount to the control arm so I could thread in the bolt. However, it does make life easier when you have wrenches of different lengths (for more torque when tightening) and also air tools. But you can perform this repair with basic tools.

Unfortunatlely I didn't take any pics but for those of you looking to tackle it as a DIY, it definitely is doable.

Here are some basic instructions (I only replaced 3 out of the 4 control arms and will probably do the lower front control arm's rear bushing at a later time):

Jack car up and remove wheel (you should do the upper and lower control arms separately)
Unbolt the sway bar mounts on both sides of the car so the sway bar will just hang.

Remove 4 bolts from lower control arm - Control arm has two on both ends (18mm), one for the sway bar link and then the 4th is the shock mount.

Your next task is to simply remove the old lower control arm from all of the connecting pieces. Use a hammer, ball joint seperator, etc to get the ball joint out. Be careful b/c if you have the car on a lift, the control arm could fall and possibly break your foot. I just needed one light tap with a hammer and it was out. Also, you should be able to see where your old control arm failed by inspection.

Insert in new lower control arm by first putting in the ball joint (be careful not to pinch it).
Then put on the ball joint nut but no need to tighten yet. (we'll do that after everything is lined up).
I used a standing spiral jack/support thing so I could push up on the ball joint bolt and therefore push up on the entire wheel assembly. This will load the car and make lining up the control arm much easier. If you are at home, a simple floor jack should do the trick. Jack it up until you've got the car loaded to some degree and then all of the holes should be lined up much easier.
Put in all the bolts (do not tighten yet). If you are changing out the upper control arms, do not even mount the shock since you will need to remove it later. In any case, pay attention to where the inside of the lower control arm bolts up to near the center of the car. If you look at it, the LCA has a rectangular looking part with straight edges that need to be lined up to the car's mount that is also rectangular. You'll more than likely need a flashlight to see this. Make sure that these edges are parallel by jacking up the wheel assembly. Once this is done, tighten this bolt first and then everything else (sway bar, ball joint, shock).

You are now done with one of the two lower control arms (I did not replace the other lower control arm).

For the upper control arms, unbolt the bolt holding the two UCA's together to the wheel assembly. This is the infamous bolt that many people have a hard time getting out or breaking because it is rusted or seized.
Once that is done, use a hammer and knock the old UCA's upwards out of the socket.
Then, go into the engine bay and remove the 3 big bolts holding in your shock mount assembly from the top of the engine bay.
Wiggle the shock assembly out and onto your workbench/driveway.

Now that you have the assembly out, it is important to only remove one UCA at a time. DO NOT REMOVE both from the shock mount at the same time. The reason is because you need to line up the new ones with the old ones. If you don't, then you may be stressing the bushing since it may flex too much when the car is under load.

So remove and replace one UCA at a time while paying attention to the angle of the other UCA as reference. Tighten the bolts very tightly.

Now reinsert the shock mount on the car and line up the lower shock mount to the control arm. Tighten the bolts from the top of the engine bay. Flex the UCA and put then into their sockets. I used a huge plier to do this (be careful not to pinch the rubber). Once they are in, slide the bolt (or a new replacement bolt) in and tighten.

Line up the shock using a screwdriver, insert and tighten bolt and check to make sure that all bolts are tight. I had to use a pry bar b/c the angle of my shock was not at the same angle as the control arm. Lastly, secure the sway bar links. You will save some time and energy if you can use a jack to push up on the sway bar. This will make the mounting points line up much easier.

Replace wheel and tighten lug nuts.

That's it. Hopefully this comes in handy for those who are on the fence to replacing their control arms themselves. The air tool/impact gun only came in handy when it was time to tighten/loosen bolts. Otherwise some long wrenches can do the same job. BTW, it may be handy to put some anti-seize compound on the bolts just in case you ever do need to remove the bolts again in the future.


BTW, front wheel bearing DIY coming soon.