Broke my front, lower, curved, control arm this morning. Luckily I was able to limp home. It also wasn't a surprise it broke as it was clunking at me already (though yes, I should have replaced it before it actually snapped. Live and learn).

Is it okay to replace just the broken one? Should I replace both lower on the front-left? All 4 on the front-left? All 8 on the front? etc...

Also is it sufficient to just replace the control arm or should I buy bushings as well (or anything else)?

The car's got 160k on it so it's not as though I need this to last another 10 years... That's not to say I'm neglecting it in any way, but if this something that can just be replaced as it breaks until I put a brick on the gas and send her off a cliff, I'll be content. If however not replacing both causes earlier failure, I'll replace both.

Thanks for any help!

 

Well I bought both front left lower arms. WAY cheaper on amazon than ECS but one on amazon said it wouldn't fit when it was the exact same part on ECS and said it would. And vice-versa for the other... so we'll see how this goes...

 

You can get adjustable control arms. That way you can adjust your camber without having to mess with the sub-frame.

 

Okay I got the control arm replaced. Turns out the old ball joint just fell out. Seriously. I hope the new one lasts a bit longer...

I also bought the straight arm that I didn't end up replacing because I had such trouble with the curved one. So now I have a spare control arm I don't need. I'm going to try and return it but I doubt itll work.