So I'm seeing people talking about replacing their control arms when doing suspension work. But I'm not quite sure what gains there are to be made and also how to tell when they NEED to be replaced. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Also, I recently installed new coilovers(Raceleland, don't hate) and after a little while my rear now squeaks all the time. Not sure if that is relevant at all.

Thanks!

 

The control arms have ball joints attached to the ends. When those go out, the control arm needs replaced. Jack the car up and wiggle the tire to see if you get any play out of your ball joints.

 

Okay thanks. I saw that as a test somewhere but wasn't sure if there was some other ways to tell.

 

Also look at the bushings, if they're worn you'll see cracks and stress marks in the rubber.

 

If your car is lowered you need to get adjustable control arms in order to get an alignment. If now and your thinking about lowering it thats something to consider. I ran into that problem. I could feel some sort of clunking around my feet while going over bumps, replaced control arms and it went away and then it came back shortly after. Working on figuring out what is causing this.

 

Wrong.

 

while he isnt lying, getting adjustable control arms would be a big help, lowered or not.

you see, there is no camber adjustment, which is fine on stock ride height cars. when you lower the height, you get plenty of negative camber. having adjustable arms would be great to shove the wheels out so the inner tire doesnt wear so much. i've been pretty low for about 10,000 miles and my tires show for it. its not terrible, and i kind of like the look. with that said, no meh is correct. adjustable control arms arent necessary. but it certainly wont do anything but help your camber

 

If you torqued down the bushing bolts with the springs fully extended / without first loading the springs with the vehicle weight to normal ride height, you might have prematurely tore up the new bushings in the new control arms.

 

Unless you're slammed that extra bit of camber isn't going to affect tire wear unless your toe is off, in which case it'll only help accelerate the wear that's going to happen regardless.

 

I am hardly lowered compared to stock. The damn squeaking has been bugging me and is embarrassing with passengers in the car. Should I post a clip of the sound or what?