Thread: What are the signs of a bad control arm?

anyone have the part numbers?

OK Steve. Will recheck.

Check the swaybar bushings too. I had a similar clunk in mine that new swaybar endlinks fixed.

Maybe another direction for you, but by reading your symptoms I'm not so sure it's in your suspension. I just replaced my LCA bushings with ES units because of a loud "Bang" I was getting on hard corner entry/exit coupled with acceleration. Everything you describe seems to be based on acceleration, not steering or suspension travel.

Check your motor mounts, all of them, especially the rear and do it with a wrench, not visually. While tracking down my problem, I found my rear motor mount was about to lose its bolts, and a few others were loose. It did eliminate the noise powereing out of the corner, but ultimately the LCA bushings were the culprit to the entry "bang".

Tighten the mounts and see if it helps. It's free and far less time consuming than the LCA bushings. How long have the LCA bushings been installed? Hard to believe they would go bad in less time than your OEM units.

I had a clunking rattle in the front end and thought it might be LCA bushings, but when replacing the CV boots found a loose wheel bearing. worth checking....

Rear MM check it. It's weak and when it's going, mostly under accel you will get the symptoms you describe. Check for broken bolts holding the center spar to the body (I broke one of mine) and for the bolts holding the MM to the piece bolted into the spar, and the MM itself. For the broken off bolt into the chassis, I had to drill it out a use a tapered extractor to remove it w/o damaging the threads in the body - it took time.

HTH

LCA bushings you'd feel under a lot of other conditions.

ES take a LONG time to break down, too.

Here's a pic of what caused a very similar sounding problem for me. Ignore the Progress LCA to chassis brace (although I highly recommend it) and the same 2 bolts hold your rear spar into the chassis.

They're pretty stout, I ordered new set from OEM Nissan to ensure I was getting a decent grade bolt (not an area even Nissan would skimp on).

In my case I think I hit something driving XC from Cali, something hit the LCA Progress Brace, and it being strong as hell the bolt snapped instead. There's an impact mark on the brace and some coating missing - try driving 90-110 mph at night through TX Panhandle and OK and missing every chunk of **** in the road!

And yes, that's a very slow PS fluid leak onto my ES bushing for the steering, PITA that it was I fixed it.

EDIT: SORRY I HAD NO IDEA THAT PIC WAS SO HUGE!

You guys saved me starting a new thread. My buddy this morning. I have 2 newer (about 2 years old) Prothane East to West but some 8 year old ES north to south. (dogbone and rear) So maybe it is the mount.

You guys saved me starting a new thread. My buddy told me that this morning. I have 2 newer (about 2 years old) Prothane East to West but some 8 year old ES north to south. (dogbone and rear) So maybe it is the mount.

But not from double posting

Urethane has a longer lifespan than rubber, even under hard conditions. I'd be hard pressed to think you would have the car long enough to wear those out, even at 8 years.

Check the bolts, all of them, and be sure to use a wrench, sometimes the eyes play tricks. Oh, and be sure to let us know what you find, it may help someone down the road.