rear lower control arm
 

I dropped my kids at school and heard a new sound when I drove out of the parking lot. My car makes a lot of sounds, one more didn't worry me :dunce:. I just took off my right rear wheel and found that the shock mount is rusted out on the lower control arm. I searched through the threads and found that it's a common problem. Fastlane has new arms for around $1600.00. Used ones go for around $125 to $250. Guess which one I'm going to buy.

Any suggestions on getting one that isn't already rusting out? I was thinking that I should order the part from a western state - like Arizona.

Dave

buy a used one.............

dave:

I am in the process of doing this to my 85 300D and soon to do to my 82 300TD

i bought a used control arm for 40$- i believe I did a search on Carparts.com- I went for the middle price range

Since i now live in Arizona I was not so concerned with new rust - like you just old rust.

my 40 was well spent and the piece came from Michigan
best of luck and dont hesitate to ask should you require suggestions

i will post a few pix as soon as I get done with the paying job tonight

All hail the Klann spring compressor- damn well worth the dough

Dave morrison has a great write up as well

Good luck

peace:

sandblast the surface rust on the replacement and your old one and POR-15 them....and do the rear subframe bushings while you have it that far apart then you never have to worry about those again.

I used car-part.com for a used right rear control arm for my 300SDL. It was $40 for the part and $18 shipping. At the time, I was recovering from kidney surgery, so I had a local independent install it. $210.00 even for the install.

Much better than the almost $2000 the dealer charged a few years ago to do the left rear.

Just think of the vacation you financed on that job...I hope they at least sent you a post card....

Oh heck yeah. I know what you mean. If you really want to see something that would make most folks ill, I posted a list of repair costs, not including repairs I did myself.

Over a span of 4 yrs and about 120k miles, the repairs were more than $30,000!!!

Now that I have a job that no longer requires travel, I'm able to do most of the repairs myself.

................definitely made me ill.............. :o

$210 is a damned good deal for that job.

Prices for used ones are all over the map. I just ordered one from potomac for $210 that comes with most of the fittings, etc. already attached. I ordered some used stuff from them before. When it turned out the part they sent wasn't up to snuff they told me to toss it and immediately shipped a replacement all at their expense.

It should be here this Friday or Monday.

Dave

I'll say. How the hell did he R&R the subframe in 3 hours?? :eek:

I've got one..
 

I've got a left (driver's) side one on ebay now.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7977793137&category=33583&sspagename=WDVW


-Kevin

It was 3.5 hrs @ $60/hr
I do know I was charged actual time, not necessarily book shop time.

Maybe they felt for me after I showed them some of the service recs from the dealer???

Well, I don't see how he did it.

The book calls for pulling the subframe first. This means the axles and diff have to be removed, the calipers and rotors have to come off, rear swaybar has to come off...............it's a lot of work.

Then the trailing arm has to be removed and the replacement installed.

Then the entire subframe has to be reinstalled back in the vehicle.

I'll bet they get a full 8 hours labor for this job.

3.5 hours is simply amazing. They must have developed a way of removing the trailing arm without removing the subframe. Quite a neat trick. Wish I knew the details. :cool:

since we are on the subject

I took some fotos to gloat- moved the jack stand cause I wasnt feeling secure

i will post more fotos as soon as I get it all back together

The sub frame bolt was not as tough as I though- as you can see in the foto I released just the one side and put my 8 ton bottle jack under the differential and slowly lowered it to give me enough space- I see a complete rebuild of the entire rear coming real soon - I noticed on the other ( pass ) LCA ( lower control arm ) it too shall require replacement

Rust belt- no wonder I got such a good deal- at least i can replace the fuel lines correctly- Anal I am about mechanics- gotta be done right

hope these fotos help

peace: