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Front control arm recommendations?

5K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  Bradwestbay22 
#1 ·
Hello.

I need to replace the front control arms on my 2001 zx3. Looking around online, there are a number of manufacturers available at a pretty diverse price range.

I am just looking for a more or less stock replacement for every day driving.

Anyone have any suggestions / recommendations on which brands to look for or avoid?

Also, I will be replacing the stock suspension with the SVT suspension kit. Anyone have experience with that? My understanding is that it will bolt up without any issue to the normal zx3...

Thanks in advance for your help. it is greatly appreciated!

~Ben
 
#8 ·
Update:

Got the suspension installed (most of it), the control arms, and apparently needed to replace the front sway bar links as well.

All said, it's a pretty huge difference in the handling before and after.

The mostly installed part is, the rear springs are still the stock ones. The little shop I took it to for the install didn't have a spring compressor to remove them. The instructions I've seen online for the kit mentions taking out some bolts and just removing the springs, but elsewhere on forums, there has been a lot of talk of people messing up bushings trying to do that. The Haynes manual suggests using a spring compressor to remove and reinstall the springs.

Any thoughts on which of the two methods is better, given that the car has 172,000 miles on it, all of which have been in ohio, so bolts are usually corroded and stuck, etc.

The compression method seems pretty straight forward, and the tools are easily rented at autozone, etc, so that shouldn't be tough. Just wondering if people have had success or difficulty with one way or the other.

Thanks again for all the help!

~ Ben
 
#9 ·
I suspect that it is very unlikely you would be able to unbolt a lower control arm at this point. The bolts are probably rusted solid. However, if you can, that is a very easy way to replace the rear springs.

On a side note...if you try to unbolt it and destroy a bushing, it was time for new bushings anyway.

At 172,xxx miles you might want to think about replacing the suspension bushings anyway. It is labor intensive, but they don't last forever and have a big impact on handling.
 
#10 ·
You can find an excellent spring compressor kit on ebay, and it's worth buying it for all future uses. It is the type with a screw-side and a paddle-side. There are three different interchangable sizes of paddle, the small ones work for the rears and the medium ones work for the fronts.

Don't even try any other kind. The internal kind needs allot of spacers on the screw and barely makes it all crooked and shakey. The typical external type won't even fit.

Sometimes that good compressor is listed as being for Mercedes / BMW... good luck!
 
#12 ·
Replacing the bushings is VERY labor intensive, but they keep suspension arms traveling on the correct path...that is kinda important.

Also, when this car gets an alignment (which it will need after having new springs) there is a good chance that the rear adjusting bolts will be seized or will shred the bushing when they turn. I'm a big fan of new bushings on a car with this many miles and years....
 
#13 ·
Not that you're wrong about the adjusting bolts, but I'm 99% sure that when the bolts are tightened down, the steel inner sleeve does not turn in relation to the bolt, but the rubber in the bushing is what torques as the control arm moves up and down. So as long as you don't need to adjust the rear toe (which you should... go to 0!!) it doesn't affect the suspension in any way to have the bolts seized to the bushings.
 
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