While my car was at the dealer for an alignment and putting the new wheels on, the tech discovered that my right lower control arm joint is bad. They wanted $477 to replace it, and i did some quick Googling before deciding to pass. Needless to say, I didn't get the alignment either, and that was gonna be about $80, thanks to $40 off coupon. Am I gonna be able to save any dough on that control arm job or am I gonna be kicking myself that I didn't just get it done while it was on the lift?

 

Out of curiosity was this for the rear ? Reason I ask I have 2 control arms for the rear sitting in my garage dunno if the will fit your car but if its the same thing I maybe willing to let go of them.

 

My suspension tuner went through my car after my last track day and said that I needed new lower control arm bushings and that it was cheaper just to buy complete arm/bushing assemblies from MB and install them. I need to look into that next week, not going to be cheap I'm sure.

 

Mine is front; just paid $300 at my indy.

 

The lower control arm if you want genuine LEMFOERDER is $124 or if you take KARLYN $62 at RMeuropean.

 

I had found a $62 one at FCP, but my mechanic feared it would be crap. Parts.com has OEM for $181.20 but that LEMFOERDER price is best.

 

I only fit LEMFOERDER to my cars.

 

The ball joints usually don't go bad on these, but the rubber bushings do, and they do often! The parts re about $25 per control arm (there are two on each side). You might as well replace the sway bar bushings at the same time (you have to take them loose anyhow to get to the control arm bolt). Then again, if you are int he 100K mile range, just replace the whole control arm as the ball joints are probably dry by then.

 

Now that I've had the control arm replaced, I plan to get an alignment on Tuesday. Since the control arm job, the steering wheel ***** even more to the right when driving straight. I certainly hope the alignment corrects that:
before control arm:

after control arm:

 

It's always a good idea to get an alignment after any suspension work. I once replace "everything" on the front of my W163 and I thought I had done a fair job of measuring everything to get the tie rods back in place. Heck, I barely made it to the shop - the steering felt like my old 1965 Chevy Pickup! The mechanic came out laughing and said it was so far off, he thought it must have been in an accident.