Drivers Side Control Arm Replacement

Hi. I'm going to be replacing the drivers side control arm on my '04 Hatchback Aveo this week. I just had two questions...

- Do you have to lift the transmission slightly out of the way to remove all of the bolts? I read a thread that stated that but wanted to confirm as I don't see those instructions in the service manual or in the steps in the how to I found on here.

- The service manual mentions after you have the new arm on. You should tighten the bolts with a jack stand under the arm so it has all of the weight on it. IS this necessary? Sounds strange.

Thanks in advance!

I didn't have to move the transmission when servicing mine.

YES, it is necessary to pre load before your final torque unless you're okay with ride height and bushing issues.

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Originally Posted by cnelon85

I didn't have to move the transmission when servicing mine.

YES, it is necessary to pre load before your final torque unless you're okay with ride height and bushing issues.

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Thanks!

Preload....So put the wheel back on...put jackstand under the control arm...lower onto jackstand....torque everything? or Just put wheel on put car back on the ground then torque everything.

Reassemble everything, lower it on the stand, torque, then you can lower it to the ground. Make sure to use thread sealer and new locking nuts.

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Originally Posted by cnelon85

Reassemble everything, lower it on the stand, torque, then you can lower it to the ground. Make sure to use thread sealer and new locking nuts.

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Ok. Any idea what locking nuts I will need? Size and type. So I can grab them before I start on this...thnx. If not I will just run and get some when I have them off.

You want self locking nuts and I don't remember the exact size off the top of my head. It's for the stabilizer links (1 link per side, 2 nuts per link). They have a tendency to work themselves loose if you reuse them and youll know it when you start hearing a loud knocking in your floorboard.

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Originally Posted by cnelon85

You want self locking nuts and I don't remember the exact size off the top of my head. It's for the stabilizer links (1 link per side, 2 nuts per link). They have a tendency to work themselves loose if you reuse them and youll know it when you start hearing a loud knocking in your floorboard.

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Ok. I'll just go grab some once I have them off. Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how it goes. Just waiting on the new arm to arrive.

So I've started working on this. Honestly its been more work than anticipated llol. It turns out you do have to lift the tranny slightly to get the front bolt out. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Then it turned out the rear bolt was seized into the sleeve inside the bushing. So I pissed around with that for a while then just cut it out with the sawzall.

Have the arm off finally. Just now have to get the little bit of bolt out of the nut that's welded on. Not sure if I should just try and get that nut off and just replace it. Or try and get the bolt out of the nut. What do you guys think?

Drill it out centered and a few sizes smaller than the bolt. Usually when your part way through it will break loose, then you can reverse the drill and it will come off with the drill bit. If not your left with cutting and replacing the nut which I would think would be a bitch to re-weld.

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Originally Posted by gothstone

Drill it out centered and a few sizes smaller than the bolt. Usually when your part way through it will break loose, then you can reverse the drill and it will come off with the drill bit. If not your left with cutting and replacing the nut which I would think would be a bitch to re-weld.

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OK. I'll give it a try.

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Originally Posted by mix123

OK. I'll give it a try.

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Why would the replacement nut need to be rewelded? Couldn't I just throw a lock nut on there and call it a day?

So I finally got this done. It was a pain but thankful I was able to complete it. The car is soo much quieter now on the road. It was so noisy banging and creeking over every small bump.

It appears I need a slight alignment after this. It's not crazy out of alignment just slightly.

Any ideas why? All other threads I've read say alignment shouldn't be needed after a control arm. Did I mess something up?

Anytime you change unsprung components on the front-end, you should get an alignmet done. It might not feel off, but it 95% of the time it will be off.

if the car was ever aligned with the worn out parts in place, they aligned it to compensate for that.

i have replaced control arms and put them on the alignment rack with the car being perfectly in spec. while there is not way there were in spec before. I have also installed parts and have had to adjust things to get anywhere near spec. its about the known history of the car.