How can you tell UCA is bad?
#1
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How can you tell UCA is bad?
My left Upper control arm was squeaking and clunking at every hole and bump so I changed it. However, the old one does not seem worn out at all! I tried moving it by hand and it felt tight.
Should I be able to see easily that the bad UCA's ball joint is loose?
I'm only asking because I wonder if there was something else that was making the noise.
(I still have the old ball joint / UCA, so whatever you guys recommend I do to check it, I will do it. Really curious about this!)
Should I be able to see easily that the bad UCA's ball joint is loose?
I'm only asking because I wonder if there was something else that was making the noise.
(I still have the old ball joint / UCA, so whatever you guys recommend I do to check it, I will do it. Really curious about this!)
#3
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Thread Starter
I drove it around the block, and then over the bumps and holes and - nothing. Not a peep and no squeaks. I guess that means I nailed it?
#4
As I've come to see with this car, it seems like a lot of suspension issues outside of the strut bar aren't clearly obvious when they "break". It's more-so that things just get tired and start to make noise because nothing is invulnerable to time.
Still, I'd rather have that than a axle breaking or bolts shearing like you see in other cars when suspension breaks.
Still, I'd rather have that than a axle breaking or bolts shearing like you see in other cars when suspension breaks.
#5
Pole Position
If the ball joint was bad you should be able to move it by hand round and round. But what you probably heard clunking was the UCA bushings. Those will clang like metal to metal sound or squeak when they start to deteriorate. If you don't hear the same noises now after changing the UCA then I would sure put money on it, that was your problem.
#7
Pole Position
For what it's worth, I ran in to a similar issue with my 99 but it was the lower control arm on the passenger side.
About 2 years after I replaced my strut rod bushings I started to hear clunking and knocking again when going up my driveway or over speed bumps. I knew it couldn't be the strut rods bad again being only 2 years later; furthermore this clunking was "different" than the strut rod clunking I heard prior. (Hard to describe the differences over text...)
Turns out it was the bushing on the lower control arm. Jacking up the car and visually inspecting the issue wasn't glaringly obvious, but I saw some movement in that area when applying force to the wheel/tire by hand.
Once the control arm was removed though it was absolutely blatant that the bushing was toast. I replaced the ball joint as well for good measure. I could move the original ball joint by hand, but the grease boot and everything was still in pretty good shape.
About 2 years after I replaced my strut rod bushings I started to hear clunking and knocking again when going up my driveway or over speed bumps. I knew it couldn't be the strut rods bad again being only 2 years later; furthermore this clunking was "different" than the strut rod clunking I heard prior. (Hard to describe the differences over text...)
Turns out it was the bushing on the lower control arm. Jacking up the car and visually inspecting the issue wasn't glaringly obvious, but I saw some movement in that area when applying force to the wheel/tire by hand.
Once the control arm was removed though it was absolutely blatant that the bushing was toast. I replaced the ball joint as well for good measure. I could move the original ball joint by hand, but the grease boot and everything was still in pretty good shape.
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#8
Pole Position
You don't want to let the ball joints just "GO". I had 2 ball joint failures. One each on my 93 (upper) and 94 (lower). Luckily on the 94 I was only going about 2 MPH pulling in a driveway when it just broke in half. (10 minutes earlier I was at about 95 MPH on the highway) The 93 was about 20 MPH taking a turn when it let go and pushed the tire right through the inner fenderwell and into the engine bay. Not a pretty sight.
You can check the bushings on the UCA you removed by putting a screwdriver through the bolt hole on the bushing and try moving it back and forth.
You can check the bushings on the UCA you removed by putting a screwdriver through the bolt hole on the bushing and try moving it back and forth.
Last edited by deanshark; 05-27-19 at 11:25 AM.
#9
Racer
I had my lower balljoints go bad when I bought my 97' w/ 253k, then about 10k later the inner LCA bushing on the driver side went. Never experienced a Strut rod bushing since both previous owners had done that job for me already before buying the cars, 97' and 99'
I made a video of my LCA issue and posted it on here if you want to see if that noise is similar to yours
I made a video of my LCA issue and posted it on here if you want to see if that noise is similar to yours
#10
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Thread Starter
You don't want to let the ball joints just "GO". I had 2 UBJ failures. One each on my 93 and 94. Luckily on the 94 I was only going about 2 MPH pulling in a driveway when it just broke in half. (10 minutes earlier I was at about 95 MPH on the highway) The 93 was about 20 MPH taking a turn when it let go and pushed the tire right through the inner fenderwell and into the engine bay. Not a pretty sight.
You can check the bushings on the UCA you removed by putting a screwdriver through the bolt hole on the bushing and try moving it back and forth.
You can check the bushings on the UCA you removed by putting a screwdriver through the bolt hole on the bushing and try moving it back and forth.
#11
Pole Position
Yes they were OEM. Still original, both close to 200k. But now on my 94, same side, the UCA bushings are bad and getting worse. The clanging is starting to get louder. I've had the new parts (not OEM) for 6 months but cuz of my neck surgery I cant put them in yet. I only drive 5 miles a day so I aint worried, yet. Now I got a bad wheel bearing in the back. Looking into an LS460 in a few months anyway so just hoping it lasts another 3-6 months and then it will be someone else's problem to fix.
The only sign of the bushings going bad was the clanging. On the ball joints, both upper and lower, the sign was that when I took a corner, the steering wheel didn't come back to center on it's own, I had to physically turn the wheel back straight.
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