[ophidiha]

I hosed it down with a buttload of kroil and pb blaster when I gave up last night, so I'm hoping it'll free up when I revisit it this afternoon. Of course, that's not how this works nor how the game is played.

I'll snap some pics. Honda dealer doesn't have any 14x86 flange bolts in stock. I'm hoping I can find one at Macs or another local hardware store that has a lot of bolts.

 

[ophidiha]

Though again, that's ^ not how this works .

 

[ophidiha]

Pics. Takes a long time to cut through a grade 10 bolt, even with a diamond coated reciprocating saw blade. This was a good excuse to replace my horrible Harbor Freight saw with a better one. So, that's a win.

The tension from the bolt actually separated the bracket quite a bit. Fortunately the new bolt drew it together more or less fine. The replacement bolt is a grade 5, so no rock crawling or sweet jumps until the one I ordered from the dealer shows up. It's definitely out of alignment (steering wheel isn't straight) but it'll be fine until I swap out that bolt then get it aligned. The tires are ruined from the bad control arms anyway.

Also attached a pic of what happened when the breaker bar slipped and I slammed my hand into the brake rotor. Bled like a mfkr, this is after it stopped.

 

[habbyguy]

I did my control arms today as well as the inner and outer tie rod ends. I used the socket method in the way described by pibcak above (using a jack to raise and lower the hub rather than doing it with the car on the ground).

These were the easiest LCAs I've ever changed, mainly because the LCA can be easily pivoted down enough to clear the ball joint stud (it's a LOT harder on most other cars I've worked on). The vertical (rear) bolt on the right LCA was the only tough one (the car has been in AZ its entire life, so there's no rust anywhere). A 3/4" breaker and a healthy push from my foot took care of that though. I suppose the job was a little easier since I was changing the tie rod ends at the same time, so it was even easier to move the hub around as necessary. But I think I could swap both LCAs again in 30-40 minutes if I really had to.

 

[hortkid]

Socket between knuckle and LCA

anybody have a pic of where exactly to place the socket between the knuckle and LCA?

 

[ophidiha]

I just shoved a socket in there and snapped some pics. I'll upload them as soon as they are done being emailed to me (too lazy to find a cable to hook my phone up to my laptop )

 

[ophidiha]

Here's where you stick it. You'll want to use a larger one that you can just barely jam in there. I used a small one just to illustrate where it goes.

Hope this helps!

****EDIT: NOTE THAT MY PICS POSTED UPSIDE DOWN!!!***. I have no idea why, but you may have to stand on your head when you look at them.

 

[hortkid]

Thanks, will be attempting the project this weekend. every little bit of tech/tips help.

 

[hortkid]

This became a little harder than I imagined but doable with help from this forum.
(1)While trying to separate the LCA ball joint from the knuckle, the socket (westward brand) bent under the pressure of the fused joint on the passenger side. Driver side worked as described.
(2)I did manage to separate the cv joint (bad) and found in the forums a solution (wiggle and rotate the rotor) to get it back in without disassembling the entire hub and axle.(big thanks for that one)
(3)I used an impact wrench (KOBALT brand from Lowe's) to remove and reinstall the big bolts of the LCA and strut assembly without issue.
(4)I used my jack several times to raise and lower the LCA and hub to get all the parts aligned in their respective order.
(5)I checked with Tim on ordering the parts but it was cheaper to source them (locally) from Westside Acura in Edmonton than pay shipping/brokerage/tax etc. once I did the $$ conversion to $USD.
(6) total time 7.5 hours from wheels up to wheels down then an alignment (.5 hour).

Again, thanks for the help/experience from everyone.

 

[OHMDX]

My wife’s 2007 MDX had a catastrophic ball joint failure on the passenger’s side, the ball joint separated from the control arm while driving. Luckily it happened as she pulled into the driveway, a few yards away from the garage and no one was injured.
<O</O
Thanks to this forum, I was able to replace the control arm and the CV axle which pulled apart when the ball joint separated from the control arm.
<O</O
The vehicle has 93,000 miles and it seems that a failed ball joint at that mileage is an anomaly, I would expect a failed ball joint at much higher mileage, i.e., well over 200,000 miles. Now for the question, should I replace the driver’s side control arm to be on the safe side? The boot is enacted and there is no lateral movement when I tried to move the tire while on jack stands.<O</O

 

[Delvy]

Well I'll tell you. I'm so happy for this site. I have changed all struts, tierods and bushings. The ride is 80% better. Only thing left is the LCA. Struts took 3 days. Tierods & links 1 day. Bushings 4 hours. Lowering the engine cradle area is key for the bushings. Gonna ride it like this for at least 6 months. Then I will finish it. Did a wheel alignment for now.

 

[Quang tran]

For those who use Gbarone technics and they can not put in the ball join. Can we loose the 3 nuts on the strut, so we have room to move?

 

[pibcak]

I'm not 100% sure I understand the question, but my guess is that it's about how to get a socket wedged in the ball joint (after the castle nut has been removed) in order to break it loose. If so, gbarone did that before jacking up the vehicle (i.e., removed the castle nut and inserted the socket then jacked it up). That way, with the weight of the vehicle on it, there's plenty of room to get the socket in there and as you jack up the vehicle, the weight shifts it will pop the ball joint out.

Another method is, once the car is up on jack stands, put a jack under the ball joint and jack it up to ride height, wedge the socket in place, then release the jack.

I would say leave the strut alone. I don't think it would help anyway.

 

[Quang tran]

I am going to do my next summer. Researching. There are people in forum had hard time to install the ball joint back, they have to use metal cable to pull in the strut so they can let ball joint in. Why fight it? Just loose the 3 nuts on strut.

 

[pibcak]

Ah, that. It's actually not a problem provided you reinstall the bolts on the LCA in a particular order. http://www.mdxers.org/forums/73-fir...2006/40020-control-arm-lower-ball-joints-replacement-diy-pics-3.html#post873058 (I know that looks like a link to this same thread, and it is, but it's to a specific post on a previous page that I made re: said order.)

 

[hortkid]

It was easier to place the socket in the joint with the vehicle on the ground, when I jacked the vehicle up the ball joint was still very secure and I actually used a different piece of metal to wedge the joint loose (I jacked it up and down a couple of times to reposition the metal). The whole cable thing that someone mentioned, used to line up the parts and holes sounds like something else is out of line. mine went right back together without any issues once I used the correct bolt back in sequence mentioned in the prior link. Good luck.

 

[woof]

Just wanted to pop in from the MDX FAQ thread to say how helpful it was to see this DIY and what the work entails. I've concluded that I will have my mechanic do this for me the next time I have to leave my car at the shop!

 

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Hi forum,

I'm about to replace the front struts and find out the pushing of LCA is cracked. My MDX is 180K now. I think it's a good time to replace the LCA. The OEM is $300+ while the generic is about $80. Is it worth to do OEM? I have my eyes on the a1autopart LCA which cost $144 for both. You input are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[cooper4x4]

Bringing back an old post, but wouldn't it be a lot easier to realign the lower control arm if you disconnected the strut from the knuckle? This would allow you to align the compliance bushing and front bushing first without fighting the spring, run those bolts through, and then allow you to place the knuckle onto the lower ball joint. Thoughts?

After 5 years, I finally replaced my lower arms. The arms were fairly easy to replace once I disconnected the struct from the knuckle.

 

[jmsalt1]

2002 MDX - Lower Control Arm Replacement

I must have read this thread start to finish 4 or 5 times before I committed to doing this myself. Thanks to all that contributed and I hope my comments help convince someone out there to go for it as well. I did mine this past weekend and carved out the time while my wife was out of town and I knew there was no pressure on the 7 passenger vehicle. Quick background - Original owner, 155,500 miles on the 2002. I was still rolling on the original LCA's so that's pretty impressive given 15 years and 150k plus in miles.

Dealership Quote - West Burbs of Chicago = $1,413 plus tax so let's call it $1,500. I plan to keep this car to 200k assuming my teenagers don't total it first and the dealership noted there was tearing at the bushings and I could see there was a tear in the passenger side boot for the ball joint. It was time, not dealership bs. I probably could have kept driving it but safety and ride quality come into play at some point. This thread saved me about $950 and provided me the satisfaction of a job well done along with a pretty good work out.

Here are my quick thoughts on top of what has already been documented:

1) Parts - I went OEM from Tim at OEM AcuraParts.com - All found under "Knuckle" on their site. Shipped timely, no issues at all. Figured doing this myself I didn't want to be questioning the difficulty of getting things back together as tied to going cheap on aftermarket parts. That and knowing the original OEMs lasted 155k miles, done. Last thing I wanted was some aftermarket part I took a flier on to fail early and be doing this one over again. If you have a brand you know and trust, add a couple hundred to your savings pretty easily as the OEMs are $266 each from Tim. I shopped, his prices are solid. Here was my order from Tim and I would not change a thing:
51350-S3V-A01 - RH Lower Arm
51360-S3V-A01 - LH Lower Arm
90118-SX8-T00 - Bolt, Flange (2)
90118-S0X-A01 - Bolt, Flange (2)
90701-S3V-A01 - Pin, Split (used on castle nut w/ OEM arms)

I prefer to replace 15 year old hardware and pins (plus, since I was already ordering the arms from Tim there was no incremental shipping cost as there would be if you wanted hardware and ordered the arms aftermarket from another site), if that stuff doesn't bother you, I'm sure the old bolts would have worked. When wrestling the arms back in, I was looking to make life a little easier and was please to have new hardware and pins.

Ok, this job in the realm of auto work is probably 75% grunt and 25% finesse. My passenger side arm was easier to disassemble so I was happy to have done that side first taking up the learning curve on that side with regards to approach. Last shop on that wheel hit the lugs on max, in all my years I've never encountered any that tight before so be prepared for this possibility. I have a 5' pipe that slips over the lug wrench. Leverage. Would have blown my back out or quit right there without it.

The lug nut technique - I attempted the lug nut approach when jacking to break the arm free from the knuckle on both sides, success on the passenger side, not happening on the driver side even after several attempts and tapping in the largest socket possible. I tried both methods mentioned, upon jacking initially and raising the wheel at the rotor with a jack and block of wood (be careful if you do this) once the car was on the stands and neither method would break it free. With some muscle (just striking the ball joint seperator with a heavy weighted hammer, the $8 ball joint separator (pickle fork) I pickup just in case paid for itself in about 5 minutes when it was getting late and I was about to give up for the night and hope PB Blaster might make a difference when I was less exhausted the next morning. The automotive gods showed some mercy and she broke free. I talked some smack to that ball joint and moved on.

Acura Shop Manual - Helpful to a degree but not necessary. If you want to have one and plan to do other DIY on this car, get one. I don't have a Hanes. Here are your torque specs = Both bushings = 69 ft./lbs. Castle Nut =43 - 51 ft./lbs. Shop manual clarifies that you should torque to the lower end of that range, then torque further until you align the holes in the ball joint with the slots on the castle nut, insert new lock pin and you are set.

Removal - Break all bolts free with the car on the ground. I broke the castles by hand and the bushings with an impact. Driver side front bushing was super tight. My impact isn't the strongest so I hand to get a good angle and really dig in with a longer wrench. I could see the bolt turning so I kept working it. Finally, got it to the point the impact drove it off. Very rusty, into the trash. This is the correct order as per the manual and follow-up posts in the thread, break ball joint free and separate from the knuckle. Pushing DOWN on the LCA with the bushing bolts still in place get the ball joint bolt out of the knuckle and navigate it behind the knuckle (to the rear of the car). Remove the bolt from bushing at the forward lower arm mount and then the one from the rearward (compliance) bushing at that mount. Muscle up and work the arm out of the mounts while fighting a little resistance around the knuckle. Those bushing will flex - keep working & you'll get her out. Compare the old to the new, feel good about your progress.

Install - There is no need to use the came along cable as previously pointed out by another user (thanks!) and there is no need to loosten or remove any part of the damper / spring. Reverse order on the way back in with the new arm. This is where you will need to muscle up a bit. If you don't have the physical strength here, you could be in trouble. I'm in my 40's and in pretty good shape but this was not for the faint of heart. Get the rearward bushing into the mount and align the holes. Have the bolt ready and get it in place and partially threaded, just enough so you know you have it in there and are good. Next observe the fact that getting the forward bushing into the mount looks nearly impossible but "flex" the arm down enough to get the ball joint around / under the knuckle and that bushing in front of the mount. I think cleaning the mounts made this easier for me. The passenger side I was able to align with sheer strength. The driver side front bushing was harder to align but I used a line up tool (kinda cool when your grandpa's old tools come in handy) and it was a slam dunk at that point. Once you have the bolts partially threaded into both mounts, get the ball joint bolt into the knuckle. It will seem like this is a nearly impossible feat at first but continue to work the knuckle / rotor assembly and you'll get the geometry right. Second time around will take you a fraction of the first if you have never done this before (me).

Torque bolts, make sure you have the pins in the castle nuts, install wheels, lower car and final torque the rims. Go get an alignment as previously stated. I was shocked that mine was in really good shape. Enjoy the improved ride quality and toss all those old parts.