How to Replace Front Lower Rearward Control Arm 2010-13 Chevy Camaro
Created on: 2017-03-27
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace a broken, busted, bad, loose, or damaged tie rod on 10, 11, 12, 13 Chevy Camaro.
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the five 22mm lug nuts
- Raise and secure the vehicle
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Control Arm
- Remove the 21mm nut that holds the ball joint to the wheel spindle
- Hold the ball joint stud with a 10mm wrench if necessary
- Strike the spindle with a hammer to loosen the ball joint stud
- Hold the bolt that attaches the control arm to the frame with a 21mm wrench
- Remove the 21mm nut from the control arm
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step 3 :Installing the Control Arm
- Line up the control arm
- Slide the ball joint stud into the wheel spindle
- Thread the 21mm nut onto the ball joint by hand
- Line up the frame side of the control arm
- Slide the 21mm bolt into the frame side of the control arm
- Thread the 21mm nut onto the 21mm bolt by hand
- Hold the ball joint stud with a 10mm wrench if necessary
- Tighten the 21mm nut onto the ball joint stud
- Tighten the ball joint nut to 30 foot-pounds of torque
- Tighten the ball joint nut an additional 90 degrees
- Support the wheel spindle with a jack
- Tighten the 21mm nut on the frame end of the control arm
- Tighten the 21mm nut to 37 foot-pounds
- Tighten the nut an additional 120 degrees
- Remove the jack from the spindle
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step 4 :Installing the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the lug nuts by hand
- Lowr the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a star pattern
Tools needed
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21mm Socket
21mm wrench
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Jack Stands
22mm Wrench
10mm Wrench
Ratchet
Floor Jack
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
22mm Socket
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years. We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
In this video, we're going to be working with our 2011 Chevy Camaro. We're going to show you how to replace the front, lower, rearward control arm. If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this, and many other vehicles. If you need this part for your car, you can follow the link down in the description over to 1AAuto.com. Here are the items you'll need for this repair.
Using a 22 millimeter socket and a breaker bar, we'll loosen all of our lug nuts. Raise and support your vehicle. We're doing this on the lift to make it easier to show you what's going on, but this can easily been done at home on a jack and jack stands. With the tire off the ground, go ahead and finish removing your lug nuts and the wheel and tire assembly.
Your rearward, front, lower control arm is here. We'll start by removing the 21 millimeter nut with a 21 millimeter socket and a long ratchet. You could also use a breaker bar. Now, if the stud is turning inside of the spindle, you can hold the stud with a 10 millimeter wrench, and use a 21 millimeter wrench to loosen the nut. However, they're usually stuck in there pretty good, so we're just going to keep going with our ratchet.
Now, there are a few ways to remove this ball joint. I like to hit the side of the spindle to free it up. You don't want to go too hard on an aluminum spindle because you risk cracking it, but usually you can get it out with a couple of good swings. You can also install the nut a few threads so it sits flush with the top of the bolt, and then hit it down and out. Or, you can use a pickle fork or ball joint separator between the boot and the bottom of the spindle, but that destroys it and makes this part non-reusable. So we're going to hit the side of the spindle to free it up.
We'll hold the backside of the nut with a 21 millimeter wrench and break the other side loose with a 21 millimeter socket. I'm just going to start off with a breaker bar, because these are usually pretty tight. Once we get it loosened up, we'll switch over to our ratchet. We'll now remove the bolt and our control arm from the vehicle.
Here we have our old front, rearward, lower control arm that we removed from our vehicle, and our new part from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, these parts are exactly the same. Our new one comes with the new nut, and it is greaseable, which is a great feature to have for the longevity and serviceability of a part. Your two major fail points here are going to be the bushing, which will wear out and break down, and it can get squeaky or loose and create the front end to feel loose or inaccurate. You may also get some clunking or vibration from that, as well as the ball joint, which is a piece of the control arm. This cannot be changed out separately like some ball joints can. The bad ball joint is going to create unwanted up and down travel in our suspension, or unwanted up and down play, which can create some clunking noises, as well as alignment issues, some odd tire wear, and some handling problems. If either of these things have gone bad on your old part, this new part from 1A Auto is going to go in direct fit just like your original equipment. Get our vehicle tracking straight and riding smooth and fix you up right.
We'll line up our new lower control arm. I'm going to start by setting the ball joint side in and just getting a few threads on that nut to hold it in place. We'll then line up the bolt in the rear, send that through, and start that nut on. We'll try to tighten this down with our 21 millimeter socket and ratchet, but often times, with a new arm, once it gets a little tight, it's going to start spinning that stud, and you'll need to counter-hold it with a 10 millimeter while you turn the nut with a 21. It looks like we actually got lucky here, and we're able to tighten it down without the need to counter-hold anything. I'm just going to get that snug for now. If you do need to counter-hold this, it's just the same as the old part where a 10 millimeter would sit right around here.
We'll torque this first to 30 foot-pounds. We'll then use a torque angle finder to add another 90 degrees. We'll now use a screw jack to load up our suspension and simulate the weight of the vehicle on the wheels so we can torque our control arm without pre-loading the bushing incorrectly and causing premature wear and failure. If you're doing this on jack stands, you can do this same thing using a floor jack. We'll now use a 21 millimeter socket, ratchet, and wrench just to get this close. We're not going to torque it down just yet. We'll then torque it to 37 foot-pounds. We'll then add 120 degrees using our torque angle finder. Once that's done, you can remove the weight from the vehicle.
Reinstall your wheel and tire, and get all five of your lug nuts on as tight as you can by hand. You may also use a 22 millimeter socket to help you spin these in. Lower your vehicle back onto its wheels. You can now torque your lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a cross pattern.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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Chevrolet Camaro Front Driver Side Control Arm with Ball Joint TRQ PSA84298
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