Control Arm Kit

A control arm kit groups the parts a single repair needs into one order, so the job does not stall halfway through because something was missed.

What a kit contains varies more than people expect, which is worth checking before ordering rather than discovering with the vehicle already in the air.

What Comes in a Control Arm Kit

Kits fall into three broad types and they solve different problems.

A control arm bushing kit supplies the bushings for one arm, sometimes with the crush tubes and sleeves that go with them. The arm stays on the vehicle in the sense that it is reused, though it still has to come off to be pressed.

A complete arm kit supplies the arm itself with bushings already fitted and, where the design uses an integral one, the ball joint. Nothing needs pressing, which turns the job into a bolt-in.

A hardware kit supplies the fasteners, which sounds trivial until the originals will not come out or should not go back in.

Plenty of listings combine two or three of those, so a lower control arm kit might mean a bare arm, an arm with bushings, or an arm with bushings and hardware depending on the manufacturer, so read what is included rather than assuming.

Upper and Lower Control Arm Kits

An upper and lower control arm kit covers both arms on a double wishbone corner, which is the most efficient way to do the job when both are due.

The reason they are sold together is labor. Both arms attach to the same knuckle, so separating the ball joints and supporting the suspension happens once regardless of whether you replace one arm or two. Replace the lower now and the upper in a year, and you pay for that teardown twice along with two alignments.

An upper control arm kit on its own makes sense on vehicles where the upper arm fails first, which includes many trucks where the ball joint in the upper position gives up well before anything on the lower arm does.

A rear control arm kit does the same for an independent rear end, typically grouping the lateral, camber and toe positions that determine rear geometry. On a rear suspension with four or five separate links, doing them piecemeal is particularly poor value because the subframe access is the same either way.

Why Kit Contents Differ So Much Between Manufacturers

Two kits for the same vehicle can contain completely different things, and the reason is that manufacturers make different assumptions about what the installer already has.

Some supply the arm alone, on the basis that a shop replacing an arm has hardware on the shelf and will reuse what comes out where the vehicle allows it. Others include every fastener, washer and cotter pin, which costs more and means nobody has to stop mid job.

Bushing kits vary in exactly the same way, since a basic control arm bushing kit might be two bushings and nothing else, while a more complete one includes the crush tubes, the outer sleeves and sometimes a sachet of the correct grease.

None of that is deception, it is just different assumptions about the buyer. The practical consequence is that comparing two kits on price alone tells you very little, and the cheaper one frequently becomes the more expensive one once you have ordered the parts it left out.

Read the contents list, then compare what is actually in each box against what the repair needs. On an older vehicle, assume you will want the hardware whether the kit includes it or not.

Control Arm Bolts Are the Part Nobody Orders

This is what stalls more control arm jobs than any other single item.

The control arm bolt passing through the inboard bushing does two things. It clamps the assembly together, and on many vehicles it is also the pivot the bushing's inner sleeve bears against. That means it lives inside a bushing, in a damp location, often for fifteen years.

Two things tend to go wrong with it. The bolt seizes inside the crush tube and has to be cut out, which takes the bushing and sometimes the arm with it. Or the bolt comes out intact but is a torque-to-yield design that stretches when tightened, in which case it should not be reused at all.

A lower control arm bolt kit or upper control arm bolt kit costs very little and removes both problems. Lower control arm bolt replacement is not optional on designs where the manufacturer specifies single-use fasteners, and reusing a stretched bolt on a suspension pivot is not a risk worth taking to save a few dollars.

Check the service information for your vehicle before assuming the original hardware goes back in. If it does not specify, replacing the bolts anyway is cheap insurance on a fifteen year old vehicle.

Control Arm Bushing Kit or a Complete Arm

The decision comes down to what condition the arm is in once you can see it properly.

A lower control arm bushing kit is the cheaper route and the right one when the arm is straight, free of significant corrosion, the mounting eyes are still round, and any integral ball joint is tight. On a forged arm in good condition, rebuilding is sound practice and the arm will outlast the bushings again.

A complete arm is the answer when the eye has worn out of round, when the arm is bent or has corroded through, when an integral ball joint has failed, or when the arm is aluminum and will not take the press loads that bushing replacement requires.

The labor is nearly identical either way, since the arm comes off the vehicle for both. That is why the price gap between a bushing kit and a complete arm is often smaller in practice than it looks on the parts invoice.

When a Control Arm Kit Is the Wrong Purchase

Worth being straight about the cases where you should buy less rather than more.

If one specific component has failed and everything else on that corner is sound, buy that component. A single ball joint or a single bushing kit is a legitimate repair and there is no sense replacing parts that have life left.

If only one side has failed through impact rather than age, the other side does not automatically need doing. Damage is a single-sided event, whereas age is not.

And if the vehicle is close to being sold or retired, the economics of a full kit rarely work out against what you will recover.

The reverse also applies in plenty of cases. On a high mileage vehicle where one component has failed, the others on that corner are usually not far behind, and doing them separately means paying the access cost repeatedly.

Torquing a Control Arm Kit at Ride Height

Support the vehicle properly and take the load off the suspension before separating a ball joint, since a joint under spring load releases suddenly and without warning.

Use a proper ball joint separator rather than a hammer, which damages the knuckle bore and the stud threads.

Work one corner at a time and keep the hardware organized, particularly on a rear control arm kit where several similar looking bolts of different lengths come out of the same subframe.

Where the kit includes new fasteners, use them rather than putting the originals back. That is the reason they are in the box.

Torque the inboard fasteners with the vehicle sitting on its wheels at ride height rather than hanging on a lift. A bushing settles into the position it is clamped in, so one tightened at full droop is permanently twisted at normal ride height and binds from the first mile.

Book the alignment for the same visit, because a control arm kit changes camber and toe the moment it goes on and the previous settings no longer apply.

Find Control Arm Kits for Your Vehicle

Control arm kits make up most of Nolathane's control arms selection, and rear repairs are covered too with trailing arm kits.

Select your vehicle to see the control arm kits listed for it, including complete arms, bushing kits and the hardware that goes with them. Every Nolathane component is backed by our warranty, a fitment guarantee and 60 day returns.