Fitting new rear lower control arm - advice

[jtu100]

Hi,

Just wondering whether it is as easy as it looks to replace a bent rear lower control arm? ("Suspension arm No. 2" from service manual)

Do I need to take the wheel off?

Do I need to jack up the car?

Anything I need to worry about with bushings (new one required etc?), toe-in cam etc?

I'm hoping I can just do it on my drive way without any major difficulties.

[atobe]

http://tril.pendulus.net/pics/camry/...06.jpg?offset=

from this pic.. which one??
#1 goes front/rear with the car
#2 is the one that goes side to side.. in front of the strut (has holes)
#3 is the one rear of the strut. (all tube no holes)

[jtu100]

It's the guy on the far right.

The one that is just a tube, runs from the wheel towards the opposite rear wheel.

I'm guessing thats #3 ... all tube, no holes.

[atobe]

just jack up the car and you can replace it.. but you'd need to do an aligment afterwards since it throws it off when you turn the inner nut/bolts

[jtu100]

cool. so it sounds like there's no gotchas.

thanks for the advice. greatly appreciated.

i approach this with some trepidation you see as I have never really done any car repairs in my life!

[OBwan]

I've replaced most of the rear control arms in my car's lifetime.

Tips I remember:

The inboard bolt is a cam bolt, it rotates to set the rear geometry. I marked the position of the bolt before I removed it and had no problems just replacing the control arm and keeping the old setting. I’ll bet you a thousand dollars 99% of alignment places never make an adjustment there.

Use plenty of penetrating oil on the bolts, especially the inboard as they tend to rust. I needed a cutting wheel and a new cam bolt on one side of my car.

Just jack the car up and put it on jack stands. You will need the piece of mind as you loosen and install the bolts.

When you replace the bolts put them on finger tight then torque the bolts with weight on the wheels. You want the arms in a weighted condition so the bushings are at rest when the car sits on the ground.

[jtu100]

Thanks for the tips.

I have never come across the concept of a 'cam bolt' before. Been reading up on it. Used for toe-in adjustment it seems. That makes sense.

But I have yet to 'experience' it so will have to wait and see how I actually screw this thing on/off vs adjusting the cam.

[atobe]

http://camrymanuals.com/manuals/90/R...Suspension.pdf this will help you out greatly