Does this suspension look allright to you?

In reference to my "dealer says my car is unsafe" thread.. dealer told me my right upper A arm is broken. Today is the day I scheduled my mechanic to check it out and fix it. I went over and he looked and said it looks OK to him. He didn't pull the wheel though. I went home and yanked the wheel and took some pics.

Does anything in these pics jump out at you as being broke/bad? I know they are kinda rusty looking and alot of the bushings could use replacement, but does anything look broke/cracked as the dealer said? Click the pic for a high res version.

Passenger side:
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03575.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03576.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03585.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03579.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03581.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03582.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03583.jpg



Driver's side (just in case they wrote down the wrong side):
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03584.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03588.jpg
http://www.nischan.com/temp/accord_susp/tn_dsc03589.jpg

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uh.... everything looks perfectly fine to me. You could probably do with replacing the ball joints though. They look kinda old, and cracked.

The upper ball joints are usually not replaced by themselves as the control arms come with the joint pre-installed. Even though the boot is split open as long as the joint makes no noise and has no play in it you are fine. Mine looked like that for years before they developed play and had to be replaced.

Standard front end check,

1: jack up one side of the car until one tire is off the ground. The other side tire must be on the ground still. I use the jacking point under the doors.

2: grab the tire in the air at the 3 and 9 o clock postion and shake/rock back and forth. slow at first. You might need someone to help look underneath. This checks tie-rods,steering rack etc. start kinda slow and work your way up a little harder. Your looking for loosness at the joints. Use common sense of course the steering wheel will move or the other tire may move if you shake the shit outta it.

3: Grab the tire 12 and 6 o clock. Rock back and fourth.This checks the wheel bearing and ball joints and upper links. There should be no play in the wheel bearings.

4: this check might show ball joints/upper link a little better. Use a pry bar under the tire at the 6 o clock pos. pry up look for slop ,looseness while prying. The upper link ball joint and bushings near the body are what your looking at.


This is your basic "front end check" any good mechanic should know. It works for all makes and models of cars.



Good pictures. The only thing I see is the sway bar bushings look pretty bad but I would not consider that dangerous but they should be fixed. It does effect handling.

To me your car suspension looks original so I would suspect the REAR upper arms (balljoint) to be bad. Without being greaseable mine have not lasted more then 2 years without getting just a little play in them.


EDIT: pass side front UCA the grease boot is split I bet its bad.


wp

Thanks for the comments, and thanks for the check instructions, I'll have to try that tomorrow. Man, I guess "stealership" is an appropriate moniker for them, hehe. Maybe they got my car's diagnosis notes mixed up with someone else -shrug-. I'll just hope that's the case, rather than they are simply crooks lol.

sound like crooks to me. Everything looks fine, other than the swaybar endlinks are a litte wasted. And all the crum over everything.

it dont look too bad....but i would recommend replacing all bushings...its worth it while the suspension is apart

I dont see anything "broken" but your cont. arm bushings are shot. They do not seem to be lined up with the axis of the mount and you see that "rust dust" in those areas>>> that is "unbushed" metal to metal contact. Ball joints look old too, and one of those has some rust dust, probably been dry a while.

id get this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-89...QQcmdZViewItem
plus new LCA bushings

Arms are fine, I'd do the bushings and the upper control arms, since the upper ball joint is pressed in, and call it a day

I'm no fan of stealers, but I'm inclined to agree with them here. Your upper ball jt boot is split clean in half. Any grease that was inside is long ago dried up and disappeared. Ten dollars says that if you grab the knuckle just below the upper ball jt and give it a jerk, it will slop around.

You can do this repair yourself, but I found it impossible to keep the pivot hinge from squeaking. There are two rubber bushings on either end of the pivot hinge pin that you'll have to press/push on. You can put all the grease in the world on the pin and/or bushings, but as soon as you press them onto the pin, they will push off all the grease and squeak going over low-speed bumps for the next 150,000 miles.

Really irritating.

I wonder what is the oil leak on the passenger side? its looks like its swaybar bushings and back?

Thats what my drivers side looks like.



wp

I'd go with maybe balljoints and control arm bushings. Other than that it looks ok. BTW on my bros car I grabbed his tire 3 oclock and 9 and there was play in it. I looked under it and the tie rod end was wiggling in the steering knuckle. The mechanic said it was ok. So it started making a creaking sound and ended up replacing lower ball joints. I would almost think a bad tie rod end?