Delphi Control Arms
- Thread starter bmninada
- Start date
Going from memory here, I had my LCA's replaced at ~60k miles because of bad bushings. I used OEM Mazda because I didn't know of a reliable aftermarket brand and they weren't too expensive at the time at ~ $165 each. Today they cost considerably more and I would go aftermarket if needed again.
From what I've been able to gather, the brands I'd be considering would be Mevotech TTX (not the basic level or the Supreme lower levels), CTR (who is an OEM supplier to the Japanese car mfr's), and TRW. No Dorman or Moog for sure. Moog isn't what it used to be and not worth taking a chance on what what used to be a good reputation. Sadly, not Beck-Arnley either. A crapshoot of whether it would be a quality part in the box or not. In years past it could even be OEM in the white box.
I'm not in the market for this item presently but two places I'd check for starters and pricing would be Rockauto and Partsgeek. And finally make sure you get sealed ball joints unless you want to crawl under with a grease gun and if you have your car serviced they may not grease them anyway. Good luck.
P.S. Regarding Delphi, I only know that it's a name sold off years ago by General Motors who used to own them. No idea about their parts.
From what I've been able to gather, the brands I'd be considering would be Mevotech TTX (not the basic level or the Supreme lower levels), CTR (who is an OEM supplier to the Japanese car mfr's), and TRW. No Dorman or Moog for sure. Moog isn't what it used to be and not worth taking a chance on what what used to be a good reputation. Sadly, not Beck-Arnley either. A crapshoot of whether it would be a quality part in the box or not. In years past it could even be OEM in the white box.
I'm not in the market for this item presently but two places I'd check for starters and pricing would be Rockauto and Partsgeek. And finally make sure you get sealed ball joints unless you want to crawl under with a grease gun and if you have your car serviced they may not grease them anyway. Good luck.
P.S. Regarding Delphi, I only know that it's a name sold off years ago by General Motors who used to own them. No idea about their parts.
HyFlyer
2019 CX5 sig 2.2 diesel / 2016.5 CX5 touring 2.5na
- :
- Southwest Ohio
Idunno about Delphi brand quality. But ....
I recently did the front end of (used to be mine but sold to a nephew years ago) a 2015 Mazda 3. It had a bad left front ball joint. I looked at the cost of OEM and looked into aftermarket and came up with that Mevotech up-line that @Jmaz posted about. I decided to just go ahead a replace everything on the front end. They had a kit with both sides LCA, inner and outer tie road ends and stabilizer links for like $425 so I just got that and did it all. Only thing to add is stabilizer bushings if you want.
What I liked about the Mevotech was the lifetime warranty, grease zerk fittings and was a great fit. (Those were some beefy stabilizer links! OMG! ) Seems like well made parts
I'll be going through the suspension of our 2016.5 in preparation to move it on to another nephew at the end of the year and will likely choose the same kit.
If you're gonna do those LCA's yourself, wobble impact socket and wobble extension for the horizontal bolt (along with a really beefy impact driver) and a torch (even a burnzomatic propane will work) and BFH for getting the ball joint post out of the knuckle.
Have
fun! It's a good time. And, as a bonus, you'll have enough fresh coin in "the sware jar" to get a massage when your done 
haha .
I recently did the front end of (used to be mine but sold to a nephew years ago) a 2015 Mazda 3. It had a bad left front ball joint. I looked at the cost of OEM and looked into aftermarket and came up with that Mevotech up-line that @Jmaz posted about. I decided to just go ahead a replace everything on the front end. They had a kit with both sides LCA, inner and outer tie road ends and stabilizer links for like $425 so I just got that and did it all. Only thing to add is stabilizer bushings if you want.
What I liked about the Mevotech was the lifetime warranty, grease zerk fittings and was a great fit. (Those were some beefy stabilizer links! OMG! ) Seems like well made parts
I'll be going through the suspension of our 2016.5 in preparation to move it on to another nephew at the end of the year and will likely choose the same kit.
If you're gonna do those LCA's yourself, wobble impact socket and wobble extension for the horizontal bolt (along with a really beefy impact driver) and a torch (even a burnzomatic propane will work) and BFH for getting the ball joint post out of the knuckle.
Have
fun! It's a good time. And, as a bonus, you'll have enough fresh coin in "the sware jar" to get a massage when your done haha .
- :
- Denver, CO
I replaced with OEMs as well. Just need to order online from Mazda OEM part suppliers (shop around for best price) vs just paying what the local dealer wants for them which in my case in 2024 was nearly double.
Factory ones lasted 11 years so OEM seems the way to go to me for suspension components.
Yeah I get it. But lowest I found was $250 a pop. Dealer price was + $310 here. Sorry - but can't simply afford that much. Delphi was $70. I checked around - folks said very decent quality.
Lazy2.5
2015 Mazda 6 - AT - Tuned
- :
- Ontario
I had a Delphi driver side put in almost 2 years ago, fine for now.
I would suggest paying a bit extra and go for a control arm with a greasable ball joint. dont know what brand is in my passenger side, but it's ball joint has lasted quite a while.
i'm not going to replace these parts over some bushings personally
I would suggest paying a bit extra and go for a control arm with a greasable ball joint. dont know what brand is in my passenger side, but it's ball joint has lasted quite a while.
i'm not going to replace these parts over some bushings personally
- :
- Denver, CO
I understand. In that case I'd say the cost isn't much and that's better than driving around on broken bushings, so go for it. Just figure might need replacement again sooner than the factory / OEM ones, but hey you might get lucky.
Factory lasted 8 to 9 yrs. Probably less, since my clunky stabilizer links hit the issue. I'd say $70 + $70 and $200 labor (that's what mechanic quoted me) and if lasts 4 yrs, I'll still be okay.
I miss those greasable ball joints, at least when the seal starts cracking you know you can get some lubrication in there.
The issue is maintaining them. After 3 yrs or so stop greasing them and boom problems surface.
Well my daughter's 2015 is at the dealer now getting both LCA's replaced because the ball joints are bad .....already. Both were replaced with Mevotech supreme, less than 2 years ago and less than 9000 miles. Both boots cracked and one ball joint is bad already. All have been greased after each oil change which is about every 6 months due to very low mileage.
I didn't have time to deal with it so I dropped it at the dealer. The local dealer is charging outrageous pricing roughly 350 per LCA. for just parts, then told me the belts which are less than 2 years old are bad as well. insert eye roll here.
My advice find the best price you can on OEM parts and use those, after a bad aftermarket valve cover gasket and now this. I think I'll stick with OEM parts unless there is a known issue and confirmed better design.
I didn't have time to deal with it so I dropped it at the dealer. The local dealer is charging outrageous pricing roughly 350 per LCA. for just parts, then told me the belts which are less than 2 years old are bad as well. insert eye roll here.
My advice find the best price you can on OEM parts and use those, after a bad aftermarket valve cover gasket and now this. I think I'll stick with OEM parts unless there is a known issue and confirmed better design.
I just installed Delphi lower control arms on my 2015 CX5. Both of my original ball joints were bad, and one of the control arm bushings was mostly broken. The arms were about $75 each. My local Mazda parts counter wanted almost $350 for each arm! I recently had bad experiences with Mevotech and Moog arms on a couple of my old Hondas, so I figured I'd try these Delphi ones.
You aren't kidding! I've been working on cars for almost 30 years and getting these arms off this car was one of the most difficult and unpleasant shop experiences I've had. Particularly getting the ball joint out of the knuckle because I live in the rust belt and they were pretty much welded together with corrosion.
A short swivel 19mm socket for my high-torque 1/2" impact would have made getting the driver's side horizontal bolt so much easier. There's not much room to work because of the transmission pan in the way. Passenger side is a little easier to get to, but a swivel would definitely have made it easier. Also the manual says that bolt needs to be torqued to 170 ft/lbs, which is almost impossible to do when the car is just jacked up (on stands) a few inches above normal ride height. Doing this on a lift, or on high jack stand would make getting leverage on the torque wrench much easier.
Both bolts for the knuckle pinch joint were totally corroded and crusty, as was the hole for the bolt in the knuckle and the big hole that the ball joint stud goes into. Having a 15mm and 22mm stainless wire brush bit in my drill helped clean out the holes so the new arm and new pinch bolt (from my mazda dealer, $6 each) could go in easier. The other thing I ended up needing was the long vertical bolt for the rear bushing bracket. One of mine was all corroded and the shaft was partially eroded due to a bunch of water and mud that was up in the bushing of the old arm, that all came flooding out when I removed the bolt. Old service manuals say the replacement bolt is 9ya01-1401, but my dealer doesn't have them and said 9ya01-1402A is the new part number, of which they only had one in stock, for $17.
I also replaced my struts with FCS strut assemblies, and new tie rod ends and end links and sway bar bushings. Waiting for an alignment at the shop tomorrow so I don't know how it all rides and handles, but hopefully it'll be quieter than it was before with all my worn out parts.
If you're gonna do those LCA's yourself, wobble impact socket and wobble extension for the horizontal bolt (along with a really beefy impact driver) and a torch (even a burnzomatic propane will work) and BFH for getting the ball joint post out of the knuckle.
Have
You aren't kidding! I've been working on cars for almost 30 years and getting these arms off this car was one of the most difficult and unpleasant shop experiences I've had. Particularly getting the ball joint out of the knuckle because I live in the rust belt and they were pretty much welded together with corrosion.
A short swivel 19mm socket for my high-torque 1/2" impact would have made getting the driver's side horizontal bolt so much easier. There's not much room to work because of the transmission pan in the way. Passenger side is a little easier to get to, but a swivel would definitely have made it easier. Also the manual says that bolt needs to be torqued to 170 ft/lbs, which is almost impossible to do when the car is just jacked up (on stands) a few inches above normal ride height. Doing this on a lift, or on high jack stand would make getting leverage on the torque wrench much easier.
Both bolts for the knuckle pinch joint were totally corroded and crusty, as was the hole for the bolt in the knuckle and the big hole that the ball joint stud goes into. Having a 15mm and 22mm stainless wire brush bit in my drill helped clean out the holes so the new arm and new pinch bolt (from my mazda dealer, $6 each) could go in easier. The other thing I ended up needing was the long vertical bolt for the rear bushing bracket. One of mine was all corroded and the shaft was partially eroded due to a bunch of water and mud that was up in the bushing of the old arm, that all came flooding out when I removed the bolt. Old service manuals say the replacement bolt is 9ya01-1401, but my dealer doesn't have them and said 9ya01-1402A is the new part number, of which they only had one in stock, for $17.
I also replaced my struts with FCS strut assemblies, and new tie rod ends and end links and sway bar bushings. Waiting for an alignment at the shop tomorrow so I don't know how it all rides and handles, but hopefully it'll be quieter than it was before with all my worn out parts.
Here's a photo of the old bolt (9YA01-1401) and the new one (9YA0-11-402A). Notice that the new bolt has a captive washer (you can't slide it down below the threads) and the old bolts didn't. The guy at the parts counter said this is the new part number that supersedes the old one.
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