CX-5 Suspension control arm failure

[Lesley13]

Hi, I was recently travelling in a Mazda CX-5 2013, which has done 73K miles, when the suspension control arm suddenly detached, causing the steering to be lost and the wheel to cave in. The car has been regularly serviced, MOTd, and has had no accidents. Furthermore, it has not been driven on rough terrain.

The incident happened after travelling around 170 miles and there had been no signs of any suspension issues leading up to the incident. Thankfully the problem happened as the car was entering a car park. Had it occurred at speed, the consequences would most likely have caused fatalities.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or has suggestions to make? I'm still reeling from the trauma!

Thanks!

 

[RedBaron]

Old thread, but this just happened to our 2014 CX-5. The ball joint separated from the LCA, letting the wheel dangle - fortunately in out driveway. Ugh. A new LCA is due to arrive today, so meanwhile I've been removing the bad control arm. I needed a mega cheater bar for one of the rear inner bolts, and a bit of cheating on the front inner bolt, but the A-arm itself is out now.

HOWEVER, I CANNOT get the pinch bolt that holds the ball joint pin out. I got the nut off the rear side OK, and in theory, you should just be able to push the bolt out of the knuckle, but no! Tried a big mallet to (err) 'tap' it out. Tried an impact to get it to turn. Nothing. Tried heat followed by cold. Kroil penetrating oil. That bolt is welded in. I can turn the ball itself, with a wrench, so at least the pin is not seized, but I really need some help or ideas on that bolt. I can't even cut it, as I don't know where the seized area is, and I could end up making it worse.

HELP PLEASE!?

 

[edmaz]

... Tried a big mallet to (err) 'tap' it out. ...

Did you try threading the nut part way on the bolt and smacking it with a BFH? You also can try hammering a cold chisel into the knuckle split, trying to get something to move. And one other thing that might help loosen it up is to hit the bolt head facets from the side using a cold chisel and a hammer, which will have the effect of applying force sideways on at least part of the bolt.

I had a similar experience with a LCA bolt that welded itself to a bushing, so I can understand what you're up against there. While you continue to try getting the bolt out, you might also consider sourcing a replacement knuckle, just in case.

 

[RedBaron]

Did you try threading the nut part way on the bolt and smacking it with a BFH? You also can try hammering a cold chisel into the knuckle split, trying to get something to move. And one other thing that might help loosen it up is to hit the bolt head facets from the side using a cold chisel and a hammer, which will have the effect of applying force sideways on at least part of the bolt.

I had a similar experience with a LCA bolt that welded itself to a bushing, so I can understand what you're up against there. While you continue to try getting the bolt out, you might also consider sourcing a replacement knuckle, just in case.

Yeah, the BFH was what I meant by a 'tap' Tried the chisel idea - except I used a big flatblade screwdriver hammering up from underneath to try to wedge it open... no joy. Didn't try hammering from the side, but I would be wary about damaging the CV joint.

For now I've taken the whole hub & carrier apart - what a serious pain that was! So now I have the knuckle/carrier off and will resume in the morning. Probably go to a friends house - he has an acetylene torch to apply serious heat and also a bearing press. One of those should work. I hope.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to add, the control arm did arrive today (RockAuto). It came with one replacement bolt (and nut) in the package. You guessed it, it was the one I'm having all the trouble with! Hooray! Now I really don't care about any brute force & ignorance in getting the old sucker out.

 

[edmaz]

Good luck, and I hope you're able to get out!

 

[Jmaz]

Yeah, the BFH was what I meant by a 'tap' Tried the chisel idea - except I used a big flatblade screwdriver hammering up from underneath to try to wedge it open... no joy. Didn't try hammering from the side, but I would be wary about damaging the CV joint.

For now I've taken the whole hub & carrier apart - what a serious pain that was! So now I have the knuckle/carrier off and will resume in the morning. Probably go to a friends house - he has an acetylene torch to apply serious heat and also a bearing press. One of those should work. I hope.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to add, the control arm did arrive today (RockAuto). It came with one replacement bolt (and nut) in the package. You guessed it, it was the one I'm having all the trouble with! Hooray! Now I really don't care about any brute force & ignorance in getting the old sucker out.

Thankfully there were no injuries. Would it be possible to see a picture of the control arm showing the condition of the socket. Regardless, this is a bit scary. How many miles on your 2014. Thanks.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

When younger, I used to use PB multiple sprays a few times a night and let it soak overnight. one time when didn't work , after much pounding, grinding, cussing, etc, ended up at the shop and they fried it off.

Heat always works.

Since I saw videos a few years ago, now use liquid wrench but recently it looks like Seafoam Deep Creep is even better.

Liquid wrench has been working fine but might try the seafoam one of these days.

 

[Jmaz]

When younger, I used to use PB multiple sprays a few times a night and let it soak overnight. one time when didn't work , after much pounding, grinding, cussing, etc, ended up at the shop and they fried it off.

Heat always works.

Since I saw videos a few years ago, now use liquid wrench but recently it looks like Seafoam Deep Creep is even better.

Liquid wrench has been working fine but might try the seafoam one of these days.

While others sung praises for PB Blaster I never had their success. In fact, thinking about it, I never had great success with any of them. Now ,heat and penetrant yea that's better.

Check out Project Farm video on youtube where he tests penetrants and cuts the nuts to show penetration depth and also torque removal values.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

While others sung praises for PB Blaster I never had their success. In fact, thinking about it, I never had great success with any of them. Now ,heat and penetrant yea that's better.

Check out Project Farm video on youtube where he tests penetrants and cuts the nuts to show penetration depth and also torque removal values.

Yeah. It was a process. The trick is time.

PB never worked as fast as I wanted it too. And you always waited til the weekend...usually the project could wait til weekend. If it needed immediate attention, then let my mechanic burn it off.

Starting Friday night, Trick was to spray, let sit a few hours, do other stuff,
try to break loose, spray again, sleep, let sit, try to break loose, repeat. Usually , hopefully by Saturday Eve or Sunday morn, you could break it.

And don't forget leverage..if you have the room to add an extension pipe over your breaker bar.
Now for tight spaces your just SOL.

Now liquid wrench still needs to sit but seems to work alot quicker for me.

I'm old and tired so
if it's something that needs immediate attention, I don't piss around and just take it to my mechanic and let him deal with it.

 

[edmaz]

While others sung praises for PB Blaster I never had their success. In fact, thinking about it, I never had great success with any of them. ,,,

That's been my experience as well. For me, whenever something can't be removed using a reasonable amount of force, then those chemicals won't do it either, regardless of how long I wait or how many applications are done.

And AFA as heat goes, I don't want to be the guy on the 6 PM news who burned his house down by setting his vehicle on fire with a torch, and I avoid that as well. That said, I'd have no problem whatsoever with using lots of heat on the detached knuckle, in this most recent problem above (or any part that's been removed from the vehicle for that matter).

So my go to 'power' tools are a 5ft pipe over a breaker bar, angle grinder, reciprocating saw, and a metal cut-off wheel in a Dremel. Although I'm sure there are things that can't be broken or cut free, that collection has taken care of every problem I've ever had. Other people have a different opinion about the effectivness of the chemicals or the use of lots of heat, and I'm certainly not going to argue with anyone about those things. Basically it's whatever floats your boat and gets the job done.

 

[Jmaz]

Yeah. It was a process. The trick is time.

PB never worked as fast as I wanted it too. And you always waited til the weekend...usually the project could wait til weekend. If it needed immediate attention, then let my mechanic burn it off.

Starting Friday night, Trick was to spray, let sit a few hours, do other stuff,
try to break loose, spray again, sleep, let sit, try to break loose, repeat. Usually , hopefully by Saturday Eve or Sunday morn, you could break it.

And don't forget leverage..if you have the room to add an extension pipe over your breaker bar.
Now for tight spaces your just SOL.

Now liquid wrench still needs to sit but seems to work alot quicker for me.

I'm old and tired so
if it's something that needs immediate attention, I don't piss around and just take it to my mechanic and let him deal with it.

Like you said, leverage is your friend "IF" you have the room. I have a gutsy little 12v Dewalt impact wrench that has worked well for most things I've encountered so far but won't handle all of the lower control arm bolts for sure. Not sure about the strut /spindle bolts either. But no sense getting a more powerful one (barring anything unforseen) if those items are 4-5 years away at my current yearly mileage. I may be unwilling or not up to the task by then anyway. Something about getting oldER and tiredER. Sometimes it's just better to pay the man and drink coffee.

 

[RedBaron]

Well, just an update... another day and no progress. Took it over to my friend's place only to find he'd forgotten to shut off his oxygen tank, so it was drained. So much for hefty heat!

So, then we tried it on his 20ton press. Did. Not. Move. He also tried wailing on it with a 5lb mallet. Nothing!

He promised to go get another tank of oxy tomorrow (Monday) and we'll try it again. Option2: I'll take it to a mechanic(s) shop to let them try. Option3: buy a new knuckle for $140-150 shipped, but that will take another week to arrive (I'll also call the dealer to see if they have it in stock, but I doubt they will).

Arrrgggh!

Here for @Jmaz is the offending A-arm, and the car has ~140K miles on it.

 

[Jmaz]

Well, just an update... another day and no progress. Took it over to my friend's place only to find he'd forgotten to shut off his oxygen tank, so it was drained. So much for hefty heat!

So, then we tried it on his 20ton press. Did. Not. Move. He also tried wailing on it with a 5lb mallet. Nothing!

He promised to go get another tank of oxy tomorrow (Monday) and we'll try it again. Option2: I'll take it to a mechanic(s) shop to let them try. Option3: buy a new knuckle for $140-150 shipped, but that will take another week to arrive (I'll also call the dealer to see if they have it in stock, but I doubt they will).

Arrrgggh!

Here for @Jmaz is the offending A-arm, and the car has ~140K miles on it.

Thanks for the photo and stating the mileage. I feel a little better now seeing the condition. Dry as a bone and didn't wear out overnite. Didn't it give any loose steering feel or wheel shudder or clunking when going over bumps? Not criticizing, just curious.
For the bolt removal, that's the stuff we'd take to a good machine shop to remove. It'd be quicker but maybe not much cheaper than the $140-150 price of a new knuckle. Don't know. Might be worth swinging by one and let them see it.
This has me wanting to remove my pinch bolts and giving them a coating of anti-seize to prevent this happening. Thanks for the pictures and update. This 'bolt from hell' is unbelievable and it's good to have a heads- up that this can occur.

 

[RedBaron]

Didn't it give any loose steering feel or wheel shudder or clunking when going over bumps? Not criticizing, just curious.

Well, my son drives this car now and he blithely ignores any car noises. Kids, Ugh. But yes, I happened to be a passenger with him a week or so ago and noticed a clunk when turning left. Thus, got me investigating, noticing some wheel looseness and ordering the new LCA. Nice that the part arrived on the day it gave out! Replacement process, not so nice.

The picture was taken in flat evening light, so you can't see that there is some grease still in there. But certainly the boot had split in two and a good deal of the grease had escaped. Interestingly the ball had not worn at all (before I got the pipe wrench on it ) , but the socket definitely gave way.

 

[Jmaz]

Well, my son drives this car now and he blithely ignores any car noises. Kids, Ugh. But yes, I happened to be a passenger with him a week or so ago and noticed a clunk when turning left. Thus, got me investigating, noticing some wheel looseness and ordering the new LCA. Nice that the part arrived on the day it gave out! Replacement process, not so nice.

The picture was taken in flat evening light, so you can't see that there is some grease still in there. But certainly the boot had split in two and a good deal of the grease had escaped. Interestingly the ball had not worn at all (before I got the pipe wrench on it ) , but the socket definitely gave way.

Makes sense now. I suspect the ball isn't worn because I'm guessing it's surface hardened and is encased in a tough nylon like polymer. After reading your reply and wanting to know for sure, I discovered this video where a ball joint is cut open.

What's Inside a Car Ball Joint

Ball Joint Replacement. Ever wonder what the inside of a ball joint looks like? Well here is your chance to see a ball joint cutaway. Ball joints are what co...

www.youtube.com

 

[RedBaron]

SUCCESS!!
My (very good!) buddy picked up an oxygen tank today and I went round this afternoon. He heated it up cherry red and the bolt freed along with a liberal dose of suggestion with a mallet!

So, now all I have to do is put the whole freakin' mess back together. Well, that's tomorrow's problem.

 

[Jmaz]

SUCCESS!!
My (very good!) buddy picked up an oxygen tank today and I went round this afternoon. He heated it up cherry red and the bolt freed along with a liberal dose of suggestion with a mallet!

So, now all I have to do is put the whole freakin' mess back together. Well, that's tomorrow's problem.

Awesome. Glad to hear it.

 

[Gus75]

Hi, I was recently travelling in a Mazda CX-5 2013, which has done 73K miles, when the suspension control arm suddenly detached, causing the steering to be lost and the wheel to cave in. The car has been regularly serviced, MOTd, and has had no accidents. Furthermore, it has not been driven on rough terrain.

The incident happened after travelling around 170 miles and there had been no signs of any suspension issues leading up to the incident. Thankfully the problem happened as the car was entering a car park. Had it occurred at speed, the consequences would most likely have caused fatalities.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or has suggestions to make? I'm still reeling from the trauma!

Thanks!

As part of regular dealer service, they are supposed to on first oil chage go and check each nut and bolt is tight as per spec. Do they do it, i doubt it.

 

[GoFrogs]

Seems like something is missing...

During MOT, do the ppl doing the checks note the condition of the parts, such as excessive rust or flaking paint due to rust, etc....or...do they just look, tug and push on the respective pieces to ensure road worthiness???

I realize England/Great Britain is subject to a lot of rain and salt air and that excessive rust is common (I've see plenty of wheeler dealer and other British motoring repair shows to know that 8-year old cars can look twice their age compared to the same car in the states; not perfect but I am amazed at the rust on the underside of cars in England)

Do you know if the car was in an accident from the previous owner? If so, an aftermarket part may have been used that had less rust resistance than an OE part.

A torn boot on the ball joint could let water in, but also, a torn boot should have been caught by the MOT technician.

Without pictures of said part and failure area, we can only speculate on as to what failed and possible causes as to why.

I had a 2004 GTI, driven in both Colorado and Ohio winters (think salt/chloride stuff), and my control arms were all rusted along the welded seams (and on looking at them looked bad). I replaced the control arms at year 12 (2016) and well north of 100k miles, but the OE arms showed no real sign of failure or severely flaking metal, even at the ball joint end. The paint was flaking, but the metal was solid.

I doubt you have them, but pictures of the part would help us out a lot.

 

[RedBaron]

Well back to my repair journey now...

The car is back together and test driven finally... but not without further issues. When trying to get the (re-attached) knuckle to line up with the new A-arm ball joint post, I could NOT get it close enough to insert. At that point I had the hub back on and the axle back in the hub, and it seemed that the axle was keeping the knuckle too far out to align with the post. Argggh! Then as I thought about it I realized that the axle was hyper-extended. I could pull the outer axle away from the mid-CV joint to the limit of the boot extension, but not push it in enough to align. Crap, new right hand axles are $360!

Could not find anything about this online, but my buddy said with rear-drive cars (he's not so familiar with front-drive) there's a circular clip that keeps the axle in the CV joint and I might be able to click it back in. Sure enough I took the hub and knuckle back apart and aligned the axle straight, then whacked it with a mallet on the end (axle nut on flush). After a few bangs, there was a click and the axle went a lot shorter . It had clipped back into place and would no longer pull out like before, yay! After that I put everything back together (again) and the knuckle aligned with the ball joint post after a fair bit of wiggling.

It seems when my son drove and the ball popped, the wheel turned outward and that force pulled the axle out of the mid CV joint. Doh! Nothing's ever easy.

Just writing this here in case anyone else has this same issue.

 

[Jmaz]

Well back to my repair journey now...

The car is back together and test driven finally... but not without further issues. When trying to get the (re-attached) knuckle to line up with the new A-arm ball joint post, I could NOT get it close enough to insert. At that point I had the hub back on and the axle back in the hub, and it seemed that the axle was keeping the knuckle too far out to align with the post. Argggh! Then as I thought about it I realized that the axle was hyper-extended. I could pull the outer axle away from the mid-CV joint to the limit of the boot extension, but not push it in enough to align. Crap, new right hand axles are $360!

Could not find anything about this online, but my buddy said with rear-drive cars (he's not so familiar with front-drive) there's a circular clip that keeps the axle in the CV joint and I might be able to click it back in. Sure enough I took the hub and knuckle back apart and aligned the axle straight, then whacked it with a mallet on the end (axle nut on flush). After a few bangs, there was a click and the axle went a lot shorter . It had clipped back into place and would no longer pull out like before, yay! After that I put everything back together (again) and the knuckle aligned with the ball joint post after a fair bit of wiggling.

It seems when my son drove and the ball popped, the wheel turned outward and that force pulled the axle out of the mid CV joint. Doh! Nothing's ever easy.

Just writing this here in case anyone else has this same issue.

Thanks for the update and that piece of information about the clip. Murphy's Law and the unexpected strikes again.