loose control arm bolt

[kms1990]

i was wondering what symptoms a loose control arm bolt might present on our cars 04-09 2.3 hatch? i found what is obviously a bolt that holds the control arm had backed out some on my drivers side i have been chasing a vibration through the wheel between 40 and 70 or so mph (i feel it at higher speeds but not as bad. usually only steering wheel shake but sometime seat and body of car as well) and through the body (every now and again, sometimes with steering wheel shake sometimes by itself) well yesterday i had a rather long drive (about 100 miles round trip) to go to a few places on the other side of town, when i left i noticed a squeaky clank noise when i went over the bump in my driveway, thought oh, thats the control arm bushing thats going bad, no immediate big deal, it'll be noisy till i get some funds. well the noise persisted on every little bump on the way across town and seemed to get louder as i got closer to where i was going, as i was getting into the parking lot of the place i was headed, it made a loud metal on metal sounding clank over the bump into the lot (im only going about 8mph when this happened) on the way back even with stereo on (not up though) i could hear banging like someone was hitting my floorboards with a metal hammer on every little bump, it had started to get worse very fast, well i got home and all seemed ok, as when i got lunch nothing else seemed to happen. left again for the 2nd place i had to be at across town and it banged and clattered the whole way, when i got there their road was torn up and bumpy so it made a racket down that road like a hammer hitting the floor again, this time it concerned me as it was noticeably louder. parked and when i left i hit a small pot hole on that road (on the passenger side wheel going about 5mph) as i was being extremely cautious and did not think anything of it, until i got on the freeway and my wheel was not straight anymore, and the car was yanking left randomly and kinda wiggling all around on the road i fought it all the way home safely and got it on ramps where i discovered what you see in the pictures. the drivers side bolt that runs horizontally through the control arm was sticking out a good 2-4inches and not tight. but the passenger side bolt head was flat against the mount and tight. what would cause this? i could not find anything else loose or missing so this would be my only thought as to the cause of my issues. here are the pics of the bolts 1st one is passenger side nice and tight 2nd is drivers side (both the same bolt just on different sides of the car) clearly sticking out too far bolt is on the right in picture titled broken1 and on the left in broken2

i know the banging is not the struts as i have checked the rebound on them and they rebound excellent.

 

[kms1990]

UPDATE: for anyone following or wanting to know, new control arms and threadlocker on the bolts seems to have helped big time, the brakes act better, oddly enough it shifts better (mtx tranny) it was clunking into gear earlier not now. And vibration appears to have subsided, no noises and no odd driveablity issues anymore, 1st day on new control arms so we will see. If anything comes up i will update further, otherwise looks like control arms were my issues all along! Still want to know if anyone has had a control arm bolt come loose ever or any insight into why it would do that out of nowhere.

Thanks

 

[concept]

How are the road surfaces in general, over there? Over here, something like that rarely happens. Could it be that your control arm was removed or replaced in the past?

 

[kms1990]

Eh it could have been, but it had mazda stampings on it.Roads are mixed here i live in the dallas/fort worth metro some are bad some are nice and smooth. I try to drive to road conditions. I still dont know how or why it came loose like that. New arms helped the harshness alot, i thought struts were worn but control arms fixed that. It was harsh over speed bumps and steep parking entances even at very very slow speed. But its better. My vibration appears to be gone, i forgot i had a road force balance plan at firestone on my car (hate using them for ANYTHING else) and went back since i got 4 new rims 2 were bent and new tires 3 other shops had balanced them but still vibrating, 1 road force balance and smooth as butter, but she got some parts she needed out of it, just hurts the wallet some.
I also found a broken insulator on the exhaust so i got new ones and replaced those as well.

All in all this was frustrating and im happy to have it resolved, but learning experience for sure, short stiff sidewall tires always get road force balanced. Suspension and vibration issues are a PITA when you know your parts and how to repair them but nothing seems out of spec, measures out of spec and no one else can find anything either