Urgent! Impending Lower Control Arm Ball Joint Failure? 2015 CX-5

[anyman]

While doing my brake bleed this weekend I investigated a clunking sound coming from the front end suspension. What I found was that the passenger side ball joint has some slight movement in it and I'm assuming this is the dreaded failure a lot of people are seeing on their CX5s on the forum. The car is a 2015 GT with 97k miles.

The symptoms are:

• Tiny movement where the LCA ball joint connects to the knuckle. You can't see it but you can feel it with your hand while someone wiggles the rotor. I've attached a pic with the area in question circled in red.
• Clunk sound as you hit a driveway approach
• A subtle *bump you can feel in the steering wheel turning left...maybe felt two times in one full left turn of the steering wheel
• Sometimes an audible clunk while turning.
• A general looseness in the front end...could be my imagination but it doesn't feel tight.

I've also noticed the bushings on the rear of both front LCAs are cracked in one spot (pic attached).

My questions are:

• Are the symptoms I'm experiencing indicative of this failure?
• Regardless of if the loose ball joint is the cause of the symptoms...I'm assuming I need to replace the passenger side LCA for safety reasons? It shouldn't have movement in it, right?
• Since the ball joint is probably worn, is a complete LCA replacement required?
• Based on the condition of the bushings in the pic, should I just go ahead and replace both front LCAs?
• Are aftermarket LCA options good? If so, what brands have people had success with? I see a couple of brands on Rock Auto.

We don't plan on keeping the car for much longer. At most a couple of years but more likely we'll sell it in a year or so (15k miles more or so). That doesn't mean I want the next owner to inherit these issues. And I want to do the right thing for safety's sake. I won't be DIY'ing this btw. I have a mechanic who could probably do this.

Anyway, I appreciate any information. I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible as we don't have a spare car for my wife to drive.

 

[Ohio_CX-5]

Just had the front lower control arms replaced on my ‘15 CX-5 at a local MAZDA dealership. You have to replace a complete lower control arms on both sides, even if one is failing. It made a world of difference in the way the car handles and feels over most surfaces. I am glad I did it.

 

[anyman]

I’m leaning towards just replacing both arms so I can start “fresh” so to speak. I didn’t even realize I could theoretically just replace that single ball joint but the time it takes to remove and pop a new one back in is probably similar effort as just replacing the entire arm.

 

[Ohio_CX-5]

That’s correct. Do both and be done with it. I went with a dealership and original Mazda parts and have no experience with aftermarket parts… Alignment is necessary afterwards as well. I payed almost $1000 for everything.

 

[anyman]

Price sounds about what I was thinking. Parts are almost $400...I want to say shop rate around here for dealerships is nearing $190/hr which blows my mind. I have an independent mechanic I know but he may not want to work on a Mazda...but he's way more reasonable.

I still need to do a couple more tests to make sure it's absolutely the ball joint. But like I said, I'm fairly certain there shouldn't be any play in those.

 

[yrwei52]

While doing my brake bleed this weekend I investigated a clunking sound coming from the front end suspension. What I found was that the passenger side ball joint has some slight movement in it and I'm assuming this is the dreaded failure a lot of people are seeing on their CX5s on the forum. The car is a 2015 GT with 97k miles.

The symptoms are:

• Tiny movement where the LCA ball joint connects to the knuckle. You can't see it but you can feel it with your hand while someone wiggles the rotor. I've attached a pic with the area in question circled in red.
• Clunk sound as you hit a driveway approach
• A subtle *bump you can feel in the steering wheel turning left...maybe felt two times in one full left turn of the steering wheel
• Sometimes an audible clunk while turning.
• A general looseness in the front end...could be my imagination but it doesn't feel tight.

I've also noticed the bushings on the rear of both front LCAs are cracked in one spot (pic attached).

My questions are:

• Are the symptoms I'm experiencing indicative of this failure?
• Regardless of if the loose ball joint is the cause of the symptoms...I'm assuming I need to replace the passenger side LCA for safety reasons? It shouldn't have movement in it, right?
• Since the ball joint is probably worn, is a complete LCA replacement required?
• Based on the condition of the bushings in the pic, should I just go ahead and replace both front LCAs?
• Are aftermarket LCA options good? If so, what brands have people had success with? I see a couple of brands on Rock Auto.

We don't plan on keeping the car for much longer. At most a couple of years but more likely we'll sell it in a year or so (15k miles more or so). That doesn't mean I want the next owner to inherit these issues. And I want to do the right thing for safety's sake. I won't be DIY'ing this btw. I have a mechanic who could probably do this.

Anyway, I appreciate any information. I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible as we don't have a spare car for my wife to drive.

Check out the video here:

CX-5 Feels squirrelly

And here’s the front suspension parts replaced on @Pitter’s 2020 CX-5 Signature:

Well the repair is complete and the car is back on the road. Here is an image of the replaced parts (one side). The service manager admitted that no my car is not designed to resist rough roads so I should buy a CX-50 which IS (...he says). Maybe but I wonder if the componants replaced on mine are really more rugged/wear resistant on that model. Hmmm.

The other common problem on your front suspension noise is the anti-sway bar link at the top of the picture posted.

What is this 2014 CX-5 part? Clunk sound

I wouldn’t worry too much on your rear control arm bushings at this time.

 

[ctbale]

Takes about an hour to replace a LCA on this car. Plus parts plus $150 ish for an alignment

 

[anyman]

@yrwei52 Thanks for the info. I think I ran across the "squirrelly" post yesterday. Good info there.

I checked the sway links and they don't seem to move at all and the boots look in good shape. I ran across this video which was helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfR6hGUnDO4&t=216s

The guy in the video seems to have more movement in his suspension than I do.

Checked the rear bushings on both LCAs while the car is jacked up and they're definitely split all the way through on that one "spoke" so I'm leaning towards just replacing both arms.

Also did another check of all connecting points and that clunk sound has to be coming from the passenger ball joint. If I just put a little upward pressure on the LCA right behind the ball joint with my hand and knock the 3 o'clock position of the tire (which usually triggers the clunk sound) the sound goes away. Remove my hand, it's back again. Just need to drive it around the neighborhood to verify. Found a reputable shop that quoted me $150-250 to replace...OEM parts are going to be around $400...alignment is $100.

 

[madar]

Yep, I always check for play when I change tires for winter/spring, also always give all the rubber bushings underneath a good dousing of silicone spray. All my ball joint seals are looking unhealthy so it's just a matter of time....hopefully a long time.

 

[yrwei52]

@yrwei52 Thanks for the info. I think I ran across the "squirrelly" post yesterday. Good info there.

I checked the sway links and they don't seem to move at all and the boots look in good shape. I ran across this video which was helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfR6hGUnDO4&t=216s

The guy in the video seems to have more movement in his suspension than I do.

Checked the rear bushings on both LCAs while the car is jacked up and they're definitely split all the way through on that one "spoke" so I'm leaning towards just replacing both arms.

Also did another check of all connecting points and that clunk sound has to be coming from the passenger ball joint. If I just put a little upward pressure on the LCA right behind the ball joint with my hand and knock the 3 o'clock position of the tire (which usually triggers the clunk sound) the sound goes away. Remove my hand, it's back again. Just need to drive it around the neighborhood to verify. Found a reputable shop that quoted me $150-250 to replace...OEM parts are going to be around $400...alignment is $100.

Honestly it’s going to be costly to replace all LCAs, front and rear. With the short period of time you plan to keep this 2015 CX-5 GT, it may not worth the time and money to do them all. IMO I’d keep driving until the time you sell it or trade it in.

 

[anyman]

@yrwei52 My rear LCAs are fine. This is solely about the front LCAs. The bushings that are torn are the larger rearward positioned bushings on the FRONT. Sorry for the confusion.

My wife drives this (along with our kid) so safety is always top of mind. I think seeing some of these catastrophic failures on ball joints has me spooked. And at the end of the day I don’t feel right passing this off to the next buyer. Plus I may as well get the benefits of brand new bushings. The ride quality over the years has suffered and every time I drive it I’m reminded of that.

 

[RL911]

Which model years are people complaining about? I have felt some looseness on my 2019 at highway speeds and always felt it was grooves in the road or an unbalanced tire. I dont have any noises/clunks. I rotated my tires not long ago and it seems to have improved, but I’ll definitely keep an eye on this. Wonder if Mazda will issue a recall or tsb?

 

[Jmaz]

@yrwei52 Thanks for the info. I think I ran across the "squirrelly" post yesterday. Good info there.

I checked the sway links and they don't seem to move at all and the boots look in good shape. I ran across this video which was helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfR6hGUnDO4&t=216s

The guy in the video seems to have more movement in his suspension than I do.

Checked the rear bushings on both LCAs while the car is jacked up and they're definitely split all the way through on that one "spoke" so I'm leaning towards just replacing both arms.

Also did another check of all connecting points and that clunk sound has to be coming from the passenger ball joint. If I just put a little upward pressure on the LCA right behind the ball joint with my hand and knock the 3 o'clock position of the tire (which usually triggers the clunk sound) the sound goes away. Remove my hand, it's back again. Just need to drive it around the neighborhood to verify. Found a reputable shop that quoted me $150-250 to replace...OEM parts are going to be around $400...alignment is $100.

Last year my LCA bushings were torn as you describe (spoke torn completely through plus other deterioration) and I had my mechanic replace them. He's cool with customer supplied parts. There was no play in the ball joints but the boots were torn as well as the boots on the tie rod ends. Since an alignment was needed anyway, I had him replace the tie rod ends (which also had no play) also since they are cheap. This was at ~60K miles. I used OEM Mazda LCA's bought from online Mazda dealer "Mazdaswag" and quality Japanese aftermarket tie rod ends because OEM were on national back order at the time and not available.

Shortly thereafter I had him install new front stabilizer bar bushings which further tightened things up a little. NOTE : if you decide to do this, the stabilizer bar bushings get installed DRY on the bar, with the split facing rearward. About 6 months prior to all of this I had replaced the stabilizer bar end links, so everything together made for a tight front end.

My apologies to long time readers who are seeing my experiences repeated here for the 3rd or 4th time but I wanted to give the OP some other things to consider replacing considering his mileage vs mine (97K vs 60K).

 

[anyman]

@Jmaz Great info. Thanks for all of that.

Crazy you had issues at 60k. So I don’t have anything that’s torn. Overall the boots on everything look really good given the age of the vehicle.

Took it out tonight for an extensive test drive. Definitely clunking coming from the offending passenger side when I hit an approach turning right. Turning left into an approach is fine. No sound from the driver side. Has to be the ball joint.

Took a pic of my torn bushings (car was jacked up so you can see how it sheared and split

 

[RedBaron]

Took it out tonight for an extensive test drive. Definitely clunking coming from the offending passenger side when I hit an approach turning right. Turning left into an approach is fine. No sound from the driver side. Has to be the ball joint.

Just FYI - you may have seen this already, but if not, read through this thread of the trials and tribulations for many of us with this issue. May give you a heads up on DIY and tips/what can happen: CX-5 Suspension control arm failure

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

Just replace them. You can get new LCAs for ~100USD each and its 4 bolts (3 on the arm itself and 1 for the ball joint pin) to remove them once you take the wheel off. You'll need an extension for one of the bolts.. an impact will help

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Thanks! @Chris_Top_Her … think spring project for me is to replace that squeaky driver side LCA.. might as well do both if that is the low cost.. covered under TSB but obviously not under warranty now

..followed by alignment

 

[anyman]

I did end up having a shop do it. It made a world of difference in not only getting rid of that clunk but the handling is better and it got rid of a semi-concerning steering wheel shake under braking on the highway. Just need an alignment now but all in with OEM LCAs should be about $850.

 

[tomcat1446]

For my 2016 CX-5 with 163K miles, I got the replacement Beck Arnley LCA from Rock Auto for $110 each, I read from Amazon that the Dorman brand had fitment issues for some customers and that the Beck Arnley were a perfect fit ...strange thing is they have the Mazda p/n listed below the Beck Arnley part numbers on the boxes. I'm a newbie, so I don't know if that is industry standard to list OEM p/n on aftermarket parts. So, maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing but just strange to see Mazda's p/n on the Beck Arnley boxes
Mazda p/n KD35-34-350S Left Lower Control Arm
Mazda p/n KD35-34-300S Right Lower Control Arm

Upon closer inspection, the bushing looks exactly the same as OEM, there is a stamp "A=E44R"
so not sure if Beck Arnley is the OEM supplier but it looks very close to be OEM, I just can't confirm 100%. just sharing and trying to help fellow members save a couple of hundred buck, OEM are like $200 a piece or $400 total...

 

[tomcat1446]

so yeah, my 2016 CX-5 is up to 163,000 miles. I had local shop replace both LCA and outer tie rods. both LCA rubber bushings were cracked and broken, the LCA ball joint was in bad shape. The outer tie rod rubber were both cracked. This was expected at 163K. I just got it done because I didn't want to deal with ball joint failures while driving.

BTW, no fitment issues using the Beck Arnley LCA from Rock Auto for $110 each (part numbers 102-7956 and 102-7955), they fit perfectly like OEM, so save a couple of hundred dollars if you buy from Rock Auto vs OEM.

For the outer tie rods, I went with Moog p/n ES801390 same for both sides, it comes with grease fittings, so I can add grease during routine maintenance.