My Max hit a curb last week. The tire noise increased a little bit after that. I took it to Firestone and they said the left control arm needs to be replaced before alignment.
$230 parts+ $90 labor.

My question is: Is the control arm bushing important? can I go ahead to have alignment without a new control arm?
Your help is highly appreciataed.

 

If you control arm is bent then it's impossible to align the car properly. A new control arm will include a new bushing also. It's why the shop said "control arm is needed BEFORE aligning the car".

It sucks but hey, for hitting a curb, that's getting by fairly cheap.

 

Hey Jeff....do you recall my curb hitting incident about a year and a half ago.....I still haven't fixed it.....

I think I'll read up on doing the control arm myself in the FSM.......

 

Bill doing his own mechanical repairs = Jeff :shutter:

Remember Bill. Lefy = loosey and Righty = tighty.

 

at courtesy in richardson, tx.. i paid 75 for all buishings (four) and 204 at cty garage to have installed.. and my left control arm - only had one bolt holding in - other 4 were stripped out. but i was only charged 45 bucks to retread. i hope i can get my alignment now..i hope i did not spend that money on a control arm thats bent!!!

 

You definitely need to replace the lower control arm before the alignment. If it still does not get into specs you may need to replace the steering knuckle. Try to make a deal with the shop doing the alignment. If it does not get into specs after replacing the control arm and they (or you) replace the steering knuckle, see if they will align it for free a second time.
Did your ball joint survive??
Rim bent??

 

That and the CV joints.... I later find out when I'm asking them to do an alignment, that the left lower control arm is bent. They said they couldn't see it until they tried to check the alignment, however, when I line the wheels up straight i can see the gap between the fender is bigger on 1 side then the other, meaning one of my front wheels sits slightly in front of the other one. I checked a few junkyards yesturday, but I think I'll hold off now and get a new control arm with the bushings. What sucks is that they replaced the bushings in the bent control arm and it turns out to be bent. This is all probably because of an encounter with a NYC street canyon at 40 mph, it's either that or me hitting the curb hard trying to avoid some moron cutting me off and slamming the brakes in the rain. My brakes locked and I slid and jumped the curb.

My car still handles bad, the steering is erratic and imprecise..