The inner edges of the front tires is heavy worn down. I had one mechanic look and said all the bushings are worn down. I saw the lower control arm and lower ball joints are worn out. Also stabilizer links, and stabilizer bar bushings. Will all those things cause inner tire edge wear? The new tires only had 2K miles on them and now have to be replaced.

I also put cheapo AutoZone brand front strut assemblies with lifetime warranties. Would those contribute to excessive inner edge wear? What is the cause here, could it be other things too? The car is stock everything.

 

Toe-out wear with maybe some camber wear as well = alignment issue.

 

Struts should be fine, there is a tiny bit of adjustment at the lower 2 bolts and not worth mentioning really. The sway bar and links won't effect alignment. Everything else can eat tires if badly worn, ball joints, LCA bushings, tie rods, wheel bearings. Replace or rebuild your control arms. Check the other components for play and replace if necessary. Get an alignment then new tires.

 

You can purchase new control arms from Parts Geek Or Rock Auto. They come with new Ball joints. Unless you are a "skilled" DIY, better have a shop do it. It's a tough job!

 

Hmmm good to know.

Edit: Are there any guidelines for buying a control arm from RA? They have about a dozen choices... as usual "you get what you pay for" holds, I guess.

 

Not sure there are tried and true criteria other than to choose what you’re comfortable with and be willing to deal with the outcome. It’s somewhat a of a crap-shoot with just about everything nowadays.

As far as the Rock Auto brands available, I (personally) don’t think you’re going to get a reliable item for $18. On the other-hand, I’m not sure you need to spend $85 either.

Either way, I’d make sure that my purchase was from a well known, reputable brand and that a LLT warranty is included.

From the items available from Rock Auto, I’d likely be purchasing the $85 AC Delco units … but that’s just me. The $18 unit from API (whoever that is) with a 30 day warranty might be just fine.

Then there’s always the option of rebuilding your OE parts.

 

I see.
"Rebuild OE parts" you say? When I was last under her I noticed a lot of flaking rust so I hastily sprayed some FF on the main portions - dunno if the part is worth salvaging or not. I'm just afraid that the thing may snap due to rust, but I haven't really given it a good inspection and I don't have much experience. By rebuild do you mean replacing the rubber bushings and ball joint, do people do that?

 

I went with Moog control arms and they appeared to be better built than the OEM units on my car. They're generally the only aftermarket brand I'll use for suspension parts on this car. I don't think they came with new rear (big) bushings for the control arms. For those, I recommend the kit from Energy Suspension. If you're in there and are going to be paying for an alignment, I recommend also replacing your inner and outer tie rods.