[oceanliner]

The pot hole won this round with my 97 C230. The outer end of the right front lower control arm snapped right off. I'm a bit bummed out because it was about 60,000 miles ago that I replaced all the front bushings, spring seats, ball joints, and shocks.

No other damage is apparent, which leads to a host of questions:

1. I will certainly replace the ball joint with the control arm, but should I replace the left and right ball joints AND the left right control arms?
2. The upper control arm ball joint is worn, but really not cracked on either side. If I am doing this work for the lower, should I do the uppers at the same time on both sides?

And a different problem which showed up about a week before this happened, is a creaking from the rear as we drive over the driveway entrance. The crazy thing is that I cannot reproduce the noise while in my shop, so I am not sure which linkage is need of service. All of the rear links are original and they look worn. I guess I could do the shotgun service and change them all, and I even noticed a kit from Meyle. Any suggestions for any of these repairs would be appreciated.

 

[merctech36]

Well that means your control arm ball joins were giving up but jus replace the control arm and shocks you can purchase the whole thing

 

[georgebuhr]

You don't need to replace both sides, but I always tend to lean towards replacing both sides if I know it's a job I'm going to be doing soon anyway. So if there is any doubt in performance just do both and be done with it. If you think you have a worn ball joint, personally I would do uppers and lowers on both sides. Your going to have to get an alignment anyway, and if you have a worn ballpoint it will throw the alignment off, so it's best to just do them. Inspect the tie rod linkage and do those too. You can buy the whole linkage with everything, at not a horrible price. I know when you add up all the parts it will be a good chunk of money, but you'll have a new front end when your done.

 

[StigHelmer]

The control arms are notorious for breaking under a number of circumstances at this age. I would replace both, you can get Karlyn's for 100 each side on autohaus or Lemfoerders for 250 each if you want to spend more money for high quality. I am getting Karlyn's for mine. But you don't HAVE to.