I just finished replacing a lower control arm.

CSTAFF25

MEMBER
1997 MERCURY COUGAR
130,000 MILES

I just finished replacing a lower control arm and a stabilizer bar link on the front passenger side. Put the car down and started to drive it to get it aligned properly. I could tell something was wrong almost immediately. While my front driver side wheel is straight, the passenger side is turned in like 30 degrees. I was pretty much out of light so I couldn't really check to see if I have done something wrong yet, but I was able to find out that the stabilizer bar link I was given was the wrong piece. My front left original one has a straight bar shape connecting its joints, while this new one has a bent shape in it. I am going to take it back and get the correct part, but my question is, could that be the reason for why the tires were facing different directions? This is the most in-depth suspension job I have done before, so there is definitely the possibility I just made a mistake, but hopefully not.

3 Replies

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

No, something is bent as a tie rod end.

What damage was done?

Roy

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Sunday, November 18th, 2012 AT 3:01 AM

CSTAFF25

MEMBER
46 POSTS

I'll check the tie rods later today. What originally happened was my wife was driving very slowly around a stop sign and then she heard a really loud bang. After that was a lot of grinding. When I came to get her I found the ball joint for the lower control arm had gave out causing the lower control arm to disconnect from the wheel entirely and it was sitting on the rim, where the grinding was coming from. The stabilizer link was snapped in half basically, but I am not sure if that was from this original problem or from when it got towed.