Just had a quick question, i had my lower control arm replaced more than half a yr ago, but a few days ago the driverside drive axle came apart. The dealership told me .. "the balljoint was not secured by pinchbolt at the shaft knotch. Causing the lower controll arm to pull away from knuckle and drive axle to come apart". Can this happen without any warning?

Anyone have some insight on this?

 

the pinch bolt they are referring to is at the bottom of the hub. theres a bolt that pinches the hub to the top of the ball joint. If that was not tightened then the ball joint on the control arm would disconnect from where it attaches to the hub.

If this happened while you were moving, your drive axle would be bent at a weird angle while rotating and damage it as well as possibly the bearing in the wheel hub.

I'm no expert btw, I just spent the last four hours disassembling that area of the car and pressing new stuff in.

Whoever replaced the control arm in this situation probably didn't tighten that pinch bolt enough and it worked its way loose. It could have been loose for a while btw, just waiting for the right conditions to disconnect. Youd' need to unload the suspension (like just after a bump) and the balljoint would pop off the pinch bolt hub area and when the weight of the car came back down on the jont it'd probably bend your drive shaft right there.


You have any pics? Do you remember what you were doing when it happened?

 

+1 for pictures.