So driving today, I'm pulling into a mall and all of a sudden I hear a snap and the car comes to a skidding halt. I get out and look and my front passenger side control arm snapped in half and my wheel was towed out 75 degrees and the car was ****#d... had to have it towed. Car has 78,000 miles. At least I wasn't going fast and there were no other cars near at the time.

Was wierd, I heard a crunching noise the other day while driving, but upon inspection, nothing seemed broke. Been a bad few months for the Lancer. Now the entore right side will have all new control arms and trailing arms... Was going to get my windows tinted Tuesday, but will have to wait now.

 

that sucks sorry to hear man, too bad it isnt anything that can be upgraded either. its not too expensive of a part so its not all bad.

 

I know. Totally lame. Now I've broken a front and rear control arm. Do Mitsubishis across the board have weak control arms? I can see the rear one as I slid sideways into a curb, but this one? WTF?

My daughter was in the car, thank god I wasn't on the freeway!

 

yeah seriously thats a strange coincidence that you ahve had two go out but ive only heard of one other incident of this happening on a lancer and i think it was a rear control arm.

 

i broke my drivers side control arm too.. but i hit a cement barrier sideways ...but on topic thats not good because i drive pretty hard and i have hit a few nasty potholes goin pretty fast... to have one of those break at highway speeds would be Very Bad.

 

Maybe I'll try to get a picture. I took one with my phone but you can't see it. The front control arm is pretty damn thick. At least 2 inches across and rolled around as well. It snapped about an inch from where it attaches to the wheel.

 

if i'm not mistaken, that's the manufacter's fault and it's covered by warranty. i went to my mitsu dealership here in london and they said they were getting a lot of the 02-03 lancers coming in with the control arms giving them problems. mine started making a squeakin noise and so i had it checked. it's in backorder rite now cause so many lancers here need it replaced. anyways, you should call your dealership and ask them about it. my dealership told me they'd call and then give me a rental for the day and fix all the other stxpid noises in my car (covered by warranty)

 

you possibly could have weakend it from sliding into the curb since it was on the same side and just didnt realize it. hope you get it running again soon

 

I already had the 2 rear control arms replaced under warranty way back when I got the car. Like i said, I have 78k miles on the car and it as far from stock. Mitsu would laugh if I tried to claim anything under warranty...

 

they shouldnt be TOO expensive. next time call mitsubishi roadside assistance and they will do it for free im pretty sure...

 

I don't know if that would work in his case. Mitsubishi roadside assistance is only for 3yr/36000miles. Thats what it says on my Roadside Assistance Card in my wallet.

 

I got a new control arm from for $125 and replace it myself in an hour. Pretty straightforward.

Good luck!

 

not too bad... probably cost like 1200 to have a dealer replace it...

 

My local shop only wanted $300 for the whole job. So the dealer would probably be $450 ($150 for part, and dealership is usually double on labor).

 

yeah my right control arm got bent, the tie bar as well...but i hit black ice and slid right into the side curb...800 bucks to fix everything =(