2006 Mazda 5: Passenger’s side lower control arm

Last month I replaced the driver's side lower control arm when I did the CV axle. That was the easy side. The passenger's side requires lifting up the engine to make room for the long 19mm bushing bolt. The AC compressor is in the way.

J's been here since New Year's and we've been working on his 2004 Toyota Matrix. We replaced his belt tensioner, serpentine belt, and cooling thermostat (which required removing the alternator). So he was able to help on our Mazda because one of us (me) would use a big pry bar to push the engine out of the way while the other (he) would get that bushing bolt threaded.

Other than that, having learned from doing the driver's side it was straightforward. We lined up the two plate bolts first, but then made the mistake of trying to pop in the ball joint pin next. Going back to my blog post, I realized we needed to get that bushing bolt in first.

It was pretty simple. I ended up having to jack up the car a little more so I could get enough swing on the 3' pry bar I was using (it was hitting the garage floor before moving the engine far enough out of the way).

Once that was done, we went to pop in the bushing pin. Wow, that was a bit of a hassle. We ended up taking off the brake caliper to remove the rotor so we could see how everything was lining up (or not lining up, as was more often the case). 

Then, it was a matter of swinging the steering wheel this way and that in order to get the pin to line up with the wheel mount. We tried the trick of popping it up from underneath with the floor jack, but every time we pumped up the jack the pin shifted and popped out of place. Eventually, it was a bit of luck lining up the pin and hitting the underside of the lower control arm with a big hammer. It was in.

Then we torqued each of the four bolts to spec:

• 19mm socket for the bushing bolt (torque 110 ft-lbs)
• 17mm socket for the plate bolts (torque 75 ft-lbs)
• 14mm socket for the ball joint locking pinch bolt (torque 39 ft-lbs)

Put the brake rotor and caliper back on and torqued those 17mm bolts to 76 ft-lbs.

All-in-all, another pretty simple job of loosening some bolts, replacing a part, and tightening some bolts. Also, saving a ton of money in the process.