Broken control arm

[Scott P]

I just had a control arm failure or my 05 Cooper S, was travelling around 45mph an cornering slightly. Heard a bang from the back an the car felt strange. We pulled over to see the right rear wheel burried deep inside the arch. It was totally undriveable. We were in the middle of know where with about 50 miles still to travel. Had the kids in the car to so was pretty worried as it could have ended badly. Anyway the kids got a lift home with a family member an i tied the suspension back together with rope. An to my suprise it held an made it all the way home. So is this a comman fault, an why did it happen, will it happen again. Cheers to all

[idoney2]

As a general rule, always have the rear wheels balanced and checked -especially if you buy a car used and you don't know the history . Poor/non balanced wheels murder bushes, shocks, tyres and no doubt control arms and linkages . As rear tyres can go 30k miles plus and dont shake the steering wheel like unbalanced front wheels, a lot of damage can go undetected.

Some people don't even bother with the rears to save a few quid !

[Scott P]

Sounds possible to me, there does seem to be a trend of the control arms failing, i have today removed the broken control arm an checked for other damage, all seems ok. Tomorrow i will collect a new arm from automotive company an should get it on by the evening, anything i should do or to check whilst fitting

[idoney2]

A couple of things i would check/do.
Like a lot of suspension components make sure you tighten down the bolts with the suspension carrying the weight of the car as mentioned in a earlier post. Also,carefully check your brake hoses and lines haven't been stressed or damaged as well as other parts.
If your not replacing the other side (if it was mine i probably would-but thats just me ) give the opposite arm a good old visual for any cracks etc while your under the car as well as checking the trailing arm bushes.

You will probably need to have the rear geometry checked and adjusted too btw .

oh, and the wheel balance checked !