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Control arms, bushings, and ball joints may not be common household terms for many vehicle owners. You may have never even heard of them, but they are critical components of your vehicle's suspension system that allow your tires to smoothly go up and down in a controlled fashion. Without them, your ride probably wouldn't be very enjoyable.
Most vehicles use either one or two control arms per wheel, on both the front and rear suspension. Many front-wheel-drive vehicles only use a lower control arm, while trucks and SUVs often have both an upper and lower control arm. A control arm connects the wheel hub and steering knuckle to the frame of the vehicle. They are typically equipped with bushings on the frame side of the vehicle and a ball joint on the wheel side of the vehicle that allows flex and controlled movement according to road conditions and steering input from the driver. Control arms allow wheels to move up and down while preventing forward and rearward movement.
Many currently manufactured vehicles worldwide use a MacPherson strut suspension, which utilizes one lower control arm and one lower ball joint per wheel with the necessary small amount of movement at the top of the strut usually provided by an elastomeric (rubber-like) bearing, within which is a ball bearing to allow free rotation about the steering axis. In this design, the lower ball joint is a follower, with the bottom of the strut connected directly to the steering knuckle and wheel. The bearing plate of the upper strut mount carries the vehicle's weight, leaving the lower ball joint to act only as a pivot point. In a non-MacPherson strut automobile suspension, the two ball joints per wheel are called the upper ball joint and the lower ball joint. In the majority of these designs, the coil spring is seated in the lower control arm, supporting the weight of the vehicle. The lower ball joint is the load-carrying joint in this type of suspension, while the upper ball joint is the follower, with no significant load to support. It acts only as a second pivot point for steering.
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