Thud when accelerating after new control arms installed
 

Hello,

I just had new front control arms installed on my 2004 TL yesterday. Today I feel a thud when accelerating from a stopped position. This thud feeling does not happen when accelerating while already moving. Could one of the control arms be faulty?

Thanks for the help!

who did the work? have them recheck everything, as we cant tell if it's a faulty control arm or installation error as we cant see or inspect the vehicle.

diagnosing and troubleshooting is visual. if you see something broken or misaligned or not right, then it'll need to be reinstalled or even replaced.

Sorry, I realized I mistyped the title. I appreciate your reply. The work was done yesterday by Meineke during a brake inspection. The wheel had been vibrating while driving and no longer does that, but I do feel this thud now when accelerating. I will take the car back to them to inspect.

fixed title.

I appreciate that! Will let you know what I find out once I have them look at it again. Was sadly in a pinch for time as the car is my only way to get my daughter to/from daycare and me to work so I went with them. May have learned a valuable lesson.

Control arms don't go bad unless you run the car into a curb at 30+ MPH.

I'm in for hearing how Meineke translates wheel vibration to bad control arms on both sides....

My guess is that something isn't tightened to spec and/or they didn't torque the bolts with "weight on wheels" as specified in the service manual.

Oh wait, are we talking upper or lower control arms? I'm assuming lower control arms...

Yeah I understand your point - they replaced both front lower control arms. They said the control arms didn't go bad, but rather the bushings were cracked and that it was cheaper to just replace the entire control arm.

After driving the car more today and having another person drive it, there is a noticeable 'clunk' sound coming from the passenger side front tire area every time I accelerate from a stopped position and even when doing a sharp turn. I have a feeling they messed something up with the install.

I am returning tomorrow morning to speak with the store's general manager. I plan to ask about getting a refund and if they do that I will take it to my Acura dealership like I should have to begin with.

I also noticed they installed the dreaded K500117 balljoint.... not sure if the nut issue had been fixed but I confirmed it did not come with the castle nut or cotter pin. I hope they give me a refund so I can get this taken care of properly.

Update
 

I went back this morning and they re-checked everything. Issue was that one of the nuts was not tightened all the way on one of the control arms. Car longer makes this sound when accelerating or going over speed bumps.

Thanks for the help!

is this the lower control arm you're talking about? because if it was that's pretty dangerous and a serious oversight by the mechanic

Yes, it was the lower control arm. I won't be going back to this place in the future.

So either way, the tech was careless. He either didn't tighten a bolt to spec and/or he didn't tighten any of the bolts to spec while weight was on the wheels and one came loose.

Also, if nothing else, you should at least physically check to be sure that the nut flange on the ball joint is wider than the sleeve.

A fastener not tightened to spec was exactly what I was thinking. That's because I've made the same mistake :blush: I didn't torque the bolt adequately on an upper control arm a installed a while back which resulted in a similar noise when going over bumps while turning. Tightened it to spec and voila, problem solved.

Thanks for the reply’s everyone. Below is a picture I took of the new ball joint nut. Will be keeping an eye on it for sure.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...026b79ac9.jpeg