Rear lateral arm or control arm replacement for '03 LeSabre?

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Jul 7, 2015
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100
Location
Virginia
I recently took our LeSabre to get an alignment (they do all four wheels) and could only get the front two completed. They charged me half the price which was nice but the mechanic stated that because the bushings are shot in the rear control arms...which is causing a noticeable misalignment back there and wear on the insides of the two rear tires...that I'd need to get the arms replaced. He said you can just replace bushings but it's not recommended considering the age of the vehicle.

Looking at parts and videos since then, I'm wondering if he meant the lateral arms so my question is this (if it's easy to answer):

Both the lateral arms and control arms in the rear look to have bushings, am I seeing that correctly? And if so, which one of those with damaged bushings would cause that misalignment and inside wear? I went back and asked but he couldn't recall and unfortunately it wasn't documented.

Maybe a shorter way of asking is do you believe the control arms and their damaged bushings are more responsible for the camber issue?
 
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They do look like different parts. One of them has a ball joint attached to it :unsure:

The ball joint is perpendicular to the bushing on the other side. On the other one, the two bushings are parallel

After 20 years, they're both on their way out even if not already done. You probably have to remove one to get to the other, so you might as well replace them all.
 
They do look like different parts. One of them has a ball joint attached to it :unsure:

The ball joint is perpendicular to the bushing on the other side. On the other one, the two bushings are parallel

After 20 years, they're both on their way out even if not already done. You probably have to remove one to get to the other, so you might as well replace them all.

Good point
 
The GM G-body uses a main (non-adjustable) lower control arm plus a toe-link (lateral) arm in the rear. I'm guessing the tech was unable to get the rear toe into spec due to the camber bolts being seized. The only other adjustment in the rear is camber, which requires installation of special eccentric bolts at the strut.

The lateral arms aren't a huge deal to replace, unless the eccentric bolts are stuck (which they likely are). The main control arms require removal of the rear subframe to replace.
 
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