Rear lower suspension arm goosed

[The Gas Man]

Lower n/s rear suspension arm gave way late Saturday night, just about got home!

Before I start work; in general is it just the 'arms' that fail due to corrosion or should I be looking at replacing the complete subframe assembly? 2004 ZT 200,000 miles!

Your valued experience appreciated.

[stocktake]

Subframes are a chunky piece of kit just a wirebrush and protection should suffice. The arm is actually the upper arm ( even though it sits underneath the spring.)
Plenty of threads on here about changing them. Pay particular attention to how carefully you remove the inboard bolts. Back and forth a little at a time is the way to go.

[Lord of Hog]

I recently had to replace a rotten rear upper arm on mine, yet the other side and the subframe are perfectly solid. While you're in there have a look and make sure the bottom of your spring hasn't snapped off (reasonably common and not easily detected).

[macafee2]

Getting to the inner bolt which I think requires a 15mm socket and may need a bit of modification or the making of a short short extension bar. I found my short extension bar was too long.

I found a spare long extension, cut it to length making sure my new bar included the ratchet end and then ground down the socket end from round to square to accept the socket. To prevent the socket falling off I put a few turns of tape where socket and extension meet and taped them together.

There is a risk the captive nuts they go into my break free but on the two cars I've had the bolts out of this has not happened.

good luck

macfee2

[COLVERT]

Give the fixings some Plus Gas well before you start. It might save the captive nuts from breaking loose.

[The Gas Man]

I think I'm going to take the subframe off and look into changing both sides.

[Best_of_British]

My estate is on 203k and the corrosion has weakened it enough to bend the rear upper slightly. Like you I will put the saloon on the road and work at leisure rebuilding it. The I will do sills, then aux belt, front suspension, exhaust, both low pressure pumps, refurbish HP pump, fix cracked EGR Flexi pipe, look at why the brakes are diabolical and then hopefully I will get my moon mileage sticker. Damn, on a car worth nothing I wish I could scrap it, but for some strange reason I can't.

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[The Gas Man]

Originally Posted by Best_of_British

My estate is on 203k and the corrosion has weakened it enough to bend the rear upper slightly. Like you I will put the saloon on the road and work at leisure rebuilding it. The I will do sills, then aux belt, front suspension, exhaust, both low pressure pumps, refurbish HP pump, fix cracked EGR Flexi pipe, look at why the brakes are diabolical and then hopefully I will get my moon mileage sticker. Damn, on a car worth nothing I wish I could scrap it, but for some strange reason I can't.

Sent from my Redmi 4A using Tapatalk

Yes the ZT is far too good to scrap, it would pass for a third of it's years and mileage.