Boxster Control Arm Replacment in Total Control

My Boxster's front suspension was creaking more than Bernie Kosar's knees. And when it started shaking under heavy braking like it had warped discs I knew it was time to replace the control arms.

First, jack up the car, remove the wheels and turn the wheel to full lock. You will have to turn it the other way to replace the opposite side. The procedure is the same on either side.

Next, remove the clip and plastic nut next to red dots so that you have enough room insert your wrenches.

In the next pic, you can see the 16 and 18mm wrenches in place. Take the nut off but leave the bolt in place.

Next, remove the nut but leave the bolt in place for the track arm.

Now, you can get a fancy Porsche ball joint popper but since you are not reusing the ball joints you can use the old fashioned hit it hard popper. Two whacks and the ball joint popped out as easily as snapping a pain killer pill from a blister pack.

Then, take out the bolt holding the track arm. Then, the bolt holding the arm to the chassis. The arm will come out easily.

To install, start by the chassis and slide in the bolt and catch the nut, do not tighten until all is in place.

Then, install the track arm bolt and nut.

And finally, get a small jack and force, it does not take much at all, the ball joint into the strut housing and tighten. 

Now go through and torque all the nuts. Good luck getting a torque wrench on the ball joint, so, just nice and tight. No need to kill it. 110ftlbs on the track arm bolt and 70 something ftlbs on the chassis bolt.

You can see the finished product. Visually, the old arm looks fine but the ball joint was shot. Loose, torn boot, etc.

I went with rebuilt units from vertexauto.com for $189. Each.

It took me an hour and half working pretty slowly, No need for alignment after this either. It is so easy you are crazy to pay a shop $200 + to install them for you.