Just spent about 8 hours trying to change the Lower control arm on the driver side and still not done. It took about 2 hours to remove since all the bolts were rusted. Then I realized autozone gave me the wrong part. They gave me the passenger side not the driver side. I started at 6pm ish and ended at 12:30am / 1am called it quits for the night. Reason well after 9pm I didn't use my impact wrench because it's loud and didn't want to disturb the neighbors. This is were everything went wrong. Well without a impact wrench it was manual labor the rest of the way. Exhaustion got the better of me and I took many breaks. Eventually the old part was out and the new part was well halfway in, the front ball joint would not go in no matter what i tried, then the rear bushing was a pain in the ass to align eventually i got both rear and ball joint seated but the bolts to the subframe would not stick, after many different configs of undoing and redoing the bolts in different order I called it quits put the car on a second jack stand put a log underneath subframe in case the jacks fail, and put chocks in the back wheels (hand brake is always on when on jacks). I will resume tomorrow after some much needed rest and food. This is my little rant. The thing the infuriates me is I have done the passenger side before it was much easier, still took a while but I did it in one day, driver side going to be a 2 day project now.

 

Frustrated, tried and hungry, now you’re rested and feed and have a new day to get this job done.

 

You’re not working on and SS, are you?

 

Are the LCSa cast AL or did the sell you the stamped steel (wrong) ones.

 

I was able to install it the next day much easier. I was just frustrated, hungry, without power tools or natural light it was just a pain in the ass. I did go with stamped steel since I had already changed the passenger side with stamped steel I wanted both of the control arm to be same specs and manufacturers.It was a 2010 HHR LT 2.2. Next up I'm going to change both front struts and the driver side front sway link.

 

Stamped steel is the WRONG part for the HHR. Those are parts for the older Cobalts.
Another case of the parts books saying “If it fits, it must be the right part”. It’s not….

 

What would be the results or symptoms of putting the stamped steel vs the aluminum one?

 

Did some research, Well........ looks like it's time to get under the car again. I do have a question if i had aluminum control arm on the driver side front and stamped steel on the passenger front, would that affect the struts and the smoothness of the up and down or are my struts just cooked and need to be replaced as well?

 

Replace both with aluminum, the stamped steel are a different size

 

We need a letter writing campaign to RockAuto to get them to stop listing those darn steel lower control arms for hhrs.