We have a 2001 Stratus sedan 2.7. I took it to a shop for a alignment and they told me the lower control arm bushings are bad, not completely unsafe but bad. They told me I should replace them before I get it aligned. I might do them myself but the manual I have makes it look like a pain. The manual tells you to take off the wheel,rotor,caliper ect. Can you just take off the wheel and disconnect the lower ball joint to replace the lower control arm bushings?

 

Just do what you think you need to do. What's the big deal about pulling the caliper and the rotor? Caliper 2 bolts, rotor falls off once you remove the caliper. I don't see what the big deal is about that?

 

You should buy the lower ball join assembly it will have the bushings they speak of. Also, 22DODGE22 is right. Take the parts off and give yourself as much space and room as possible.

You can get the lower ball joint assembly and it's literally a 3 or 4 bolt job once you give yourself the space to work.

 

You can plan on 6 hours to change out the lower control arm if you are doing it in the driveway. Getting the thing back on is a real biatch. I would recommend changing the sway bar coupling while you have it off.

Amazon has the best price. I paid 70ish with free shipping. If one is bad the other is right behind. I did passenger side first then 6 months later did the driver side. There is a heat shield on the ball joint that will fall down and start to gauge the inside of your wheel with extreme turns.

Do it yourself and save a boatload of money.