Good question Jepstr. I have visually checked mine and they look OK and I don't hear any rattling. But I drive rough roads frequently and am worried about this as well.

 

Good question, me too, I drive rought stuff all the time. There sure is some noise when in down hill crawl mode, from the front end.

 

I can't even begin to describe how disturbing I find it that that a JEEP! of all vehicles, has a major suspension part that seems to wear out before 250,000 miles. (on road use) This should be absolutely unheard of.

 

My rattle was the outter tie rods.

The steering wheel would bobble when you drove over uneven ground.

I haven't had a control arm go yet so I don't know what that would be like.

 

I've got a rattle in the front end, and now that you mention the wobble, my steering wheel was moving around a TON when I was off-roading a few days ago, I think I know what the problem is now thanks!

 

When part of the design consideration is fuel economy, the parts get smaller, lighter, and more susceptible to wear. You can't deny physics.

 

CHEAP
LIGHT (FUEL EFFICIENT)
RELIABLE

pick two.

 

No. I won't pick 2. Good design should be able to do all three. For example, the XJ Cherokee with the fuel injected AMC 4 cylinder engine is tougher than the Patriot. Cost about the same as the Patriot and was able to get as good or better mileage than the FD2 Patriot. It is also very reliable.

Design should get better over time, not worse.

Unfortunately they went for an attributeh that no one mentioned...better, quieter, highway ride, which is of absolutely NO VALUE in a Jeep.

 

Does any one sell heavy duty control arms or tie rods I would buy them in a minute. I am almost at 36000 and already replaced the tie rods with almost no off roading.
Regards Brando

 

rattle.
dealership replaced both my front control arms and passenger side outer tie rod

 

Check your tie-rods jepstr67. My passenger side died at 20k miles as others have reported. It's finally getting replaced now by the dealer (at 30k miles) and you can just move it around with one hand. They make quite a racket with a heavy clunking sound. My control arm bushings still look good though. The lower control arm is quite flimsy though (you can flex it with just your hands right at the ball joint by grabbing the front and back and push/pull up/down with opposite hands). It could stand to have metal welded to the bottom to box it (it's more a c-channel right now) and also a ring welded around the outer end where the ball joint is with a gusseted tie in to the metal welded to box the arm.

 

Good information! Thanks Todd

I'm going to order a new set and let my shop have a look at them. Sounds like there may be a market for beefed up control arms.

Like a C channel you say. They have been made like that for years on cars, of course the ones on my 1970 Cadillac are a 1/4" thick! Perhaps Jeep selected to thin of a gauge of metal for this part.

I'm going to wait until the underside of my car isn't caked with snow to have a look.

 

Does anyone have a convenient picture of the control arm where it is failing?

 

Would those of you who have had problems with worn control arms please outline the symptoms. Does the alignment suffer? Hard to steer? Or does it just rattle around?

Clunking metallic sound when you drive over a little bump or hole. Not always, only when the bump/hole has sharper edges. For example, I always got them when driving over a "laying policeman" (that's how road hump is called here ).

Alignment didn't suffer.
Steering was normal.
No rattling.

Hint: ask for goodwill replacement from your dealer if your warranty time is over. If the mileage is not very high, you might get the replacement for free.