Help! A one sided control arm replacement issue.... Potentially

[SpidArman]

Hello Community (and Fiat Cares) at large,

I have got a question.

I have a 2012 Prima 500 built roughly around 3/11. I have been diagnosed with a bad driver's side ball joint. Consequently, the arm is bad. My dealer has told me that the part has been superseded and the original is unavailable. With that, most of the suspension on that side has to be replaced because the parts are not interchangeable with the first design. I have an extended warranty and they will replace it under warranty, but only the driver's side.

So my question is, is it safe to drive a car with one side of the suspension updated, but the other side not? The dealer has told me that because there is no dependency for the other side referenced in their service bulletin, they cannot just replace the other side without cause. So what is the consensus?

thanks,

Arman

[FiatCares]

Hello Community (and Fiat Cares) at large,

I have got a question.

I have a 2012 Prima 500 built roughly around 3/11. I have been diagnosed with a bad driver's side ball joint. Consequently, the arm is bad. My dealer has told me that the part has been superseded and the original is unavailable. With that, most of the suspension on that side has to be replaced because the parts are not interchangeable with the first design. I have an extended warranty and they will replace it under warranty, but only the driver's side.

So my question is, is it safe to drive a car with one side of the suspension updated, but the other side not? The dealer has told me that because there is no dependency for the other side referenced in their service bulletin, they cannot just replace the other side without cause. So what is the consensus?

thanks,

Arman

Hi Arman,

I'd be happy to have this confirmed. Was there a particular TSB the Studio was following?

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

[WillFiat]

As a fellow Prima owner I will be very interested to see the response to this question. I have not had any problems with my front suspension to date but I have read enough posts about this issue to know that there is a potential for this to happen to my car also.

Did you have any warning signs that the ball joint was failing? How many miles do you have on your car?

Hope you get this problem sorted out with a minimum of trouble.

[SpidArman]

Hi Arman,

I'd be happy to have this confirmed. Was there a particular TSB the Studio was following?

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

Hi Kori,

I am not sure of the TSB. The dealer didn't give me that info. I just want to be sure that repairing one side is going to be safe as the components will be different side to side..

Thanks,

Arman

[SpidArman]

As a fellow Prima owner I will be very interested to see the response to this question. I have not had any problems with my front suspension to date but I have read enough posts about this issue to know that there is a potential for this to happen to my car also.

Did you have any warning signs that the ball joint was failing? How many miles do you have on your car?

Hope you get this problem sorted out with a minimum of trouble.

Hello Willi,


I have almost 62k miles. I didn't notice anything really until I had to replace my tires. I saw that they were wearing out on the inside only on the drivers side. I got tires and noticed it was pulling to the left some times. I went for an alignment at a respected shop (because I wanted the settings to be dead centered on both sides) and they told me they couldn't align it because the driver's side ball joint was too loose. I confirmed it by removing the wheel and seeing play in the hub when shaking it.

Thanks for the encouragement. I have faith in Fiat. Always have.


Arman

[Troy_Audi0]

I was told this for my car as well.. but they still have yet to get my car fixed so I do not know if it has any problems that will result in poor tire/suspension issues

[FiatCares]

Hi Kori,

I am not sure of the TSB. The dealer didn't give me that info. I just want to be sure that repairing one side is going to be safe as the components will be different side to side..

Thanks,

Arman

Hi Arman--still trying to get an adequate answer on this!

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

[SpidArman]

Hi Arman--still trying to get an adequate answer on this!

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

Hi Kori,

Any word?

Thanks,

Arman

[SpidArman]

Hi Arman--still trying to get an adequate answer on this!

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

Kori,

Do you have an answer?

Thanks,

Arman

[SpidArman]

Hi Arman--still trying to get an adequate answer on this!

Kori
Fiat Social Care Specialist

Kori,

Sometimes no response is almost as damning as a negative response.....


Since it's been over two weeks without a response, I will take this as "Liability issues and legal teams prohibit me from confirming or denying that this is a dangerous condition." So Fiat will just be quiet and let this go to rest.


Well folks. Interesting happenings to me. I got my car back from the dealer after they were very nice and replaced the control arm, carrier (hub), bearing and axle with the updated components under my extended warranty. I expressed my concern and they said "don't worry, geometry is the same and we will check it with an alignment".

Picked up my car after 7pm (great feature of my dealer) and drove home. I drove my usual route home, which includes very twisty sections of road. These are the same roads I have travelled for 6 years in this car and 14 years since I've lived there. Upon arriving at my first set of "S" turns, I downshifted and proceed to accelerate as I have done so many times before. Mind you, I drive a Sport, so it's not like I am going 60mph or anything through these turns. Well, I lost control of the car and drifted toward the oncoming lane with a vehicle approaching. I was able to bring it back to my lane after having to correct the slide twice more on the curve.

Next day, I took it to the alignment shop that found the bad ball joint. Can you guess? Yep. The alignment was totally off. They never did an alignment. Nor did they show a charge to Fiat for said alignment. I was able to get the car aligned in the front perfectly. The problem remaining is that the car now pulls heavily to the left when accelerating or even just on light throttle. I can only imagine that possibly the rotating mass of the new axle may be heavier than the original on the right and this is causing the bias to the left. When I am off throttle, the car tracks perfectly straight. Bottom line is now I have to live with it as I don't expect any help from Fiat in this respect. After all, they are in it for the profit and don't care about loyalty.

[WillFiat]

It is unfortunate that you had to find the answer to your original question the hard way. So glad you were able to recover from the sudden change in handling dynamics safely.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the rest of us that potentially face this same situation.