ozziegt

Doing my oil change at 77,000 miles today and I noticed this oil around the control arm and the bushing appears to be cracked, so I am assuming it is liquid filled and it leaked out when it cracked. It looks like the dealer replaced an upper control arm bushing for the previous owner on the same side at 50k miles...my guess is the previous owner hit something and it damaged the bushings...

Photos:




Going to do a full inspection of all the bushings to see if any others need replacement.

Anyway some questions:
1. Is the oil from the bushing? Or did the oil come from somewhere else and weaken the bushing? I didn't see evidence of it coming from the engine somewhere.
2. Do I need to replace the whole control arm? FCPEuro sells control arms but not just the bushings
3. How long do ball joints last? I'm wondering if I should just replace the ball joint as well for $30
4. How hard of a job is this? It looks pretty straightforward, remove ball joint and 2 bolts and it will come out. Should I just do the other side as well?

LILBENZ230

These control arms look very similar to the ones on my E-class, but they're not fluid filled. I would think that fluid is from elsewhere. In the past I've replaced the entire control arm due to not wanting to try to find a press to get the bushing out. But you can press it out and press a new one in. It's not super difficult but I would look for a good indy to do it.