Loose castle nuts could lead to a damaged or completely failed lower control arm
Subaru is recalling just five of its three-row Ascent SUVs (2023 MY) over fears that they have a front control arm that could become detached. While the automaker doesn’t believe all five actually have a defect it wants to be certain. There’s a chance that none have made their way into customers’ hands yet. Macpherson Strut Suspension
At the heart of the issue is a castle nut on the ball joint of the front lower control arm. Subaru says it could be faulty on either side or both in the affected vehicle population. Evidently, the castle nut wasn’t tightened down properly. That leaves some slack in the system.
Over time, that slack could cause the retention pin to shear off of the ball joint which would in turn cause the lower control arm to fail. Of course, any car without a functional control arm can be harder to control.
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It discovered the problem during vehicle assembly on April 6th of this year and determined the affected population by the end of May. All five had already been shipped to dealers and it’s working directly with them to remedy the situation. To that end it’ll check the castle nuts and, if found to be loose, it’ll replace the control arm(s) altogether.
Subaru says that approximately 23 percent of the vehicles in this recall might have the aforementioned defect. For those who struggled in math class, that’s exactly 1.15 of the five vehicles. How exactly Subaru came to that figure we’d love to know. Either way, it has a fix in mind for all five vehicles.
Suspension Arm Ball Joint The automaker notified dealers about the issue by June 2nd meaning that some of these Ascent SUVs might already be fixed. It also implemented interim corrective actions to inspect all assemblies once the issue was found to ensure others didn’t slip past quality control. If you think you might have one of these Ascents contact your local dealer.