Control Arms

Control Arms – Key to Performance

When you day dream about your ideal car or truck, what do you see? Is it a foreign sports car, full of immense power and an engine that just won't quit? It is a burly work truck that can literally haul your house away if you wanted it to? Do you dream of torque and horsepower that can blow the competition away? Having a powerful car that can achieve immense speeds or haul huge loads is an exciting idea, but without a real understanding of the importance of control over this power, you will never really enjoy your car. Control arms are the key to keeping your powerful vehicle between the white lines.

If you've paid any attention to the things that car engineers focused on as they worked to develop and perfect the modern car, you will have noticed that close on the heels of creating the combustion engine, engineers were occupied with the suspension system. These engineers knew already what many of us have discovered by trying to drive a golf car at unnatural speeds; cars with power and no control are of no use to the driver at all. If you want to be able to boast about true performance, you have to be confident in the control arms of your car.

If you love driving around town in your car, feeling the smooth glide of the road disappear beneath you, then you should take a little time out of your day to write a thank you note to your car's suspension system. The suspension system is the part of your car that helps to reduce the friction between the tires and the road. Because of the suspension system, your three year old can fall asleep on long road trips, and you can control the car, even when it's travelling over bumpy terrain. The control arms are the key to this performance.

The function of the control arms in your car is to help you manage the motion of your tires. Often the control arms are shaped to look like a letter A, and the bottom two points of the arm are attached to the frame of the vehicle, while the top point is attached to the spindle. Because a worn out control arm can leave your vehicle pitching and swaying as it travels down the road, it is always a good idea to have a mechanic look at it regularly.