Confusingly called the upper suspension arm, the part I'm referring to is the rear track control arm, part number RBJ000130 (superseding to LR018344). Last weekend, due to suspension knocks, vague steering at times and general 'unsettledness', I replaced the lower arms, hub ball joints and upper arm bushes, initially I thought the odd angle the bushes were sitting at was just due to wear & tear, it became clear there was 'something' amiss with the subject in the title of this thread. Now i've looked for any LR variances of part number, apart from supercessions, there is only one arm ever used - even on the B6 armoured variant. As you'll see in the photo's, there's no sign of damage - neither was there any sign of stress on the subframe suspension mounts, the OSF was 'as expected'. All I can think is that the 'wrong' part was fitted by someone (there was copperslip on the bolts), possibly meant for a BMW, or the arm had taken one hell of an impact but with no witness marks. I replaced the arm today with a Delphi component, it drives like a different vehicle despite having only an initial tracking adjustment. Obviously I consider this issue resolved, has anyone else come across this? or is it a one-off?
Thanks.

Click image to enlarge

Weird, doesn't look that old either....

Cheap pattern part possibly..!!

Glad it's better now...  Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Cheers, it's possibly deceptive as I replaced the bush, it was clear when trying to refit it that there was something fundamentally wrong with the arm - well, as far as it being used on an L322...
I'm going to do a full alignment on Saturday, everything else appears to be OK, everything that should be adjustable has been lubed and cracked off / retightened with no dramas, everything that shouldn't move, doesn't...
Hopefully this will be the last of the 'big spanner' jobs and I can start to look at rear arches and tailgate corrosion before getting the body panels refinished.

Oh yer, Webasto burner & glow plug to do, transmission oil & filter to do, now it's had a double flush.... It's just like being at work.

Won't be long, it'll get there... Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

The curve in the used one appears to be tighter which may have occurred from a big impact by the wheel on something.

Which is what I was initially thinking - the original wheels & tyres showed no signs of an impact with enough energy to do that, there are no other signs either. Other than the camber being off, the toe was pretty good before I started with the bush & ball joint replacement - which I initially put down to wear, once I'd changed the upper arm, the camber was better but the toe was way out on that side, which made me think it'd been replaced at some point and the alignment corrected to suit.

I guess I'll never know!

Haylands wrote:

Won't be long, it'll get there...

Don't say things like that.....  Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

I would be interested to see the old one against a BMW X5 E53, very similar..

Click image to enlarge

There's a few differences in the casting but the angles and compound radii do look very similar - the old one has been consigned to the scrap metal skip now, never to trouble me again!