Rear control arms removal - tip

Renewing the whole of the rear suspension on my Focus Estate 1.8 TDCI 2008.

Took the Control arms off the subframe yesterday. These are the two eccentric bolts that are notorious for seizing.

First briefly try some preliminary standard efforts to loosen (dosing with a release agent, and using a breaker, etc) in case you are super lucky with a free bolt. Then best to move to the real deal. Reciprocating saw cutting through the bush and bolt on the inside of the subframe. That's well known. Here's the tip, which is useful if you have only cheap metal blades which only last one or two of these cuts.

Instead of cutting both sides of each arm either side of the control arm (i.e. 4 cuts), Just cut one side (I chose the nut side, rather than the bolt head side), and then you should find that the heat and vibration generated by the reciprocating saw has broken up the rust between bolt and bush core that causes the seizing. Then take a punch, put it on the end of the cut bolt (through the subframe hole for it) and give a few progressively harder taps (a regular hammer or small lump hammer) will do it - it won't take much force. Bolt head with the rest of the bolt should just pop out easily and you are done. So one cut per arm and a few seconds with the punch and hammer.

Hope this helps some members.