The front lower control arms needs to be replaced because the bushings go bad. It's a known issue and the bushings are not replaceable by themselves.
When the bushings go bad you know it by the slight wandering in steering, looseness over small bumps and shake when braking. What happens the rubber material separates from the metal parts. It's hard to tell on vehicle but off of the vehicle you can see the separation.
When replacing the bearings, it's very small additional work to replace the arms and they are only $35/ea, so I did it. My Contour has 90K miles btw.
Addendum to original instruction:
During removal loosen strut top mount nut 5 turns then follow this sequence:
take off tie rod -> sway bar end link -> lower arm bolts -> press half shalft from knuckle -> knuckle from strut and off of car, knuckle from lower arm
During installation, install new arms first in vehicle. Then follow the following sequence:
Knuckle -> half shaft -> strut -> lower arm -> tie rod and end link.
Last edited by TSIN03SE; 06/15/04 02:31 PM.
