The old Perodua Alza model from 2009 to 2022 plays a major role in the suspension area of the car, and in fact, it can have adverse effects on other components such as the driveshaft, braking system, and balancing.
First, let's discuss the driveshaft. For the Alza car, the driveshaft heavily relies on the lower arm to maintain its sturdy balance, especially inside the gearbox. A slight wear and tear to the control arm can result in a serious crackling sound in the gearbox. You might think this is a driveshaft issue and end up changing the wrong expensive part, not knowing that it's actually the lower arm which holds the driveshaft no longer stable. This was once demonstrated when I almost replaced the driveshaft due to a serious crackling sound inside the gearbox hole where the driveshaft is slotted in. The imbalance of the driveshaft's position due to a fault in the lower arm causes the gear inside the transmission to not hold the driveshaft properly. As a result, a very serious crackling sound occurs, and if left untreated, the teeth inside the gearbox might get damaged.
The second problem when the lower arm goes bad is the braking system becoming less effective at the front. This is due to the unstable brake disk, which the lower arm can no longer hold sturdily when it has gone bad. As a result, the braking system will become weak.
The third issue is tire balancing. You cannot have the Alza car balanced when the lower arm has gone bad—no matter what you do with it, when driving, it always feels wobbly. So, replacing it is the only solution to keep the car's balancing stable again.
There is one hidden trick when installing the Alza lower arm; most mechanics will use wire tape or anything to increase the size of the rear bolt of the arm to fit in exactly. The problem with hand winding the tape is that you can never get an accurate size, and sometimes you still have a gap between the bolt and the bolt hole of the lower arm. The result of this may cause random clicking noises to the driveshaft because it is not completely sturdy. This issue is very similar to the first one, but it produces random clicking noises only.
In order to solve this problem, see the picture below to learn how it should be done. Lower arm bolt bushing is the perfect solution, and the lower arm will be 100% guaranteed sturdy. No wobbling and driveshaft sound anymore
