Aveo in Lansing MI USA

Hello folks. I just picked up my 2008 yellow Aveo5 5 speed. The previous owner was a pick up driver who got transfered with a long commute, so he bought the Aveo. He then got his old job back, and didn't need it anymore.

The rear had a bad clunk that turned out to be the rear axle bushings. After finding out about the whole axle needing replacement, I figured I'd live with it. This site saved the day with all the knowledge about the car, and after a trip to NAPA for some Golf bushings, I can now hear the squeaks in the front end to deal with. A local shop quoted $1500 to do front lower control arm bushings, sway bar links, struts and shocks, and straighten two wheels. I had them do the wheels, and I'll start on the rest.

So thanks to the admins and Aveo owners who have made this a great site!

Sorry about misplacing this thread in Photos and Videos.:oops:

Either way, welcome to the site! Nice to see more Michigan Aveos! Good luck with the fixes!

Thanks for the welcome, and I hope to be able to add to the site as the car becomes familiar to me.

Be careful with the front end parts if the cv axle gets pulled to far the bearings on the inner side of the axle will fall out and its a pain to put those back in. And welcome to the forum

Thanks for the tip!

I changed the sway bar end links today. The nut under the rubber boot had corroded on the bottom on each side enough that the 15 mm wrench rounded of the corners and spun. I was able to hold one with a 9/16 to get the nut off, but the other had to be cut off. Still have the scrunchy noise up front, so it must be the control arm bushings.

it could also be the upper strut bushings that go between the strut and body of the car mine does it sometimes when its really damp or cold

Ok. You guys will be the first to know where this noise comes from. Well, maybe second, my wife usually hears things first, whether she wants to or not!

I dove into the lower control arms today, no luck yet. The bolts hoding the driver's side arm on are very comfortable where they are and are resisting removal. I sprayed them all down with WD40, and started on the bolt through the rear bushing, figuring it would give the spray on the front bolt time to soak in to the rust.

Attempting to go easy on the vertical bolt, I turned the air impact down to a low setting to shake it up good before really hammering on it. 40 or 50 hits on the bottom of the bolt, with a wrench on the top, later, I turn it up to hit it harder, still nothing. Crank it all the way up and go wild, still won't break loose. So, remembering that a buddy told me to work on the nut when possible, I move to a half inch ratchet with the 17mm impact socket down onto the nut while holding the head of the bolt from below, nope. So out comes the breaker bar, and it rounds off the nut! Darn!

So, now I'm really worried about the front bolt with it's captive nut. I've read about breaking this bolt off, and also about the nut breaking it's weld and spinning inside the sub frame. Cutting out the bottom of the sub assembly to reweld the nut being the cheap fix from the loose nut. So I dig out the dirt build up from the area the front bolt protrudes into and lay the WD40 in there heavy. Using the half inch ratchet with the breaker bar, no joy. Let it sit awhile, more spray, another try, nope. Now the bolt head on the front mount is starting to round. Great. More spray, move back to the rear bushing bolt.

The nut on the rear bushing sits in a cup created when they stamp the arm, so in desperation, I filled the cup up with WD40, and it submerges the nut in penatrating oil. I know that the rear bolt isn't going to be that tough, as it can just be cut off or drillled out, but I'm trying to remove them to see how tough the front bolt might be.

Any ideas?

After another attempt with the breaker bar on the front bolt, I took Chaveo to a local shop. I didn't have the torches and welding equipment to finish what I knew would be a broken off bolt. Sure enough, they tried all their rusty bolt "break loose" tricks, then broke it off trying to get it out. They did the 'cut the sub frame to get access to the nut, cut that out, welded a new nut in, welded up the sub frame' thing. $331 labor. $55 of that was for the front end alignment.

Being Friday, they asked me to come get it with only the driver's side done, and they'd finish the other side when I was ready, that the bushing wasn't worn out, yet. I talked quite a while with the mechanic who did the work, and he said he would approach the other side completely differently, knowing what he does, now.

He said the main problem wasn't the bolt threads in the nut being rusted, that it was the bolt being corroded to the metal sleeve that runs through the rubber bushing. He would cut the control arm off the front mount without breaking off the bolt, peel the remaining control arm and rubber bushing off the bolt, then attempt to break the bolt and sleeve loose. If that failed, he'd rip down the length of the sleeve and peel it off the bolt. He feels the bolt would come out then, removing the need to cut up through the sub frame to get to, cut off, and re weld the nut there.