Control arms are integral parts of your vehicle’s suspension, which links the chassis and the wheels together, and contributes to the vehicle’s handling, stability and ride quality while driving. The suspension’s other purpose is to keep the wheels in contact with the road surface as much as possible to maintain control of the vehicle during acceleration and braking, despite changes in road surface. Control arms generally consist of a hinged suspension link with a single pivot point at one end, which houses a control arm bushing. This allows a predefined range of motion at a fixed distance from the mount point on the chassis. While there is no specific mileage requirement to replace your vehicle’s control arms, over time the rubber bushings will wear and get loose, so check them periodically. Bushings generally need to be pressed in, so sometimes buying the entire control arm aids in ease of installation.