1997 Lincoln Town car front control arm lower ball joint failed, puncturing tire and driving lower control arm into asphalt. Speed of accident 15 mph. Numerous complaints on lower control arm failures for Lincoln, Crown Victoria etc. Manufacturer claims the specific VIN is not under recall criteria. I suspect this is an oversight by the manufacturer. I am thankful that I was not taking my child on the highway when this occurred at highway speeds. There would have certainly been a wreck and the way the failure occurred, I am not sure how the car could not have spun and rolled if the failure would have occurred at a higher speed. The control arm left a groove in the asphalt and halted the car instantly throwing everyone forward when it occurred. It would be advisable to have these recalled to avoid potential litigation and law suits. I have seen several instances of this in this complaint database as well as on the web. I have not seen any class action suit and can only find the recall on the lower control arm that apparently does not include my specific VIN number (and a lot of others apparently as well). I have asked several mechanics and they are aware of this and suspect a manufacturing defect and they also say that it is pretty ridiculous to have a control arm go out so soon in a vehicles life. There are cars that still have their original control arms and twice the mileage of other manufacturers. The repairs are expensive, the failure is dangerous, and I honestly have problems trusting whether the dealer will use parts that have been re-engineered to overcome this failure. Especially since we are seeing that some of the replacement control arms appear to have the same failures or same defect. How can I be assured that this will not occur again" and will I be just as lucky as I was this time in that the failure occurred at extremely low speed"

- Austin, TX, USA

Heard a popping in the front end of my 1997 Lincoln towncar and it was pulling to the left when I would apply the brakes. I took it to the garage and had the tires rotated and the front brakes replaced and the rotors were replaced and brake pads, nothing was noticed at this time. The car was still pulling to the left when the brakes were applied. I was driving to my job which is about 10 miles from home and when I pulled in to the drive and went to back up I heard a loud pop, I called my husband and told him about it and when he looked underneath the car he found that the lower control arm bracket that was factory welded to the frame had come loose. The popping noise was obviously flexing of the bracket that was welded to the frame and when the brakes were applied the flexing of the bracket was causing the car to pull to the left. My husband call the local Lincoln dealership and explained what had happened and was told that they had never heard of this happening before. I then went on line to carfax and researched the history of my car to see if it had ever been wrecked and the results were clean, no wrecks or service history of any problem. We have had several people look at the car and each and every one expressed that this was a first for them, that they had never heard of this happening before and that they feel like it was a factory default on the welding and that I must have had an angel on my shoulder because this could have been very dangerous. As it stands right now I am at awe as to what to do because I have been advised to not have anything done to the car till someone from Ford/Lincoln looks at. I feel that this could have been a life threatening situation and that Ford/Lincoln should take some responsibility for this problem. This vehicle is used on the road only and not used as an off road vehicle and it has not been abused in its use. I would very much appreciate some kind of response or help with this problem as soon as possible.

- Panama City, FL, USA

Vehicle is experiencing the same problem as stated in recall #098V322000 for lower control arm.

- Moblesville, IN, USA

Vehicle was parked, consumer noticed that front left side had dropped to ground, towed to dealer who found front lower control arm had fallen off. There was a recall 98V322000 on this component in 1998, but this vehicle was not affected.

- Naples, FL, USA

Welding broke loose from around lower control arm, causing vehicle to severely pull to right/left, driver lost control, nearly caused crash, vehicle at dealer's for repair.

- Raleigh, NC, USA