Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala
When control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Chevrolet Impala report control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 85,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 60,676 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83,495 miles | 92,701 miles | 109,022 miles | 144,171 miles | 144,171 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $400–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1996, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
A 2009 chevy impala police package cruiser car came into our shop this morning . The complaint was of chirping tires sound around turns.upon inspection we found that the right lower control arm has broken away from the bushing area. Causing the alignment to be off and the control arm to be unstable. This condition could have lead to a accident if gone undetected or resulted in loss of control during a high speed pursuit. This is the second vehicle to have this condition. We have grounded our fleet of cruisers so they can be brought in and inspected one at a time.we have found one additional car that the arm is cracked but not yet broken through. All of the defects have been on the right side upto now. *tr
We own the car listed above and have for over two years. We bought it at a dealership in east tennessee. The car was previously used as a rent a car for enterprise. Not even a year after we bought the vehicle we had to replace the transmission. The biggest problem is the fact I have drove this car and all issues stated for a recall we have had a problem with. The most recent is the vehicle shutting off while driving it on highways. It's is saying service engine light mad than will say service traction control,than it will shutoff I been going 70 down an interstate and it shutoff mad about kill us. We had the vehicle checked and the accelerator pedal sensor or something like that is the problem by what technician say. I am just now starting to research the issues we have and found numerous recalls on this vehicle in which we have the problems listed above and more. Mainly the airbag steering control arm and vehicle just shutting off. I guess the best way to sum it up is they sold us a lemon perhaps but after looking at the recall list our vehicle meets the requirements for sure. Too many problems for a new vehicle. Just looking to…
We own the car listed above and have for over two years. We bought it at a dealership in east tennessee. The car was previously used as a rent a car for enterprise. Not even a year after we bought the vehicle we had to replace the transmission. The biggest problem is the fact I have drove this car and all issues stated for a recall we have had a problem with. The most recent is the vehicle shutting off while driving it on highways. It's is saying service engine light mad than will say service traction control,than it will shutoff I been going 70 down an interstate and it shutoff mad about kill us. We had the vehicle checked and the accelerator pedal sensor or something like that is the problem by what technician say. I am just now starting to research the issues we have and found numerous recalls on this vehicle in which we have the problems listed above and more. Mainly the airbag steering control arm and vehicle just shutting off. I guess the best way to sum it up is they sold us a lemon perhaps but after looking at the recall list our vehicle meets the requirements for sure. Too many problems for a new vehicle. Just looking to…
Also reported on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other speed control problem
Other driver assistance problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2009 Chevrolet Impala?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed