I had to bring my car in to the dealer (Attrell in Brampton) in early winter 2009 to get my ebrake redone. I avoid the stealership like the plague so it hardly ever gets service there. While my car was up on the hoist, they called me over and escorted me into the shop. Didn't they find a serious issue with not one, but both of my control arms. They could have broken any minute. I was absolutely shocked by my luck of having them find this. The car was deemed "too dangerous" to be on the road and I completely agreed. I went home and researched the problem and somewhere on this forum people had other similar issues with the control arm. Low and behold, a recall was being thought of in the US at the time - however they forgot about us little Canadians. After talking to Attrell they had already agreed that they would replace both the arms under a "recall" that hadn't yet hit Canada yet. I actually brought in a couple page printout of a thread in for them to see. They took a copy and submitted it to head office. The control arms were about $1000 and I couldn't believe I walked out of there with a free replacement. Had it not have been for breaking my ebrake, I could have had a total wreck on my hands at some point shortly thereafter. (Remember to go get an alignment after getting these replaced)
in July 2010, I received a letter - a recall for the "salt states" for the very same control arms that I had previously had replaced. I smiled and shook my head and couldn't believe how long it took them to bring it here. I have been meaning to go back to the dealer with this letter and ask them to check the control arms a second time. Who knows what they replaced them with really? In addition, this letter states "the dealer will inspect the front subframe of your vehicle for signs of corrosion....is a precautionary measure......if a specified level of corrosion damage, the dealer will replace the front subframe." REALLY. WOW. That sucks.
This really isn't JUST a control arm rust issue....a case of the metal termites is clearly all over the car. If/when I go to the dealer, I'll make sure to send along an update.