2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT 4 Wheel Drive with Cast Iron Lower Control Arms without Aluminum Steering Knuckles Front 14 Piece Steering, Suspension, & Drivetrain Kit TRQ PSA58882

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to replace an upper control arm and ball joint assembly on this 2011 Chevy Silverado. This is a 1500 4-Wheel Drive; this procedure is the same for any 2007 to 2013 Silverado and Sierra 1500. The passenger side is basically the same as the driver's side.

You'll need a new control arm from 1A Auto.com, jack and jackstands, 10 to 22mm sockets with a ratchet and extension, an 18mm wrench, and an additional wrench for some extra leverage, breaker bar or pipe for extra leverage, penetrating oil, hammer, pry bar, and a torque wrench.

From the top, there are three 18mm nuts that hold the top of the strut in place: you see one there; one has a wire loom on it there that I'm going to reach down and grab, and just pull off. Apologies for the camera shot, but you just grab the wire clip and pull it up off the stud. Okay, so you have your other one there, and your third one, there. Now, use an 18mm socket with a long extension, and remove those three nuts. Remove the center cap just by prying with a screwdriver, and if you don't have the benefit of air tools, loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground, then raise and secure the vehicle, and then remove the lug nuts the rest of the way ... remove the wheel and tire, and they are 22mm lug nuts. Turn the wheel using hands, or use the steering wheel, and then you need to remove the stabilizer link; make sure you put some penetrating oil on the top end of it there, then use a wrench on the top side, and a socket wrench on the bottom side, and remove it all the way. I'm going to speed up here a little bit; we "cheat" a little bit by just using an impact wrench to take that off. That just speeds things up for us. Then, we'll remove the bolt the rest of the way: push down on the suspension, and pull the link out of there.

Up underneath, there are two 15mm bolts; hold the bottom of the shock strut in place. I was just using a 15mm socket and ratchet; you might want a breaker bar to break them loose, but they come apart pretty easy on this truck, and we'll fast forward as we just take those out. Take those bolts out, press down on the suspension some, and bring the strut down, and then up and out.

Now with some penetrating oil, spray down the ends of the two bolts that hold the control arm to the frame. There are little tabs that come out of the frame and go through these washers; and I'm using a paint marker to mark on the washers where those tabs are, so that when we re-assemble this, we can give it a good preliminary alignment. You will want to re-align your truck after you do this repair, but this at least gets it somewhere close to where it was originally. An 18mm nut holds the ball joint to the steering knuckle; put an 18mm wrench on there, and then hook another wrench onto it for extra leverage. Loosen it up. Here, you can see we still have the nut on the ball joint; we're going to put a big pry bar in there; pry between the steering knuckle and the ball joint, and hit the steering knuckle with a hammer until it pops apart.

There's a 10mm bolt on top of the control arm that holds the clip that holds the wire harness: remove that. Now, we're going to support the suspension with a jack. Remove the nuts that are on the end of the bolts that go into the frame; it's a 21mm socket with a ratchet, and we use a pipe for some extra leverage to get the bolts going and once we have them going, they come off easier than just with the ratchet, and I'll fast forward as we finish that up, and do the other side. As you see, here, use a hammer to start driving those bolts out, and then you can work them out by hand. You may have to use a punch and drive them further through. Now, remove the nut the rest of the way off of the top ball joint there, and then you should be able to pull the control arm up and then pull it out; you might need to use a crowbar or a large screwdriver to help pry it out.

The ball joint in our new control arm comes with a grease-able fitting, so we'll install that. Put the new control arm up in place, and you just kind of wiggle it up and down, I guess, to get the bolts to line up preliminarily with the frame. Now, put the bolts back in, get one bolt started in as much as you can, and then actually, if you start the other bolt in on the other side, this kind of lines things up; you should be able to get that bolt most of the way in. Use a hammer to tap it in if you need to, and then go back, and again, if you just move the control arm around a little bit, you should be able to push it in. I'm just going to fast forward as we start the nuts on ... And now, we're putting a wrench on the bolt end, and you can see we just pull it up, and re-align that mark with the tab on the frame, and just preliminarily tighten the nuts up just to hold it in place well. Here, we're just going to let the jack down some. This just relieves a little pressure so that we can then lift the upper control arm up, and get the ball joint lined up and then back into place, and then once it's all set, we'll actually jack the suspension back up until it's basically in the position it should be when the vehicle is riding on the ground.

You put the ball joint nut on, and start tightening it; most likely, it's going to start making the stud on the ball joint spin, and if that happens, you'll see here in a second, you can put a 6mm Allen wrench into the ball joint stud. Hold it; you need to be careful: sometimes as you pull the ball joint stud through, it can interfere with the axle, and you might need to undo the axle nut and push the axle through a little bit in order to get the wrench back out. Make sure you put the wrench on there, and put the second wrench on for some extra leverage, and tighten that nut right up.

Now again, we have the suspension up in the about the same position it's going to be when it rides on the ground; you want to make sure you have it up there, and then torque the bolts for the control arm to 100 foot-pounds, and just make sure that the marks on your washers and everything still line up. Now you can let your jack back down, reinstall the 10mm bolt that holds the wiring harness clip, and use a grease gun to put some grease into the ball joint, and we generally do it until we see the boot between the ball joint and the steering knuckle start to expand. Bring this strut back in: if you look on the top of the strut where the coil spring ends, that goes to the outside, and you put the strut back in, and then lift it up into place, and then you can just start the nuts onto the top. Install all of the lower bolts, and the strut, and tighten them up; you want to tighten them up between 70 and 75 foot-pounds. We speed up as we put the stabilizer link back in place; use a pry bar to lift up on the sway bar a little bit; put the link back in place, put the bolt up through, and then tighten the nut down on top.

The,n put our wheel back on, put the lug nuts back by hand first, then tighten them preliminarily, and with the vehicle back down on the ground and secure, torque the lug nuts to 110 foot-pounds using a crossing pattern. Tighten up and torque the top three nuts to 75 to 80 foot-pounds, and put that wire clip back in place, and you should be all set.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to replace the front hub on this 2011 Chevy Silverado. It's a 1500, four-wheel drive. We're going to replace the right-hand or passenger side, the same procedure of the left-hand driver's side. This is the same for a 2007 through 2013 Silverado 1500 as well as GMC Sierra 1500 with four-wheel drive.

Items you'll need are a new hub or hubs from 1AAuto.com, jack and jack stands, 15 to 22mm sockets with ratchet. You'll need a breaker bar, and/or a pipe for some extra leverage, T-30 torx bit with driver, 36mm socket for the center hub nuts, some penetrating oil, wire brush, small pry bar, hammer, grease and a torque wrench.

Take your flat-blade screw driver and pry off the center cap. I apologize. I'm going a little bit out of order here. You can see we already have the wheel off. If you don't have the benefit of air tools, you're going to want to remove this cap by using a screw driver or a coal chisel and hammer or a large set of pliers, and remove that cap to expose that center nut. The center hub nut is 36mm. If you have an impact wrench do it that way. If not, you'll need a large breaker bar or a pipe for some extra leverage, 36mm socket, hold the brakes and remove the center hub nut. Once the nut is off, just make sure that your axle is free. After you get that nut off, then you can loosen your lug nuts and raise and secure the vehicle and remove your wheel and tire.

By hand, or using the steering wheel, turn so you can access the back of the caliper. Check for any abnormal wear. Make sure that the inside and outside pads are worn about the same amount. Also, on the rotor, make sure there's no deep grooves or uneven wear. This can indicate other problems with your brake system. There are two 19mm bolts that hold the caliper on up there and there. We'll fast-forward as we use a 19mm socket and a ratchet to remove those bolts. Once you have the bolts off, just put the caliper up and out of the way. Use a screwdriver and pry the brake pads out. You can see the outer one comes out pretty easily. We had a little trouble with the inner one. We actually switched to a larger screwdriver. You can see, after a little more force it comes out. This brake pad sticking in there like that indicates there's a problem, and you want to do some clean-up and some lubrication to prevent this. There are two 18mm bolts that hold the caliper bracket to the steering knuckle there and there. You can see here, we give it a try with just the socket and ratchet, but then we use a pipe for some extra leverage and loosen up that bottom one. Then, we'll loosen up the top one, and remove the bolts and remove that caliper bracket.

There's a T-30 Torx screw that holds the rotor to the hub. We're just using a T-30 torx bit with a ratchet to remove that. Then, on this truck, the rotor actually pulls off quite easily. If your rotors don't come off easy, douse the back side and around the studs with penetrating oil. Then, use two M-10 bolts. There's two threaded holes in the rotor. You put the bolts in, and tighten them up, and they press the rotor off.

Three 15mm bolts hold the hub in. You see them there and there Another one on here. You want to spray down the back side with penetrating oil. When I say the back side, I mean here where you can see the arrows are pointing. You want to douse the back side of the bolts where they come through the hub flange. The arrows are pointing at two of them. There's obviously one more for the third bolt that's morphed with the front. Here, we're using a 15mm socket with a ratchet and a small extension. You can see, you need a little bit of extra leverage with the pipe and the bolts come off. With some extra leverage they come out fairly easily. We'll fast-forward as he does the other two. Note here, as we work on the last one, don't take this bolt all the way out yet. You'll want to use a hammer. You might have to use a lot of force to get the hub to break free. Do that before you take that last bolt all the way out. That way the hub doesn't go flying.

Secure your brake caliper. Now, you can disconnect your ABS harness. Pull the connection out of the clip to the frame. There's a little button that you press to disconnect. Then, pull the rest of the clips from the control arm and steering knuckle. Now that we've got the thing free and disconnected, we're just taking that last bolt out the rest of the way. Then pull the hub off. Then, that last clip is easier to get to what the hub and backing plate out of the way. Just use a pair of pliers, squeeze the pins on the back and release the clip.

Here, you can see the worn-out part on the left, the new part from 1A Auto. Same connector, everything is going to bolt in exactly the same. Wire brush the steering knuckle to clean it up some, and grease the hub flange. Make sure you put the hub through the backing plate, then onto the axle and steering knuckle. Press it on there as you start the bolts in from the back side. Just a few notes as we speed up: Make sure you start all three bolts in first. You don't want to tighten any one of them up until you get them all started. Then, tighten them up evenly and you will want to torque them. Torque the three bolts to 133 foot-pounds. Now, route the ABS harness back in place and reconnect it.

Free your caliper. Then, reinstall your rotor. We're just going to put a lug nut on there to hold it in place, and start putting our brakes back together. We'll continue to fast-forward as we put the caliper bracket in place, and start the two bolts that hold it in place, and then tighten them up preliminarily. Use a torque wrench to tighten those up to 100 foot pounds.

Use brake grease or white lithium grease, and grease the ends of the pads where they'll sit in the caliper brackets. You can use mineral spirits or brake cleaner, even gasoline, anything that evaporates quickly, and clean off your brakes before putting the rest of it back together.

Put the rear pad in first. Put one side in first, and then press the other side in. It should go in fairly easily The same thing for the front pad.Now, you need to reset the caliper piston. We've put the old inner brake pad back in there. Then, just use a large sea clamp. As we tighten it up, you'll see the pistons go back into the caliper. Now, put the caliper back in place. Sometimes, those slide bolts will get stuck a little bit, so you have to push them in a little bit to get the caliper to slide down in correctly. Put the caliper in place and start the two bolts on that hold it. We're going to torque these two bolts to 50 foot pounds.

Fast-forward as we remove that lug nut, and then put our wheel back on. Put the lug nuts back on by hand first, then tighten them up preliminarily. Put that center bolt back on and tighten it to 156 foot pounds. Torque the lug nuts to 100 to 110 foot pounds each using a crossing pattern. Then, that center cap does have a little tongue that goes into a groove on the wheel. Put that in place. Them, most important pump your brakes a few times. Make sure that the brakes are working good before road-testing your vehicle.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the right hand, or passenger side, front axle on this 2011 Chevy Silverado. This is a 1500. The procedure for the left axle is pretty much the same, and it's also the same for these trucks for model years 2007-2013 for both this Chevy Silverado 1500, as well as the GMC Sierra. In this repair we use new axle or axles from 1AAuto.com, jack and jack stands, 15 to 22mm sockets with a ratchet extension. You'll need a breaker bar and a pipe for some extra leverage, a 36mm socket, and I separate that one out because it's not one that's usually in your regular socket set. You'll need to buy that one special, some penetrating oil, and a torque wrench. You can replace these axles one at a time, or in pairs.

From the top, there are three 18mm nuts that hold the top of the strut in place. You see one there, one has a wire lube on it there that I'm going to reach down and grab and just pull off. Apologies for the camera shot, but you just grab the wire clip and pull it up off the stud. Okay, so you have your other one there and your third one there. Now use an 18mm socket with a long extension and remove those three nuts. Remove the center cap just by prying with a screw driver. If you don't have the benefit of air tools, loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground then raise and secure the vehicle and then remove the lug nuts the rest of the way. Remove the wheel and tire they are 22mm lug nuts.

Turn the wheel using hands or the steering wheel. Then you need to remove the stabilizer link. Make sure you put some penetrating oil on the top end of it there. Then use a wrench on the top side and a socket wrench on the bottom side. Remove it all the way. We're going to kind of speed up a little bit, "cheat" a little bit while using an impact wrench to take that off to speed things up for us. Here's the shock and strut in place. We're just using that 15mm socket ratchet. You might want a breaker bar to break them loose, but they come apart pretty easy on this truck. We'll fast-forward as we just take those out.

Get those bolts out. Press down on the suspension some, and bring the strut down and then up and out. Using your hammer and a cold chisel, you could also use a large pair of pliers to pull off that center cap. We just kind of get it started, and then pry it off with a screwdriver. Okay, the nut is a 36mm nut if you have the benefit of an air impact wrench. You can also just pull the brakes, use a breaker bar and a large pipe or something for extra leverage to loosen it up. We'll put the wheel back on, set the emergency brake, and take it off. Loosen it up that way, and then raise the vehicle back up and take it off the rest of the way.

We're going to put a screwdriver into the brake rotor, that's going to hold things in place. You could do that also when you're removing that 36mm nut for the end of the axle. Then there are six 15mm bolts that hold the axle to the differential, and we're just going to remove those. And once those bolts are out, pull the axle from the differential and pull it right out.

The new axle goes right up into place. Put it into the hub first, you have to twist it a little bit to get the splines to line up. Then push on the other end of the axle and put it up into place. Line it up with the differential. Now I'll just fast-forward here as we put the bolts in, start all the bolts in, and then tighten them up preliminarily. And then you want to tighten all the bolts to between 55 and 60 foot-pounds. We'll fast-forward as we make sure we torque all those bolts correctly. And we're using the screwdriver to hold the rotor in place so we can torque it.

Now we'll go back to putting the strut in, and the strut does line up. There is a, you can see where the spring goes into the mount. The end of the spring should face out. Put the strut up in place and start the bolts on. You'll notice we're putting in a new strut in here. You'll also probably notice that there's an old axle in the footage, that's because when we filmed putting the strut and everything back together, we had not replaced the axle yet.

Now put the bottom down in place and take your bolt run up through, and then those clips that you took off of the original strut, put them into place. We just kind of hold them with our fingers, get the bolts started in, and then you can press them down into place and tighten up the bolts the rest of the way. Okay, and you can see here we use a screwdriver to put through the clip to hold it in place until it gets down far enough that it holds itself in place. And repeat it for the other side as well. Okay, and you can tighten these up between 70-75 foot-pounds.

Okay, speed up as we put the stabilizer link back in place. Use a pry bar to lift up on the sway bar a little bit, put the link back in place, put the bolt up through and then tighten the nut down on top. Put the tire back on, thread the lug nuts on, and then tighten them up preliminarily. Put that center bolt back on and tighten it to 156 foot-pounds. Torque your lug nuts to 110 foot-pounds using a crossing pattern. And then put that center cap back on. And then back up top, tighten up the three nuts that hold the top of the strut in place, tighten them to 70 foot-pounds. And put that wire retainer back in place and you're all set.

We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.