I was tracking down some noise coming from the front suspension yesterday and found I had a worn rear bushing on a control arm. However, I also found that on one side of the suspension member the gap where the middle pivot bushing and cross bolt of the control arm fits is not uniform between the two sides. On the passenger side the "U" where the control arm bolts up is flush on either side, on the driver side there is a lot of gap between either side.

This car was in a wreck over 10 years ago and my guess is that the suspension member was bent back then. Should this be replaced or could it likely be bent to shape? Looks like I'd have to remove a fair amount of parts to get to it. Not sure how much affect this is having on the front suspension, wear, etc.

Post a picture. It would be a lot easier to understand what you have going on there. If something of importance like a control arm looks obviously bent then yeah it definitely something you want to replace.

If you have gap at the front mounting point of the control arm it would seem like the bolt that goes through it is loose.

If you have gap at the rear mounting point of the control arm where the u shaped bracket holds the control arm up then again it sounds like something is loose.

I took a look at it yesterday. Issue was the spacing between the two bolt holes on the suspension member where the control arm attaches with the pivot bushing and pivot bolt. One side just wasn't tightened enough, must have loosened up at some point.