Is it possible to swap out the control arms without taking the anti-roll bar out? It looks like it should be possible, but it would be useful to be certain before I start…
I have new control arms, the bushes that locate the anti-roll bar into them and intend to get new bolts for the inner bush, plus a load of silicone grease.
thanks for any advice you can give me
Yes you can take out the control arms without taking out the roll bar. You would have to disconnect the ARB from the control arms but that’s it.
Btw welcome! Post in the All new people and add some pictures 
Not many people with a sirion here
Also don’t forget to undo the nut for the driveshaft while the car is still on the ground. You’ll need to remove the driveshaft from the hub in order to get to the nut for the balljoint. And getting the nut of while the wheel is in the air is impossible.
Really? I can’t just undo the ball-joint castle nut without removing the drive shaft?
That’s a nuisance.
Yes it’s annoying. Made that mistake a couple of times. But still it’s an easy job to replace the control arm.
Is this a M1 or M3 Sirion? On the M1 is is possible (though fiddly) to undo the balljoint castle nut without removing the driveshaft. Space is tight, but you can get a flat open-ended spanner on the nut with it all in situ.
Just be careful not to nip the CV joint boot.
@Mophius is right though, if you do need to pull the driveshaft out the hub its easy. I swapped over a driveshaft in 20 minutes a couple of weekends ago. Hub nut needs doing up to 196-210nm I understand.
The problem is that if that nut is on real good you still need to put the car in the ground so I always take the nut of. The biggest problem I have is that the ball of the balljoint just spins when you try to get the nut of. The friction of the nut on the bolt is greater than the friction of the ball in the joint. Nightmare stuff
I’ll have a go and see how it goes. I have the arms, but I didn’t realise they don’t all come with the bushes for the anti-roll bar connection, so I have ordered the bushes.
I’m thinking I might need to replace the nut and bolt on the car end of the suspension arm - does anyone know the dimensions for that bolt? I’m pretty sure a high-tensile nut and bolt will do it, it looks like a 17mm…
I reused the nut&bolt holding the suspension arm to the subframe and it was fine. On the passenger side its a bolt into a captive nut, and on the drivers side its a nut and bolt. I think its a 15mm hex head, but it might be 14mm.