I figure I’ll pick up the sway bar end link discussion here, since I’m way past the sway bar end links while trying to fix my persistent front end clunk. Initially it developed over slow speed bumps, but then developed to include under braking from slow speeds. I also have a steering wheel shudder at about 50 to 60 mph, like from a wheel balance issue but I just had them balanced a couple weeks while getting an alignment after doing the lower control arms with OE pieces.
I was convinced that the Turner monoball thrust arm bushings were bad after 2 years, which is about what I see on OE bushings on the x5. As such, I replaced them with poly bushings from Powerflex, and updated the other thread accordingly. The clunk under braking has gone away it seems, but not the clunk over bumps at lower speeds. While I had the thrust arms off I found the right ball joint that it attaches to at the knuckle to have failed. Super loose in all axes, including up and down…I think I’ve finally found the culprit. Long story short tho, they aren’t coming out easily due to stripped hex/torx heads on the bolts, so I bought an eBay knuckle for the right side ($80 or so) and ordered a bearing kit and hub from FCP.
Thr hub arrived and looked to be in good shape. After a quick clean-up, I took it to my local steering shop and they pressed the hub and bearing out in 1/100 of the time it would have taken me.
My bearing kit and Loctite 638 order arrive tomorrow, so I tapped off the dust shield and took some 1500 wet dry paper (wd40 lube) to the inner surface of the knuckle where the bearing race sits. Then I put a brush on my drill and cleaned up the bores where the control arms attach. It all cleaned up pretty nicely and is ready to go after a brake kleen wash.
Fortunately the ball joint was held in by torx head bolts that although beaten up, came off easily with a slightly smaller socket hammered on them. The ball joint popped out way easier than I recall any other doing in the past. My lemforder kit has the crappy torx screw heads that strip so easily, so I may see about replacing them with hex bolts. Per TIS the torque on them is only 60 NM, but they have thread locker on them and obviously take a beating under the car from corrosion.
