Quote:
Originally Posted by Doru
I know when I went for an alignment early spring, the alignment guy who is a BMW specialist, pulled me in the bay and pulled/pushed with a prybar everywhere possible, to show me there is no play, but yet he still can't straighten the rear camber.
Once home (my bad, I should have checked this PRIOR to the alignment work), I raised the rear, then I took off the air connector, and surprise-surprise: both rear wheels could be moved by hand very easy in/out (not left/right - which would be your control arms). So this is a trick, Fmugur shared it with me. Even the BMW guys for a reason, don't know this. Once the ball joints were out, they have an axle, which moved very easy when I moved it with the fingers - pretty loose to say the least. The new ones were tight as a drum, and you can't move it with the fingers.
As far as "tight suspension" maybe a tad more planted, but definitely not the same difference as when you change an ubershot part. Maybe those ball joints just started to fail? I have seen much worse on other e53's or e39's (it's the same identical part for many BMW's, that's why I have that special tool), where the outer metal sleeve literally parted. That's when you could probably sense a huge improvement after replacement.
My only clue was the same verdict you had, that the camber can't be adjusted more than x.xx°, where everything "checks OK". So something must've started to fail.
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Yeah basically everything looked fine, but they told me the eccentrics on the lower swing arm were maxed out. So I'm leaning to the fact that the ball joint is loose on the opposite side of the arm. I'm sure there is something up on that right side though. Also going to pop the washer off the subframe bushing and see if the bushing is still intact (the bushings tend to get separated completely in the middle as you know), the car drives great now and I'm really glad that the toe is zeroed out to save my tires.
Now that my complete front suspension is fresh and tight again with fresh parts, I know in the springtime I'll want to do some work refreshing the rear, with the manual transmission and the wide 20's in the rear I know its harsh on that suspension, and at 10 years old some of the parts I'm sure are showing wear. When I go under the car to paint my calipers I'll give every bushing/balljoint a thorough look and see what is worn. You're right though, I watched the video again and those ball joints look easy, with the tool its a time/lifesaver. I would recommend using a stiff C-clamp on the swing arm to prop it open as opposed to Vice grips though, if those slip you could mar up something.