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  #51  
Old 09-30-2016, 03:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by itscoo2pyopants View Post
OP did you replace the Ball Joint Rear (In Rear Wheel Carrier)? Im starting to look for some guides to replace my suspension bushings. it looks like i will need a special ball joint tool:

https://youtu.be/tKgNV8Ve7Dg
It sounds like the OP did not replace those. I did not see any mention of them anywhere here.

When I did suspension work on my '01, soon after getting it, prompted by excessive, uncorrectable rear camber and rear tire wear, I was pretty careful about not replacing things unnecessarily.

On my car, those carrier-arm ball joints (BTW, they're called ball joints, but there is no ball, they seem closer to what I would call bushings) were perhaps the only items that NEEDED to be replaced. I did replace many other things, "once I was in there" (integral links, since you R+R them to get to the ball joints; and then, hey, since you're paying for an alignment, may as well replace anything that seems less than perfect on the front - that's what I did).

I used Lemfoerder 33-32-6-767-748, "Rear Ball Joint", superseded from 33 32 1 095 631. Same both left and right.


I took a quick look at that video - looks good. He gets to the actual pressing out of the ball joints around 7 minutes in. Don't be fooled.

Doing that without the right tool can be somewhere between frustrating and impossible. I used local-rented general purpose tools, and it took a lot of work/experimentation/fabrication/swearing to get them to work. The BMW-specific tool for this job has (I think) a special cutout in one of the cylindrical pieces, allowing it to sit properly in place. This minor feature (as I've heard, and can fully believe) turns the almost-impossible into easy.

This particular job is very important on these cars, and you'll find a lot of references on this forum.
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  #52  
Old 09-30-2016, 08:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldskewel View Post
It sounds like the OP did not replace those. I did not see any mention of them anywhere here.

When I did suspension work on my '01, soon after getting it, prompted by excessive, uncorrectable rear camber and rear tire wear, I was pretty careful about not replacing things unnecessarily.

On my car, those carrier-arm ball joints (BTW, they're called ball joints, but there is no ball, they seem closer to what I would call bushings) were perhaps the only items that NEEDED to be replaced. I did replace many other things, "once I was in there" (integral links, since you R+R them to get to the ball joints; and then, hey, since you're paying for an alignment, may as well replace anything that seems less than perfect on the front - that's what I did).

I used Lemfoerder 33-32-6-767-748, "Rear Ball Joint", superseded from 33 32 1 095 631. Same both left and right.


I took a quick look at that video - looks good. He gets to the actual pressing out of the ball joints around 7 minutes in. Don't be fooled.

Doing that without the right tool can be somewhere between frustrating and impossible. I used local-rented general purpose tools, and it took a lot of work/experimentation/fabrication/swearing to get them to work. The BMW-specific tool for this job has (I think) a special cutout in one of the cylindrical pieces, allowing it to sit properly in place. This minor feature (as I've heard, and can fully believe) turns the almost-impossible into easy.

This particular job is very important on these cars, and you'll find a lot of references on this forum.
I did not replace them and possibly I made a mistake by not doing it. I'll take a second look at them and report back.
Part of my not paying to much attention to them comes from E39 where they're original on both E39's with no issues. It does seem due to X5 being heavier and with the monster tires, they go bad faster.
When I did alignment, the best the guy could do was -1.8 camber which is barely in the spec and it will wear out inner tire.
That should've been alarm enough but having 3 aging BMW's, my attention is constantly fluctuating between them.
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  #53  
Old 10-01-2016, 01:29 PM
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The uncorrectable rear camber was exactly the problem I had. One of my rear upper control arms was bad too, so I replaced both of those.

Regarding a "second look," you may find videos on how to apply a jack to the swing arm, allowing you to see if there is excessive play. I tried to do that without a lift, and without fabricating a special jack attachment (some very creative solutions to this on this forum), and was unsuccessful. So I proceeded anyway with disassembly, and sure enough my ball joints were shot. Practically disintegrating - but there's nowhere for them to go, so they end up being just really too loose.

As I recall from my pre-repair research, the problem with the failed ball joints is not so much that it makes camber too negative - it is that when you get on the gas, the loose ball joint allows the wheel to move significantly in a way that really tears up the inner corner of the tires.

And if my budget (what's that? ;-) ) for my suspension overhaul had been $70, those two ball joints would have been the only things to replace, and this was at ~170k miles. And the next thing I would buy (or rent/borrow), knowing what I know now, would be the BMW-specific ball joint press tool.
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Last edited by oldskewel; 10-01-2016 at 01:40 PM.
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  #54  
Old 10-01-2016, 04:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldskewel View Post
The uncorrectable rear camber was exactly the problem I had. One of my rear upper control arms was bad too, so I replaced both of those.

Regarding a "second look," you may find videos on how to apply a jack to the swing arm, allowing you to see if there is excessive play. I tried to do that without a lift, and without fabricating a special jack attachment (some very creative solutions to this on this forum), and was unsuccessful. So I proceeded anyway with disassembly, and sure enough my ball joints were shot. Practically disintegrating - but there's nowhere for them to go, so they end up being just really too loose.

As I recall from my pre-repair research, the problem with the failed ball joints is not so much that it makes camber too negative - it is that when you get on the gas, the loose ball joint allows the wheel to move significantly in a way that really tears up the inner corner of the tires.

And if my budget (what's that? ;-) ) for my suspension overhaul had been $70, those two ball joints would have been the only things to replace, and this was at ~170k miles. And the next thing I would buy (or rent/borrow), knowing what I know now, would be the BMW-specific ball joint press tool.
Thanks for the info.
Even though I only had 106k, some parts of my suspension were bad including smaller control arms on the back which had torn rubber around ball joints. I suspect 4.6is is harder on suspension due monster tires (wide and low profile).
I know now that I should have replaced them regardless since they're not expensive and I've done everything else anyway. It's alright, if I made a mistake it'll cost me one alignment ($100).
I'll update what I end up doing and thanks again.
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  #55  
Old 12-17-2016, 10:05 AM
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Would you mind sharing the part numbers from your first post?
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  #56  
Old 12-17-2016, 12:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CleanIsFast View Post
Would you mind sharing the part numbers from your first post?
I've updated few. The rest can be found on realoem. I need to go through my records to update the rest.
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  #57  
Old 03-14-2019, 06:56 PM
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Are the part numbers in the first post still correct ?


Is it possible to do it with second hand parts as I need my car back on the road and can upgrade to Bilstein in the summer then ?
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