Ball Joint Bolt - Page 2

Lamby · #11 01-06-2017, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougPEX5

It's the bolt that goes all the way through with just a thread or so out the top.
Looks like enough room for a full size nut to me, but that's with the wheel unloaded. I'm sure clearance will change considerably with weight on the wheel.

Plan of attack this weekend after it's on the bench.
1. Short Prayer
2. Reverse drill bill small hole
3. Easy out
4. Weld nut on top side of bolt protruding through top of knuckle and try to remove bolt
5. Drill out and re thread.
6. Drill through and install a new 10.9 bolt and 1/2 size nut.

Good luck with that my friend, sounds time intensive so I hope your short prayer is answered. I think that their are two types of bolts that hold the ball joint in place. The earlier versions of the x5 <03 have the male bolt type heads and the later 03> x5's have the newer star female bolts. I have only used the star female bolts and not had one shear off on me yet. Copper grease, when I take something off that is a stubborn SOB then it gets copper grease on the new bolts/screws on install.

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wpoll · #12 01-07-2017, 05:42 AM

FYI Lamby, the "male" bolts are called e-torx (short for external torx) and the "female" ones are just torx.

oldskewel · #13 01-07-2017, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamby

... The earlier versions of the x5 <03 have the male bolt type heads and the later 03> x5's have the newer star female bolts. I have only used the star female bolts and not had one shear off on me yet...

That makes sense. On my '01, the original screws were Torx E12, and the Lemfoerder ball joints I replaced the originals with came with Torx T45. Same screws, different heads, of course. I guess Lemfoerder figured out the weakness of the E12 heads in this application.

BTW, I follow the horror stories on this list about replacing these ball joints, but I had no problems at all swapping mine out at ~170k miles. Perhaps that is due to the California climate.

Lamby · #14 01-10-2017, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpoll

FYI Lamby, the "male" bolts are called e-torx (short for external torx) and the "female" ones are just torx.

wpoll, yes sir you are correct e-torx and torx. sorry words are not my friend sometimes and it helps if I use the correct terms rather than trying to describe the item.

All I know is that they are buggers if they snap. Infact, the whole pressed in ball joint to knuckle idea stinks of something the BMW engineers had to use as they already had parts off the 5 series and they would last 3 years under stress testing. I love the x5 but small things like this can make a simple job VERY time consuming.

Lamby · #15 01-10-2017, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldskewel

That makes sense. On my '01, the original screws were Torx E12, and the Lemfoerder ball joints I replaced the originals with came with Torx T45. Same screws, different heads, of course. I guess Lemfoerder figured out the weakness of the E12 heads in this application.

BTW, I follow the horror stories on this list about replacing these ball joints, but I had no problems at all swapping mine out at ~170k miles. Perhaps that is due to the California climate.

Yeah!? Life is tough in California hey? I spent some time working in SF in the Embarcadero Center and I could see the bay and the bridge from my window. You guys have it tough out there, lovely climate, beautiful country, nice people.

London right now, its grey, dark, cold and everyone is pi$$ed off with each other as we are crawling over each other like rats due to tube strikes.... anyway... yes you bloody ball joint probably walked out by themselves... in England the like to rust in there super tight.

wpoll · #16 01-10-2017, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamby

wpoll, yes sir you are correct e-torx and torx. sorry words are not my friend sometimes and it helps if I use the correct terms rather than trying to describe the item.

All I know is that they are buggers if they snap. Infact, the whole pressed in ball joint to knuckle idea stinks of something the BMW engineers had to use as they already had parts off the 5 series and they would last 3 years under stress testing. I love the x5 but small things like this can make a simple job VERY time consuming.

Apologies if I sounded like I was correcting you, Lamby - that was not my intention. Just trying to keep these threads "factually rich" for those that follow...

And yeah, there is a lot of beautiful but dumb engineering in our E53s. Tried changing your 3.0d engine air filter yet?

Lamby · #17 01-10-2017, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpoll

Apologies if I sounded like I was correcting you, Lamby - that was not my intention. Just trying to keep these threads "factually rich" for those that follow...

And yeah, there is a lot of beautiful but dumb engineering in our E53s. Tried changing your 3.0d engine air filter yet?

No worries buddy, you have helped me in the past so def no offence taken. Yeah there is a great video on youtube, I think the guy is called BMtroubleyou and an Aussie (but you can't have everything) he shows you exactly how to remove install it the engine air filter cover and even he says he is amazed that this is the actual BMW removal protocol. After watching that, its easier but still a bloody pain in my backside. Every year its scuffed knuckles and swearing at it. I hope someone got fired for that at BMW.