How long are your sway bar links lasting?

Henn28 · #1 03-12-2025, 03:19 PM

I’m once again getting a low speed clunking over poor roads, which I’m sure enough is my right front sway bar link that I ordered both sides without troubleshooting. It’s only been 2 years, and maybe 1.5 years since I replaced them previously, which seems terrible even by New Orleans street standards. They do get a little farm road and corn field work during hunting season, but nothing too bad. What are other’s experience with these things?

Fortunately they are cheap and a pretty quick job. I think the ones in the car right now are Lemforder, perhaps…not BMW. I sprung for BMW links this time to see if they last longer.

Effduration · #2 03-12-2025, 04:49 PM

Take a look at your sway Bar bushings and where they sit on the subframe, and the sway bar itself where it goes thru the bushing.

In my case, the salty roads of New England caused the area the bushing sits on to rust away...its not very solid to begin with AND the sway bar itself rusted away inside the sway bar bushing to the point it no longer fit snugly in the bushing... Please have a look.

Henn28 · #3 03-13-2025, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effduration

Take a look at your sway Bar bushings and where they sit on the subframe, and the sway bar itself where it goes thru the bushing.

In my case, the salty roads of New England caused the area the bushing sits on to rust away...its not very solid to begin with AND the sway bar itself rusted away inside the sway bar bushing to the point it no longer fit snugly in the bushing... Please have a look.

Will definitely check that out. Thanks.

Factory6speed · #4 03-14-2025, 03:38 PM

I did the super pro adjustable end links last year, when I did the oil pan etc., the original ones were shot. I was supposed to lower the car about a month later, but that still hasn't happened. I did put some fogging oil on the threads so I think they will still move whenever I do lower the car.

Sadly only after a year, one winter, the boots are already showing signs of cracking. Not all the way through yet, but I expected the boots to look nearly new, and they look, you know, five years old. Already.

One nice thing about the aftermarket end links is you can fit a normal 17 mm wrench on the counter hold, it was the same with the febi end links I put on the E36. The OEM ones I had to sacrifice an old craftsman 16mm wrench to the angle grinder to remove.

When I lowered the f30, even after a good alignment there was a bit of a shimmy, due to preload on the sway bar. The adjustable end links you can feel the preload go away as you move it up or down, it's pretty neat. I also had a shimmy after not torquing the sway bar on the E36 with both wheels on the ground. I think it's a sensitive important thing for drivability and often gets overlooked.

I also had a ton of rust on the bushings as said, did my best to clean everything up and repaint the subframe, but for some reason I don't understand now, I didn't replace the bushings. I probably will next time.

EODguy · #5 03-17-2025, 05:24 AM

Sway bar links or anything suspension and using "lasting" doesn't apply for me. Over here is MAX 2.5 years for total suspension but sway bar links go anywhere from 15 to 24 months.

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Henn28 · #6 03-25-2025, 08:50 AM

Thanks for the input gents. My BMW links showed up and I put them on yesterday afternoon. The right aftermarket link on the car looked especially worn when I took it out.

I remembered to put a jack under the hubs and compress the suspension when I torqued the links for a change. And I also released the nuts on the bottom/back control arms at the subframe and retorqued them with the suspension compressed. I was in a hurry when I replaced them, and installed the rebuilt transfer case a few months ago and I don’t think I tightened them under load.

Car sounds 95% better, although I still get some subtle noise over low speed bumps. I’ve never replaced the sway bar bushings, which is silly given how many times I’ve had the car apart. I even have a set of new bushings in my parts locker. Next time I have reason to pull the stiffener I need to do that job.

Henn28 · #7 04-19-2025, 08:18 AM

Update on this issue….
Low speed clunking is still there after new BMW sway bar links. I’ve also got a wheel wobble at 60mph that goes away in turns. I just had a balance job done, and the lower control arms are new. The sway bar itself and bushings look fine and the struts are 1 year old bilstein b4s. I put the car in the air yesterday and checked all the torques, general integrity, etc. on the front right where the clunk is.

The wobble that goes away in a turn makes me think that the issues are related to the thrust arm bushings. They are 2 year old Turner monoball pieces that I hoped would last longer. I have an old set of thrust arms so maybe I’ll press out the OE bushings in them and try a set of the Powerflex polyurethane bushings. I had hoped the mono ball bushings would last longer, but maybe not. The roads are terrible here, and the x5 does some limited off road- lite type driving during hunting season. Nothing cosmic at all…farm roads and fields.

Could the ball joint pieces that the wishbones connect to, at the hubs play a role? Mine are about 3 years old and I have a new set I could put in, but a) I’ve stripped one of the bolt heads on one side causing me to give this job up several month ago, and b) I need to get a slide hammer modified to pull these little bast@rds out.

PropellerHead · #8 04-20-2025, 10:42 AM

As far as I can tell, the Turner monoballs installed in the blue E53 2022 lasted about 20k miles and a little over two years. The white E53 has had them about a year and a little over 10k miles. I just swapped the Eibach sways into the white one. While it is my wife's daily, and we won't tow with it, I suspect that she will be more gentle than I was.

The symptom of them failing in the blue one were a loud 'groaning' when turning the wheel at low speed. They never clunked on failure.

The ones in the E82 have been on since 2021 and about 30k miles. The E38 has had them for 2 years but only about 1200 milles. The E30 will have them installed this week.

They work really well on the E53, but they do not last long. It's a good thing they have a lifetime warranty on the parts.

X5chemist · #9 04-20-2025, 10:59 AM

I'm still chasing a low speed clunk too. I'll take a look at the sway bar bushings. I bet the OEM bushings are on it.

Henn28 · #10 04-23-2025, 09:24 AM

Yeah, the clunk isn’t a typical symptom of a thrust arm bushing going bad, but the 60 mph vibration seems to be, especially when I just had the wheels balanced a couple weeks ago. It’s also got brand new sway bar links and wishbones, so I really don’t know what is left to change.

To that end, I just ordered a set of powerflex bushings, which I’ll jam into a spare set of thrust arms I’ve got. I was really hoping the monoball bushings would last longer than 20k. The ride was a little stiff on them too, for what I use the x5 for.

Anyone have any feedback on the powerflex pieces? I assume they need to be torqued with the suspension compressed too?

I also ordered a screw extraction kit so I can get the ball joints out at the same time. The pair I out in a few years ago have hex head bolts and the first one I tried to pull rounded out instantly.