eBay for suspension parts E53 4.4i

[Big Al]

If you jack up the X5 and see if there is any play in the control arms. I bought mine at FCP Groton through ebay. Aftermarket lower control arm and had an independent mechanic put it on. No complaints after repair.

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by footsurg

Well, I have crawled under there and pulled on the sway links, and I can't feel any play. I suppose its kind of hard to check the bushings unless I pull them off, which I have not done as of yet. How often have you seen tension strut bushing, control arm and ball joint failures? My guess from what I have read is that the sway bar links are the sole problem most of the time. They are pretty inexpensive too. So I am just going to start there and change out the sway bar links. I won't have to have anything realigned after I swap them out, will I?

Those end-links are almost always the source of the clunk.

The lateral control arm balljiont does fail once in a while too, although it's not as commonly criminal as the swaybar endlinks. Usually when a balljoint fails, there isn't any associated noise but just vibration/shimmy while driving.

The weak link in the tension strut seems to be the bushing rather than the balljoint, most of the time.

[vinuneuro]

Why don't you have an indy shop just diagnose the problem. They don't usually charge anything to inspect like the dealer would.

[footsurg]

Originally Posted by vinuneuro

Why don't you have an indy shop just diagnose the problem. They don't usually charge anything to inspect like the dealer would.

Thanks for the suggestion. I already have someone in mind to take a peek at it. To be honest I am worried that the shop will tell me what is wrong, and I will feel obligated to let them fix it. I was really looking forward to getting my hands dirty!

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by footsurg

Thanks for the suggestion. I already have someone in mind to take a peek at it. To be honest I am worried that the shop will tell me what is wrong, and I will feel obligated to let them fix it. I was really looking forward to getting my hands dirty!

It takes them all of a couple minutes to get it up in the air and immediately find out what's wrong. You can let them do job down the road that you may not want to tackle.

Fyi, a swabar endlink will probably take you 10-15min to change, and that's stretching it.

[butundo]

are there aftermarket bushings that are better than oem?

[klnteg]

I recall a bushing company called energy suspension. not sure if they deal with BMW though? I think they make ployurathene bushings which are more durable than rubber but give a harder feel for the road because of the harder compound for the urathane.

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by klnteg

I recall a bushing company called energy suspension. not sure if they deal with BMW though? I think they make ployurathene bushings which are more durable than rubber but give a harder feel for the road because of the harder compound for the urathane.

Energy Suspension makes really crappy products. Poly is not a good material for bushings mainly because they don't last long. The life isn't even that good when you lube them (you need to do that with poly) regularly. They also tend to bind in locations like the lca.

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by butundo

are there aftermarket bushings that are better than oem?

No, because no aftermarket company designed the suspension.

The only bushings that would be better are spherical bearings, but you can't use those in road cars.

[klnteg]

I didn't know that poly sucked so bad? I would never use them anyways, but I had heard they were good?