What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[TriX5]

Yesterday, while browsing a major retailer, came across some Rain-X wipers and promptly bought them. The Bosch icons were well past their technical life. With the continuous rain today already had a 60 mile run to test them. Nice and smooth, they clean the glass decent enough. The passenger side seems a bit long.

This morning ordered two Michelin Latitude Tour for my Style 132 wheels so that I have something to strap on the car when the weather turns. Still have two of these in the garage with decent thread that went to Europe and back on the E70. The Blizzaks currently on the E53 performed well enough in the snow these last weeks but they howl like mud tires when driven at speed. As soon as the temps rise they go back into the garage!

Still looking for a set of 315s for the 87s that are not going to break the bank.....

Tomorrow have an alignment coming up as well. This weekend a new set of brakes will go on the car.

[zener]

I would've bought 315 for the rear also, but I work at tire shop and these 275's came in as trade for non studded tires. These's michelin's where driven for about 400miles and got them stupid cheap.


For the summer I have 275 and 315 for rear.


Also ordered six new bosch coils.

[dykstra]

Installed 8 new coils and both valve cover gaskets.

[TriX5]

The guys from S2Dynamics called me late on Friday and said they couldn't quite hit the camber number on the left rear as the inner bushings are toast.....again! Unbelievable, I swapped those only 13k back..... I guess the incredibly rough surface streets in the area are really taking their toll!

Ordered another set of four inner bushings from FCP Euro and they'll be here on Tuesday. With colleges starting up and the kids going every day, the X5 is in daily use. So, that job will be up next weekend along with the postponed brake job.

At first I thought I had to take both hub carriers off again, a job I don't relish too much. But then remembered it is only the three main bolts, the integral link, the sway bar link and the ride height sensor that need to come off. Actually not too bad . I always use anti-seize before assembling to keep things from oxidizing too much.

[andrewwynn]

What brand did you use and I dunt know what "inner" means do you mean the one in front of the axle or back of the axle. The one in back is the usual suspect also known as the wishbone


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[TriX5]

Hi AW, these bushings are in the rear axle Lower Control Arm and they are supposedly Lemforder. These are at the inboard end of the rear LCA (FCP calls the LCA "swing arm")

Originally I had camber set at 1 deg. Over the past year I slowly saw the LR camber increase and I think one of the bushings simply collapsed, I will see once I pull the LCA out of the car. The RR didn't seem too bad. The LCA is #15 in this image.



I guess I will have to accept that these are high frequency maintenance items for now..... I have my own 20t press so at least it should be a one day job to pop them out, replace the bushings and put them back in.

Just feeling dumbfounded that this happened in such a short interval.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by TriX5

Just feeling dumbfounded that this happened in such a short interval.

Did you torque the bolts for the bushings at ride height? Torqueing the bolts in the air will twist the bushings when lowered down.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by TriX5

Hi AW, these bushings are in the rear axle Lower Control Arm and they are supposedly Lemforder. These are at the inboard end of the rear LCA (FCP calls the LCA "swing arm")

Originally I had camber set at 1 deg. Over the past year I slowly saw the LR camber increase and I think one of the bushings simply collapsed, I will see once I pull the LCA out of the car. The RR didn't seem too bad. The LCA is #15 in this image.



I guess I will have to accept that these are high frequency maintenance items for now..... I have my own 20t press so at least it should be a one day job to pop them out, replace the bushings and put them back in.

Just feeling dumbfounded that this happened in such a short interval.

This is why I buy this kind of part from FCP. Just replace the whole arm. No worrying about trying to preserve the balljoint boot, etc.

[TriX5]

Originally Posted by Overboost

Did you torque the bolts for the bushings at ride height? Torqueing the bolts in the air will twist the bushings when lowered down.

Yes, I always make sure that the suspension settles before torquing up. I'm hoping that removing the old ones will give me a clue what went wrong.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by TriX5

Yes, I always make sure that the suspension settles before torquing up. I'm hoping that removing the old ones will give me a clue what went wrong.

Eh. E53 suspension bushings are clearly underspecced for the job they are required to do. I wouldn't worry too much about it.