control arm bushings?

[BigBlack48is]

XC17,

Nice writeup!

So was there any play in your ball joint or did you just replace it due to age?

[xc17pilot]

I did replace the ball joints due to mileage, and with high mileage definitely worth doing them at same time as bushings. When I dropped the bushing, I noticed the ball joint on driver's side had some play in it. I was experiencing the vibration at hard braking that is written up in some posts, then noticed black fluid on one of the bushings. Since I've owned the X5 since 35,000 miles, I knew these were original and it was time to replace. There is a notable improvement in steering and the vibration is gone. Well worth the time and overall pretty straight forward DIY.

[Gregory891]

This was my experience as well. The removable ball joint is also a culprit in front end brake shimmy, it's not exclusively the tension strut bushing. I did EVERYTHING up front and play / shimmy is gone. Installing front Bilstein's as I can NOW feel the difference of eleven year old shocks on a nearly 2 ton car with 248.000 km.

[Gregory891]

I changed all of my front parts (tension strut bushing, control arms and ball joints) the other month. You can remove the ball joint w/o removing the entire knuckle. Penetrating oil will help. Heat can make the difference (I did without) but using an air impact hammer was THE way to get the ball joints out.

[nebilex]

Thanks for the response,^ ... I have a 5 lb sledge hammer but wasn't sure it's the safe thing to do :-)..don't want to cause other problem when hitting the ball joint. I called autozone and they rent the ball joint tool for about $100 for 90 days..so I will probably grab that. What's a BHF hammer?

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by nebilex

Thanks for the response,^ ... I have a 5 lb sledge hammer but wasn't sure it's the safe thing to do :-)..don't want to cause other problem when hitting the ball joint. I called autozone and they rent the ball joint tool for about $100 for 90 days..so I will probably grab that. What's a BHF hammer?

Oops sorry it should have been BFH.

Big F--king Hammer.

[nebilex]

^ lol thanks, the plan is to go with the BFH and get the impact if all fails..

[bsprtsgrp]

If you just replace the Thrust Rod Bushings do you need to do a front-end alignment after?

[ake53]

Originally Posted by bsprtsgrp

If you just replace the Thrust Rod Bushings do you need to do a front-end alignment after?

yes.

[admranger]

Bumping this thread to check on the power flex folks -- still liking the polyurethane bushings?

I'm nearing 40k miles on my tension strut bushings and the originals were shot shortly thereafter. Have a bit of a 'clunk' over speed bumps, so if it isn't the sway bar end links, it's likely the tension strut bushings is my guess.