control arm bushings?

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by MINIz guy

AST W0133 2042364 AST Front Lower Heavy Duty Polyurethane Control Arm Bushing | eBay

BMW E53 E83 x3 x5 2 Premium Polyurethane Front Control Arm Bushings 04 10 | eBay

Anybody try the above polyurethane bushings for our trucks?

Definitely have a pronounced shimmy in the steering wheel when braking. I checked the ball joints for both the lower/upper control arm and they're good. The upper control arm bushing is also still good but the lower one moves a lot when I pry on it.

My plan of attack is to drill/cut out the old bushing and then press one of the poly bushings in with a c-clamp.

SPD & AST bushings? These are China crap!

Powerflex or nothing.

[MINIz guy]

Hmm...then getting a Lemforder replacement arm isn't much more than getting a set of Powerflex bushings. Would be 100x easier than drilling out the old bushing. Does the arm unbolt from the ball joint easily?

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by TiAgX5

SPD & AST bushings? These are China crap!

Powerflex or nothing.

Just because it's made in China doesn't mean it is crap. A lot of sophisticated electronic devices these days are made in China, like all the Eye products from Apple.

Companies such as Mercedes, BOSCH and Siemens have manufacturing plants in China, but I wouldn't call their products crap. Even our beloved BMWs are manufactured in China.

1 Million BMW Cars Assembled at Chinese Plant

[StephenVA]

TIP: Replace the entire arm (ball joint on one end and the big bushing on the other end). If the OE one lasted XXXX miles than you can expect the replacement to do the same. If you are looking for improvement in handling, then look into Meyle HD arms or go the Poly bushing as recommended earlier. RUN from no name China parts, as you get to be the "tester" and quality control department. Buy a brand that has some quality control to it's name, Meyle, Lemforder, BMW (reboxes other brands as "BMW").

Most owners replace / upgrade all the moving suspension parts at this 10 year++ mark. That way it a one time overhaul and done.

Kits are available: From FCP EURO https://www.fcpeuro.com/BMW-parts/X5...0&m=228&page=1 Don't forget to Replace the Sway Bar links at the same time.

Depending on your driving habits (First off at every light, last minute braking, wide open driveway apron hits, etc, then your suspension parts will need replacements/attention every 40K as the individual parts fail.

Helpful?

[StephenVA]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Just because it's made in China doesn't mean it is crap.

I think we all agree that not everything manufactured in China in the last 10 years, is junk. The biggest issue in auto/electronic parts quality issue, is China's inability to stop, enforce, control, and ban counterfeiting of name brand parts. Every day they flood the US markets with knockoffs, some built by the same plant that just finished a run under licensing. They will just keep running the molds well beyond the engineering tolerance levels as they get to pick up 50% more margin.

IMHO, I try to use band names distributed through known and approved sources, as I am not in the metallurgy and testing business deep enough to confirm every part is within specs. (IF I had access to the engineering drawings!) That would be anal. I stop my anal tendencies at cleaning levels.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by MINIz guy

Hmm...then getting a Lemforder replacement arm isn't much more than getting a set of Powerflex bushings. Would be 100x easier than drilling out the old bushing. Does the arm unbolt from the ball joint easily?

You can unbolt the ball joint from the steering knuckle and replace it at the same time you replace the tension strut, or you can get a real ball joint separator (not a pickle fork) and separate the ball joint from the tension strut.

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Just because it's made in China doesn't mean it is crap. A lot of sophisticated electronic devices these days are made in China, like all the Eye products from Apple.

Companies such as Mercedes, BOSCH and Siemens have manufacturing plants in China, but I wouldn't call their products crap. Even our beloved BMWs are manufactured in China.

1 Million BMW Cars Assembled at Chinese Plant

I agree, many good OE and Genuine parts are produced in China, and the parent companies have oversite of materials/processes/tolerances.

The crap parts are almost always the ones produced WITHOUT oversite, like the bushings in the prior post.

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by MINIz guy

Hmm...then getting a Lemforder replacement arm isn't much more than getting a set of Powerflex bushings. Would be 100x easier than drilling out the old bushing. Does the arm unbolt from the ball joint easily?

Why drill them?

This is all you need....

[Ricky Bobby]

I would just get Lemforder or Meyle HD arms personally - BMW also has "protection package" bushings which are an updated design and reinforced

[TiAgX5]

Jay from Southlake has those "3rd World" BMW HD bushings. Just met him in person this morning, saw a black 4.6is with Dinan exhaust that was heading the same direction, pulled in when he stopped for coffee. Nice guy!