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  #11  
Old 03-28-2017, 09:47 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
I have experience with this..... Its probably shot rear subframe mounts. Normal issue on BMW's tons of threads. It will give your rear end a wiggle that is highly annoying and it feels nervous. BMW's have a tendency to put in soft rear sub-frame bushings that fail early.
I will keep an eye on that. It's not terrible. But I've also only just bought the vehicle, so I'm not sure what its meant to feel like.

Thanks for the tip.
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  #12  
Old 03-28-2017, 12:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
So a couple of things. Your suspension is probably shot at 90k miles its a wear item and they wear out... You should probably replace the rest of the control arms, as well as bump stops, strut/shock mounts and strut bearings, and tie rods. This is probably not going to be a silver bullet type of fix.

2nd, what kind of wheels and tires do you have? What inflation pressure do you use? Generally the bigger the rim the worse the ride (adds more unsprung weight). If you're using more than a 19" rim, I can tell you your ride will improve by downsizing. I can tell a noticeable deterioration in ride quality by going to 20" or large rims on this car. I can't tell you how many SUVs i've been in with over-sized rims and its jiggle city.

Ditch the run flats if your using them, and switch to will be flat, this helps a ton too, and make sure your running the door pilar recommend inflation pressure if you still are using stock rims.
Not all suspension components are supposed to be shot at 90k miles. When I pulled my sway bar links last week, they looked perfectly fine, not as tight as the new ones obviously, but they performed nearly identical. I wanted to change them since they were cheap and easy to swap out. It all depends on how much abuse various suspension components see over their lifetime. Last winter I changed my thrust arms, because I was getting symptoms related to them. After I changed them, the problem is gone.

I'm not complaining about my ride quality. It is fine. But to answer your questions, I'm on 20'' Y-spoke 214s with Bridgestone runflats. I don't have any problems with them in general and they certainly are not my problem at this time. I will likely change to non-runflats next time I need tires, but why should I throwing away a perfectly find set of tires for a problem not related to them. I run 40 psi on rears and 38 psi up front. Runflats eat away from the inside as if you had extra camber with factory inflation recommendation (many threads on this).

I saw many foam-like shavings over my strut towers, indicative of various foam bump stops disintegrating over time. I will snap a few pictures for reference and documentation. Turns out BMW calls 2 of these strut bearing flanges, and the actual bump stop "additional shock absorber" lol. I will swap them out and we'll go from there.

We, however, need a discussion about what to do when the problem turns out to be the struts themselves. It'd be nice to have options since almost 2 grand for two struts does not sound too appealing. e53 guys appear to have options but not us. I hope Arnott or some other company is looking into rebuilding ours.
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  #13  
Old 03-29-2017, 10:34 AM
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Originally Posted by SeanC View Post
Not all suspension components are supposed to be shot at 90k miles. When I pulled my sway bar links last week, they looked perfectly fine, not as tight as the new ones obviously, but they performed nearly identical. I wanted to change them since they were cheap and easy to swap out. It all depends on how much abuse various suspension components see over their lifetime. Last winter I changed my thrust arms, because I was getting symptoms related to them. After I changed them, the problem is gone.

I'm not complaining about my ride quality. It is fine. But to answer your questions, I'm on 20'' Y-spoke 214s with Bridgestone runflats. I don't have any problems with them in general and they certainly are not my problem at this time. I will likely change to non-runflats next time I need tires, but why should I throwing away a perfectly find set of tires for a problem not related to them. I run 40 psi on rears and 38 psi up front. Runflats eat away from the inside as if you had extra camber with factory inflation recommendation (many threads on this).

I saw many foam-like shavings over my strut towers, indicative of various foam bump stops disintegrating over time. I will snap a few pictures for reference and documentation. Turns out BMW calls 2 of these strut bearing flanges, and the actual bump stop "additional shock absorber" lol. I will swap them out and we'll go from there.

We, however, need a discussion about what to do when the problem turns out to be the struts themselves. It'd be nice to have options since almost 2 grand for two struts does not sound too appealing. e53 guys appear to have options but not us. I hope Arnott or some other company is looking into rebuilding ours.
I can say without a doubt my 2008 X5 4.8i all of its bushings were shot at 89K miles (not unusual on most vehicles). The car had lived its whole life as a commuter car in Houston, TX which generally has good roads. The lower front control arms were leaking oil (replaced), the sway bar end links all had cracked rubber around the ball joints and had leaked oil, the rear lower control arms all had cracked bushings, as well as front uppers. The upper strut foam mounts had disintegrated, the rear sub frame mounts were visibly cracked. I can say that the car didn't feel bad but when you drove a newer car say a 2012-2013 with less miles the difference was night and day. Mine had more looseness in the steering, more vibration, softer feeling and was definitely bouncier over dips and bumps (tired bushings and possibly struts). I'd drive a newer lower mileage car as a point of reference since your concerned about yours.

Yeah, the bump stops are actually an additional shock absorber on BMWs lol. I completely replaced the suspension myself on my 335d and a lot of it on the X5. BMW designs the "bump stops" to actually be engaged when the suspension is farily compressed. Its not so much a stop as an additional progressive increase in damping on compression. That way you won't have a whack when you bottom the suspension. The stops are cheap, but labor intensive on the front to replace. On the rear, the X5 is easy as pie to replace yourself.

Unfortunately its pretty hard to tell if a strut is toast while on the car, unless its really bad. The usual 1st sign is if you hit dips on the freeway and you have multiple bounces. When you take them off the car its usually readily apparent. If the strut/shock has little/no resistance and isn't smooth in action while compressing it, and doesn't immediately return to the extended position when you take the pressure off.

On my e90 I swapped over to Koni FSD shock/struts and I'm very happy with them (better than stock and less expensive). On the X5 I never attempted to swap as my old 2008 4.8i had adapative drive with electronic damper control. Those shocks/struts were nearly 1k each. No aftermarket replacement, but you could disable edc and go with conventional struts/shocks.

Last edited by Thecastle; 03-29-2017 at 10:41 AM.
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  #14  
Old 03-29-2017, 11:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
I can say without a doubt my 2008 X5 4.8i all of its bushings were shot at 89K miles (not unusual on most vehicles). The car had lived its whole life as a commuter car in Houston, TX which generally has good roads.
You must be living in Woodlands! I do whatever I can to avoid Houston roads when possible mostly because of traffic and roads (I live in Beaumont, worst roads in the country imo).

I agree with everything else, but I don't think most of my suspension components needs replacing at this time. My only problem seems to be with this knocking noise over sudden dips, otherwise it can take bumps pretty well and the ride is pretty firm. Both front and rear ends seem pretty planted on good roads.

You're welcome to join/help me while I'm rebuilding my struts. I love me some good company while working on my cars. Oh, and beers on me!
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  #15  
Old 03-29-2017, 12:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
I can say without a doubt my 2008 X5 4.8i all of its bushings were shot at 89K miles (not unusual on most vehicles).
Unfortunately that luxury and sporty feel does come at a price. The service life of many BMW suspension parts is so short that most people freak out at the idea.

The difference is, the rubber bushings are still going to wear out on a chevy cavalier. It will take a little longer, but it happens so gradually you get accustom to it.

With the various hydraulic damped, rubber bushings and overall complexity of the suspension on the 5,7,x5, etc means that the failures are more apparent. And the other difference is that BMW actually recommends them as maintenance items whereas other brands seem to take a "run them till its unsafe" approach to these items.


I can tell you, on my offroad beater Isuzu Rodeo, the upper control arm bushings are so far gone the arms are hitting the frame. It still drives as well as I can expect it to. It just makes some funny noises. Obviously I plan to replace them.
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2009 xDrive35D
Comfort seats, Tech, Premium, Cold Weather, Sport w/ Adaptive Drive, Extended Nappa Leather
Deleted & Stg 2+ Tune for over 115k miles
227k on the clock
Being replaced by a 2016 X5d
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  #16  
Old 03-29-2017, 05:21 PM
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Originally Posted by SeanC View Post
You must be living in Woodlands! I do whatever I can to avoid Houston roads when possible mostly because of traffic and roads (I live in Beaumont, worst roads in the country imo).

I agree with everything else, but I don't think most of my suspension components needs replacing at this time. My only problem seems to be with this knocking noise over sudden dips, otherwise it can take bumps pretty well and the ride is pretty firm. Both front and rear ends seem pretty planted on good roads.

You're welcome to join/help me while I'm rebuilding my struts. I love me some good company while working on my cars. Oh, and beers on me!
Beaumont, I may actually be in that area more frequently in the near future. I own a company that builds large Wi-Fi networks for Apartment Complexs, Hotels, Marina's, RV parks, etc. I have a contract to re-do an RV park in Port Arthur so I'll be making that drive frequently in the X5. The X5 is actually my company car, the e90 diesel is my personal car.

Maybe we'll meet up some time. P.S. I live in League City (galveston county). The roads here while very congested and traffic light infested generally have good pavement.
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  #17  
Old 03-30-2017, 12:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
I have experience with this..... Its probably shot rear subframe mounts. Normal issue on BMW's tons of threads. It will give your rear end a wiggle that is highly annoying and it feels nervous. BMW's have a tendency to put in soft rear sub-frame bushings that fail early.
Do the subframe bushings press out like they do on most other models, or are they easier to replace than that?
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2009 xDrive35D
Comfort seats, Tech, Premium, Cold Weather, Sport w/ Adaptive Drive, Extended Nappa Leather
Deleted & Stg 2+ Tune for over 115k miles
227k on the clock
Being replaced by a 2016 X5d
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  #18  
Old 03-30-2017, 12:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thecastle View Post
Beaumont, I may actually be in that area more frequently in the near future. I own a company that builds large Wi-Fi networks for Apartment Complexs, Hotels, Marina's, RV parks, etc. I have a contract to re-do an RV park in Port Arthur so I'll be making that drive frequently in the X5. The X5 is actually my company car, the e90 diesel is my personal car.

Maybe we'll meet up some time. P.S. I live in League City (galveston county). The roads here while very congested and traffic light infested generally have good pavement.
Definitely! PM me whenever you're gonna be around

I invested in one of these kits today. I will also be installing KW V2 coilovers on the F30 328i, so they should come in handy. I didn't want to trust the Autozone compressors this time. I haven't had the best experience with them. BMW documentation also suggests using something similar.

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  #19  
Old 04-05-2017, 10:11 PM
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Is my suspension going bad or?

Pulled out the driver's side strut and disassembled it today. I think diagnosis was on point. One of the rubber bushings/bump stops that was supposed to be there was non-existent!! The others, well, I'll let this picture speak for itself. Btw, the biggest one on the far left came out in two pieces.

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  #20  
Old 04-06-2017, 11:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanC View Post
Pulled out the driver's side strut and disassembled it today. I think diagnosis was on point. One of the rubber bushings/bump stops that was supposed to be there was non-existent!! The others, well, I'll let this picture speak for itself. Btw, the biggest one on the far left came out in two pieces.

I'm glad someone had the courage to disassemble the dynamic struts. I have already replaced all the bushings related to the front suspension because I have feathered wear pattern on both front tires.
I haven't disassembled my struts or really take a look on the internals of them but I was thinking if they were bad going to coilovers. Is cheaper than OEM struts, you can even buy a EDC delete module to not have an error message.
http://www.bimmerworld.com/KW-Coilov...3-V3-X6_2.html


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