Thrust rod bushings
 

It's girlie question time again. :confused: :rofl:
OK, so they replaced my steering rack, did an alignment, took her out for a test drive and still felt something wrong. Now they are doing thrust rod bushings. What are they and what do they do? What's the deal with my front end? Did the steering rack problem cause the bushings to go bad? I didn't even turn 25K miles yet. I do drive and break hard but still. I don't go yahooing over potholes or take her off road.

I did a search on thrust rod bushings and nothing came up. I googled it too, I know where to buy them now :rofl:

Thanks guys :)

Pinion rod bushings?:dunno:

I'm just a girl, what's your excuse :confused: :rofl:

She's killin' me, here!:rofl: :rofl:

These are also known as thrust arm bushing the go towards the front of the car and hold the steering knuckle in place. They are very much like control arms, but at an angle. They are a very common 5 ser problem and as the thread indicates I am suprised we don't hear more about them.

http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...ht=support+arm

Cleaner -
You are the man :thumbup: Thanks again.

Which part is this exactly? What do you mean by steering knuckle? The same knuckle that the control arm and wheel bearing/hub/etc connect to right? So this arm connects the knuckle to the subframe? Sorry..I'm more familiar with wishbone setups up front.

Exactly, think of it as the leading edge of a wishbone set up, or a mult-link wishbone, the control arm being the rear and the support arm being the front of the wishbone. It's a HUGE mount on that arm and torqued to a serious number, I cant remember off the top of my head but it took every bit of my air ratchet to get that thing on and off.

Look right in front of your front wheel (in the wheel well) and you will be looking right at it.

Interesting...how is it supported on top? There's obv no UCA.

I really should get down there and familiarize my self with the X5 suspension...so used to working on hondas. By the looks of it my Prelude (double wishbone) is setup the same way on the bottom, lca + what honda calls a radius rod (the bushing setup is even the same).

The entire suspension is comprised of the control arm in the lower back (or bottom) the Support/Thrust arm in the front and the strut on the top. Honda has a multi link set up also, but I have not worked on any in years.