knocking noise near front suspension
 

Hi All,

I have just got a 2001 X5 and am noticing a knocking noise from the front r/h suspension.
It sounds like a shock absorber fault and is mainly noticable at speeds up to 30mph.

The handling and drive comfort is not affected at all but it is annoying. I can see from other threads that the sway bar links seem a common cause of this but I have had a look under and all seems ok, no signs of play in the links, I also tried the wheel bearing test someone mentioned and that all seems ok. Any ideas on this would be appeciated.

Also, I have seen a couple of threads saying its the contol arm bushes, is it worth changing these as well, are they items 11 and 7 on the figure below.http://www.realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/f/b/193.png

Cheers,

Jon

My money is on the sway arm links

The sway bar end links are your first bet. If you remove one and the "ball joints" are free moving they are still good. If they stick then you found your culprit. I replaced mine with some aftermaket units but I did not know whether the original ones were bad or not. The clunking did not go away and got worse after about 6 months. I then replaced the thrust bushings (number 7 on the diagram) and the clunking stopped when hitting bumps but would reappear when applying the brakes. I checked the non-OEM end links and the "ball joints" were sticking. This was causing the clunking upon braking. I replaced these with the factory units (luckily I kept them) and no more clunking. The sweet sound of nothingness. Sorry about the long winded response but this drove me crazy for an entire year. Hope this helps.

Had the same thing recently on the left. The ball joint was bad and fortunately under warranty. It would only knock at slow speeds as well. When under pressure the noise was not apparent.

Do you know what ball joint it was that cers,

caused your problem?

Cheers,

jon

I've replaced the ball joint, control arm, sway bar endlinks, tie rods and I still have the clunk. I've given up.