Control arm & ball joint tightening torque
 

I have that familiar clunk again ... you know ... the one that you hear going into and out of parking lots and while driving slowly over bumps. This time I am going to change the control arms and ball joints myself. All the parts arrived today, so I am hoping to install them tomorrow.

Does anyone know if there is a post that outlines the tightening torque for all the fasteners? As an alternative, does anyone happen to know what the torques are or have a manual that they could look it up and post it? I tried to buy a Bentley manual for my X5 but it seems they don't make one.

I need the torque specifications for the following bolts:

- Upper ball joint to the spindle (the two smaller bolts)
- Upper ball joint to upper control arm (the nylock nut)
- Lower ball joint to the spindle (the nylock nut)
- Upper and lower control arms to the frame
- Bolts that hold the skid plate to the front cross member (if those torques are important)

Any help is appreciated!

http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/suspension/

Try that.

Thanks!
 

I should have looked there first :doh:! Still getting used to the board

Now that I have the lower control arm information, would it be reasonably safe to assume the same torque specs for the upper control arm are the same? If so, all I need now is the torque for the two torx bolts that hold the upper ball joint to the spindle.

Thanks again!

which bolts are you looking at?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/f/b/193.png

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/i/r/188.png

the cv boot diy article pretty much removes everything and has tq specs for it all as well...

# 16
 

The bolt labeled # 16 in the first diagram. It is a Torx head and holds the ball joint in the spindle. The CV boot replacement article didn't remove this ball joint as it was ceased into the spindle. I hope mine isn't!!

Thanks again.

TIS didn't have much info on that. The only thing that looks like it's relevent states it should be 14Nm and tightened in the unloaded state (which you can only do since you can't tightened it on the car...)

I would look to see how much force/tq it takes to remove it and then use the same amount to put it back again...

I just swapped out the control arm, ball joint, tension rod and swaybar link. And the Ball joint was seized. I ended up doing just what thecleaner said to do. tried turning it. Pain in the ass, but it broke..

http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...ght=ball+joint

Thanks hayaku
 

Thanks a lot for looking that up. I doubt it's 14 Nm since that would be 10.5 ft-lbs which doesn't seem like enough considering it's a ball joint (although it might be since those bolts aren't under any real load; they just hold the base of the ball joint into the socket in the spindle where the real load exists).

I'll check the torque with my torque wrench before I take it off and go from there. If it really is 10.5 ft-lbs, I should be able to verify that with the torque wrench pretty easily. If it is more and there is rust on the bolts, the torque required to undo those bolts will be more than what would actually be their design torque.

I really appreciate you looking that up for me hayaku!!

de nada... best of luck

Twisting my ball (joint)
 

Thanks KUCAK for that link; better to find it now before I start than be stuck in the middle and looking for a reference to it here as you did!

Do you happen to recall what size torx socket I need for that bolt? I suppose I should make sure I have it before digging into it tomorrow. Also, one of the responses to the thread you linked me to said something about the torx heads being "reverse"; are they reverse thread? I wouldn't want to bust them off by trying to turn them the wrong way!

Thanks again ...