eBay for suspension parts E53 4.4i
 

I am experienceing the dreaded squeaking and clunking sounds from my front end when going slow and over bumps. I have searched the threads and found many references to this issue. The concensus seems to be that the sway bar links are the primary culprit, but in certain cases the control arms and bushings, as well as, ball joints and tie rod ends can also be contributory to the symptoms. I have a 2002 4.4i with sport package and 86,000 miles. I found a seller on eBay who is selling what they call a control arm front end steering suspension kit. It includes L/R lower control arms with bushings, L/R upper control arms with bushings, 2 tie rod ends, 2 ball joints, and the two sway bar links. The name of the seller is deutschepartsusa. The asking price is $349.00 for everything including the nuts and washers. I am wondering if anyone has purchased this kit from this seller and would comment on the quality of the parts as I am sure they are all aftermarket produced.I also plan on installing it all myself. I have seen a few DIY posts on this, and was wondering if anyone would like to share any tips or problems they may have had swapping all this stuff out. For the price it does not seem like you can go wrong if the quality of the parts are high. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

hmm...sounds like exactly what I need...just got the clunking noise at 88,000 miles...

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I would not buy non-OEM suspension pieces. It may seem mundane, but the exact deflection engineered into the oem bushings are very important to the handling. The components that are ok to use aftermarket parts, are the balljoints and tie-rod ends.

Why do you want to replace entire arms? Just get new oem bushings and whatever balljoints, and take the control arms to a machine shop. They'll charge you at most $20-30 to press all the old ones out and the new ones in.

Also, as far as the balljoints go: there's no point in replacing them if there's no play.

Are the ball joints removable? In a lot of cases, you have no choice. You must change the entire arm, the ball joints are not pressed, but welded.

The balljoint in the lateral lower control arm is fixed. There's no balljoint in the radius arm/tension strut. That one's balljoint is in the knuckle.

Still, it's extremely cheap to have a bushing pressed in, so if the balljoint in one of the lateral arms develops play, change the whole arm at that point. No point in spending an extra $60 now when a part is fine.

Btw, the radius arm is $160 v. $40 for just the bushing.

My only reasoning for changing all the parts is I really don't know which part is causing my clunking. I pulled really hard on the suspension parts, but could find no play in any. Tried that with the wheels on and off the ground. I saw that $349 including shipping bought everything, and I figured that if most of the suspension parts were going to wear out soon, then may as well change them all if it can be done cheaply. I may have more than one part bad as it is. However, if the quality of those aftermarket parts/bushings is poor, then going the non OEM route is out of the question.

I know someone who can press the bushings for me if I end up needing that. I may just start by replacing the strut links, and see if that fixes it. If not, then I guess its going to be a process of elimination!

According to the parts diagram, there is one ball joint that is not fixed. It looks like it plugs into the end of the tension strut, and is fully removable. Looks like there may be a fixed ball joint in the wishbone however. I keep reading that worn sway bars links are the primary reason for clunking in the front suspension while going over bumps at low speed. Do you agree with this?

The tension strut balljoint is actually pressed into the knuckle, so yes it's removable.

Yep, sway-bar endlinks are almost always the cause of 'clunks' in these vehicles. Have you checked yours?

Well, I have crawled under there and pulled on the sway links, and I can't feel any play. I suppose its kind of hard to check the bushings unless I pull them off, which I have not done as of yet. How often have you seen tension strut bushing, control arm and ball joint failures? My guess from what I have read is that the sway bar links are the sole problem most of the time. They are pretty inexpensive too. So I am just going to start there and change out the sway bar links. I won't have to have anything realigned after I swap them out, will I?

If you jack up the X5 and see if there is any play in the control arms. I bought mine at FCP Groton through ebay. Aftermarket lower control arm and had an independent mechanic put it on. No complaints after repair.

Those end-links are almost always the source of the clunk.

The lateral control arm balljiont does fail once in a while too, although it's not as commonly criminal as the swaybar endlinks. Usually when a balljoint fails, there isn't any associated noise but just vibration/shimmy while driving.

The weak link in the tension strut seems to be the bushing rather than the balljoint, most of the time.

Why don't you have an indy shop just diagnose the problem. They don't usually charge anything to inspect like the dealer would.

Thanks for the suggestion. I already have someone in mind to take a peek at it. To be honest I am worried that the shop will tell me what is wrong, and I will feel obligated to let them fix it. I was really looking forward to getting my hands dirty!

It takes them all of a couple minutes to get it up in the air and immediately find out what's wrong. You can let them do job down the road that you may not want to tackle.

Fyi, a swabar endlink will probably take you 10-15min to change, and that's stretching it. :)

are there aftermarket bushings that are better than oem?

I recall a bushing company called energy suspension. not sure if they deal with BMW though? I think they make ployurathene bushings which are more durable than rubber but give a harder feel for the road because of the harder compound for the urathane.

Energy Suspension makes really crappy products. Poly is not a good material for bushings mainly because they don't last long. The life isn't even that good when you lube them (you need to do that with poly) regularly. They also tend to bind in locations like the lca.

No, because no aftermarket company designed the suspension.;)

The only bushings that would be better are spherical bearings, but you can't use those in road cars.

I didn't know that poly sucked so bad? I would never use them anyways, but I had heard they were good?

I second that, I bought from the same place on Ebay, only the lower control arms, they worked really good. Like $100 for the set.

Just want to share some info even though it was about 6 months back thread. In case other fellow members search this thread.

OEM parts is highly suggested. You can actually reuse the tension strut(front upper control arm/thrust arm) and just ask machine shop to press out old bushing and press in new one. Unless vehicle was involved in some accident, tension strut is unlikely out of shape.

However, for the lower control arm(wishbone), you will have to replace a new one since the ball joint is built-in. OEM price on the wishbone is like $200ish. You might be able to get some discount thru online parts. (still like $170 something). So, you might be tempted to shop for aftermarket one since the going price is about $50. I've seen 3 different brands - Febi Bilstein, Hamburg-Technic, and Karlyn/Sti. Some people would say Lamforder but as far as I know they don't do X5 wishbone. Otherwise, Lamforder is your best bet. Here is my thoughts on those 3 aftermarket brands:
Febi Bilstein: Good
Hamburg-Technic: Poor
Karlyn/Sti: Good

Autohausaz sells Febi brand. Most ebay sellers are selling Hamburg-Technic brands. They normally advertise 1 year warranty but most likely, you won't heard anything back from them if you report a failure within an year. It's really hard to find good ebay seller now. There are 2 sellers that people would know - foreingcarpartsonline(fcp groton) and deutchepartsusa. I recommend fcp groton because they have very good customer support and I heard that they have no problem replacing parts failed within an year. They used to sell poor quality Hamburg-Technic parts but now they carry Karlyn/Sti for X5 now. As for the deutchepartsusa, very poor customer service and they won't care if the parts failed within an year. And they're selling Hamburg-Technic brand.

One significant difference on Karlyn/Sti wishbone is that it's thicker even than OEM parts. Looks much better quality and better ball joint. Hamburg-Technic is notorious on their ball joint. Lots of sad stories about their failed ball joints. (Search on E38 and E39 forums. Also one of online Volve forums has lots of info.)

So, try to get OEM parts if you can afford. Otherwise, go with reputable sellers and good quality aftermarket brands (Febi or Karlyn)

get it changed for both... because the rubber will wear out eventually. and it seems to me it's just a matter of time for your vehicle.

i suggest you to get the genuine parts on suspension parts as you can not afford to have any cracks or anyother unexpects...

btw, this job is a pian in the ass

Squeaking noise over bumps but no clunking noise
 

I have 88K miles on my 2002 X5 and I've just started getting a squeaking/moaning sound from the front driver's side. I have already replaced the front control/thrust arm bushings, sway bar end links, and control arms (with bushing and ball joint) prior to getting this new sound. I had the clunking/clacking sound before.

There is no "clunking" noise. Just a squeaking noise at any speed, when turning, and over bumps. It sounds like a rubber squeak. It's very loud and noticeable with the window down.

Any ideas? Could it be in the struts? Sway bar bushings?

Flatlander, that sound like a ball joint. Usually the rubber boot has a hole and leaks out all of the grease. I would check for grease around the ball joint area. I had purchased suspension for my honda on Ebay and within a year, the boot dry rotted and is doing the exact same sound that you have.

Thanks Butundo. I'll have a listen on each balljoint with the stethscope and see which one is making the noise!