Looking for jack points...found leak...help!
 

Crawled under my X today looking for jack points to switch to my winter tire/wheel setup and spotted a leak on one of the arms from the passenger side wheel. Snapped a few pics (attached)...hoping someone more mechanically savvy than myself can let me know what I'm in for and what my potential course of action should be.

Thanks.

most likely your tension strut bushing is shot. that's fluid filled bushing, if you get big enough crack, the fluid will leak out.

does it feel like oil but not that thick?

Yeah...but the damn thing is so dirty it's hard to tell what color it is. But you're right...definitely not as thick as oil. CPO cover this? I'm admittedly ignorant to what is/isn't covered. BTW, very much appreciate the quick response.

I think it's covered by CPO. Not positive though. Check here. BMW North America

If it is indeed the bushing, you may want to replace them with the Meyle heavy duty bushings. I did this when my second set of OE bushings sprung a leak after only 30,000 miles or so.

https://eactuning.com/hd-control-arm...-x5-p-446.html

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...installed.html

I would imagine CPO would cover it, but I wouldn't know.

FCP Groton makes some high quality parts, with lifetime warranties. If you're not mechanically inclined, you probably won't want to do this job by yourself. Depending upon how many miles are on it, you might want to do more than control arms while you're in there (if applicable). At least I would if personally doing the job.

BMW X5 Front Control Arm Kit

FoCo? I can recommend a mechanic if you don't already have one..

cheers,
nick

Work in Fort Collins...live in Windsor. Love to give someone but COS BMW my money...though they've been pretty good to me so far.

I take it you're a DIY'r. How invasive is this fix?

I replaced the control arms on my e36 years ago, but the bushings in the X were changed by my indy mechanic. From what I remember the hard part is getting the old bushings out and the new ones in. Even when I did this myself, I had to take the arm to a shop and have them press the old one out and then press the new one in.

Those Meyle HD bushings I recommended are top notch and are not liquid filled. Weasel, who is a BMW dealer mechanic, used them as well.

Bringing it to the dealer in another hour or so. My understanding by snooping around some other posts is that this isn't CPO covered...so I guess I should expect to get bent over. Wonder how much something like this will run...doesn't seem like it should be too bad considering the HD bushings you listed were only $43 a piece. I guess it's the labor that'll kill me.