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.

Indy charged me $280 in labor.

that's a good reference. Thanks.

Do you get "clunk" over speed bump with this bushing leak? Just wonder, thanks.

Not to hi-jack your question, but I didn't feel a clunk. I saw the fluid on the floor and only drove the car for about a week or so though before getting it replaced.

OK-dokey, will need to inspect mine cause it's an 9-yr old car albeit very low mileage of 68K miles.

Never experienced the clunk either. Just happened to come across the leak by chance when I stuck my head underneath the vehicle to look for a spot to jack it up.

Bushings are not covered under CPO. Your right the part is cheap, the bushing, but the dealer is going to tell you to do the complete arm with bushing pre installed. My guess for both arms and labor close to 1k.

I say buy the bushings and have an indy shop press out the old bushing and press in the new bushing. You should also do both the left and right at the same time.

Its not a hard do it yourself, but a lift and air tools makes it less painful.

Just for the record, dealer charged $79 for parts (bushings) for a total of $310 including labor...but then they tacked on another $150 for an alignment. So out the door I was at $460.

Awesome, you have a good dealer there. The ones in Cali think everyone has there own personal money tree growing in their back yard.

I guess I was pleasantly surprised too. Win some...lose some I guess.

By the way...thanks all for your support. This forum is a great arsenal to have on your side.