rear suspension check, ball-joint and upper wishbone...
 

I checked mine just to see if anything obvious on wear but it looks like everything is tight. Deflate the air-sping, jack the car up, release parking brake and try to move the wheel (grab 3 and 9 o'clock or 12 ad 6 o'clock spots) nada no movement etc.
Is it possible @80k both ball-joint and wishbone still good? or I am doing this rudementery check wrong.


TIA.

It's more likely that the parts are worn out and you're not able to test in a way that exposes it. There's a youtube vid that shows how to test, but at 80K, just replace ALL the steering and suspension parts that have ball joints and/or bushings, front and rear. Go to realoem.com and you'll see the service value line, which shows you what to buy. Shop around for pricing.

When done, you might not even need an alignment- I've seen others post that, but I did just because I am OCD about my X.

That's the thing I saw the youtube and that one on E46 3-series is obviously bad, it clanks when the wheel is jiggled. Mine is tight, I even put a jack while the car on the stand to move the arm/hub up-down, all action is smooth and clearly no play on the ball joint.
The reason I am in this situation is my SA at the dealer says I need rear ball joint cause the inner tire wears. I called an indy which specialized in BMW and they said it's not common for rear ball joint to wear before 100K-miles. I bought all of the parts thinking I can do this to save money but looks like I'll just bring it for alignment and monitor the tire wear closely.

Ok now go to YouTube and search for x5 how to check rear control arms.

i dont know if you try to do this......heres a link..
VAC Motorsports - Correcting tire wear on a BMW X5 E53 - YouTube

Not true on a X5.
My ball joints and upper arms were bad at 70000km (43000mi).
Same thing for other members here.

Thans alot, that's what I was looking for. I jacked the wrong part to see, I jacked the bottom of the hub-carrier not the spring sprocket.

no problem HPIA4v2.........were you getting inner tire rub too?>...

Kinda, cause I notice when I swap my snow tires out and put the 19" summer back in, I can see there is almost no room between the wheel-well lining and the inside tire when the car still on the jack (I thought that was weird). though when the car is on the ground the space widen quite a bit.


BTW, did you replace those two parts yourself or got someone to do it?


My only concern is like that guy says, I know I need to release the air out of the air-spring but not sure if I can just push the hub-carrier (#1) up using like a bottle jack and have enough room to put my extractor tool on the swing arm (#15). Cause I heard that ball joint is tight on the carrier, and if I had to remove the brakes and the whole suspension off is just too much work.

RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 4.4i Repair kit for ball joint

Hope the link creator worked... anyway, just noticed on realoem.com this new "Value Line Ball Joint Repair Kit".

Is this the part your mechanic says to replace... in addition to the upper control arms?

No, if you just want to replace the ball joint, you need to release the shock absorber and the intergral link (#4), no need to take off the brake disk or release the air spring.

That's the part.

Hoping that his is this easy.

My experience in removing the ball joint began in this manner. I put the extractor tool in place and began to turn the screw. In the end the ball joint was fused to the carrier and ended up stripping threads on the extractor. I had to remove the hub (x2) from the X5 and press out the ball joint on a press.

Cleaned the carrier and applied anti-sieze for the next time.

A few weeks back I did the ball-joints on my '03. Without a hydr. press it would have been near impossible I believe. They get very tight inside the arm. I think BMW puts the whole thing together dry, makes for a nice clean manufacturing environment...., but it is a bear if things get rusty.

I would not recommend you count on not removing the swing arms. Chances of that working out are low.

I guess I need to make sure I have plan-b like puting things back and take my car to indy.

My plan now is to check if PB blaster will kill the rubber booth on the ball-joint, if not I'll spray those BJ and drive the car a bit to loosen them up and work on them the next day.

Thanks.

Can these control arms take heat? How about using a torch on the area around the balljoint?

you need a special tool to press the ball joint out, otherwise, it will be very hard to get it out without a proper tool. I bought the special too for around US$120. With the special tool, press the ball joint like a piece of cake.

Roger, did you press the BJ with the knuckle (wheel carrier) on the car or off?
Just wonder, cause I am not sure how much can you swing down the knuckle since the shock is attached to it. Or maybe the swing arm can be jack a bit up. yes I got the tool, with the long screw.

In any rate, I checked the BJ and wishbone on both side again by taking the tension off like the youtube video did and still no movement whatsoever on mine. So I am going to get the car align and keep an eye on this wear on the inside tire, maybe the camber is way off on the left side.

Thanks.

I replaced my BJ with the knuckle on. Just release the shock absorber with the knuckle supported and release the intergral link, also take the snap ring off from the BJ, then put on the extractor and get the BJ out and then the new in, put on a new snap ring. You are good to go.

I too tried that method without success. I fabricated a jig to adapt to my floor jack, and never felt any loose. I then released the air in the rear springs, and felt the loose right away.
Try first to test with the springs deflated.

Also, I had to heat with a MPS torch around the ball joint to be able to remove it, even with the tool, but only on one side. I monitored the temperature many times with my fingers, :D around the bearing, and other critical parts, and they were just warm, so in my case, it was ok to use heat.

I did deflate the air spring while the car jacked, in fear ruinning the air-bag if I force the swing arm up; built a small wooden jig to angle the bottle jack to push the air spring up to relase any tension on the swing arm(the youtube video uses long jack screw). So I did all of that and mine still tight al lthe way around. Not sure how cause it's @81000 miles; and seen bad tie-rod-end, lower/upper CA and they are easy to spot, even with the car on the ground (not jacked up).

Good to know about the torch; the good thing is I got all of the parts and tools ready if the alignment thing doesn't work.

Yeap, maybe releasing the air bags would make things easier. However, the ball joint is the last one to fail including the ball joint in the front. in my old 2001 made 4.4i X5 with 160,000 KMs before I sold it in the end of last year, I found that both ball joints in the front and rear were still in good condition.