SPD & AST bushings? These are China crap!

Powerflex or nothing.

Hmm...then getting a Lemforder replacement arm isn't much more than getting a set of Powerflex bushings. Would be 100x easier than drilling out the old bushing. Does the arm unbolt from the ball joint easily?

Just because it's made in China doesn't mean it is crap. A lot of sophisticated electronic devices these days are made in China, like all the Eye products from Apple.

Companies such as Mercedes, BOSCH and Siemens have manufacturing plants in China, but I wouldn't call their products crap. Even our beloved BMWs are manufactured in China.

1 Million BMW Cars Assembled at Chinese Plant

TIP: Replace the entire arm (ball joint on one end and the big bushing on the other end). If the OE one lasted XXXX miles than you can expect the replacement to do the same. If you are looking for improvement in handling, then look into Meyle HD arms or go the Poly bushing as recommended earlier. RUN from no name China parts, as you get to be the "tester" and quality control department. Buy a brand that has some quality control to it's name, Meyle, Lemforder, BMW (reboxes other brands as "BMW").

Most owners replace / upgrade all the moving suspension parts at this 10 year++ mark. That way it a one time overhaul and done.

Kits are available: From FCP EURO https://www.fcpeuro.com/BMW-parts/X5...0&m=228&page=1 Don't forget to Replace the Sway Bar links at the same time.

Depending on your driving habits (First off at every light, last minute braking, wide open driveway apron hits, etc, then your suspension parts will need replacements/attention every 40K as the individual parts fail.

Helpful?

I think we all agree that not everything manufactured in China in the last 10 years, is junk. The biggest issue in auto/electronic parts quality issue, is China's inability to stop, enforce, control, and ban counterfeiting of name brand parts. Every day they flood the US markets with knockoffs, some built by the same plant that just finished a run under licensing. They will just keep running the molds well beyond the engineering tolerance levels as they get to pick up 50% more margin.

IMHO, I try to use band names distributed through known and approved sources, as I am not in the metallurgy and testing business deep enough to confirm every part is within specs. (IF I had access to the engineering drawings!) That would be anal. I stop my anal tendencies at cleaning levels.

You can unbolt the ball joint from the steering knuckle and replace it at the same time you replace the tension strut, or you can get a real ball joint separator (not a pickle fork) and separate the ball joint from the tension strut.

I agree, many good OE and Genuine parts are produced in China, and the parent companies have oversite of materials/processes/tolerances.

The crap parts are almost always the ones produced WITHOUT oversite, like the bushings in the prior post.

Why drill them?

This is all you need....

I would just get Lemforder or Meyle HD arms personally - BMW also has "protection package" bushings which are an updated design and reinforced

Jay from Southlake has those "3rd World" BMW HD bushings. Just met him in person this morning, saw a black 4.6is with Dinan exhaust that was heading the same direction, pulled in when he stopped for coffee. Nice guy!