Rear Ball Joints
 

So I have been driving my X5 for about a month now and allways had a "thud" from back end. Looking under the car I found a broken sway bar link. I installed 2 new links and still have a "thud". I jacked up the car and found movement with the control arms. Not to sure how to check the ball joints, I found a youtube video of a shop using a jack stand with a cross bar on top. He placed the jack under the spring perch to relieve spring pressure. I took my small bottle jack and welded a 3" bar across the top. With the car on blocks I used my modified jack under the spring perch and wow my ball joint move all over the place. I can move the top and bottom of the wheel more than 2". BTW I have standard suspension, no air bags. I have new ball joints and control arms on order.

What do your tires look like? Lucky you don't have airbag suspension. To test properly, you have to relieve the airbag pressure and then check.

Or you can jack up the rear air spring to relieve preload on the suspension and check for play that way.

Yes the lower ball joints and upper control arms are a huge wear item on our rear ends.

I do have inside tire wear. But with all my reading, allot of people complain about that. I do not have air bags so I had to use the jack trick to relieve pressure. BTW car has 150,000.

You can use the E39 DIY I wrote a while back:

DIY: 1998 BMW 528i Complete REAR Suspension Overhaul - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

If the ball joints are that far gone, it's likely they are original, and the integral links probably are as well. The link pretty much has to come out to replace the ball joint, so it would be a good while-you're-in-there thing to replace.

Since you don't have air springs, you'll need to use some spring compressors to relieve tension on the suspension to get the link and ball joint out. You can usually get them from auto parts stores on their loaner programs. I've got a ball joint press tool that you could borrow if you like; pm me if you're interested.

<thread hi-jack>

cn90! You are here!
You don't know me personally. But your legendary E39 suspension DIY's on Bimmerfest has saved me, as well as many others, huge amounts of grief, working hours and money, back when i had my E39.
I'm more than thrilled that you are here on Xoutpost now. :thumbup:

</thread hi-jack>

Sorry for the hi-jack.. But those of you who are familiar with cn90's epic DIY's know why i couldn't restrain myself.

:iagree: I thought the same thing when cn90 started posting here, what a service to the community for sure!

I have read his write up twice to make sure I have all the tools. I did not order the links. Once I have it torn apart I can make that call. I have spare cars, so I can let it sit for awile and waite for more parts.

Just order the links. You have to remove them to get to the ball joint anyways and at 150k it would be silly not to replace with the ball joints. A pair will run you $80

Ricky Bobby is correct, I had similar mileage (but in km) and inner tire wear. Found all the videos and then did the work. Rear ball joints (see the Bentley E39 video), the silver color arm with ball joint that wears and the sway bar ends. No noises, suspension is now tracking as it should. I have rear air springs and it was easier - as you can relieve the air pressure easier than compressing the spring (don't forget the pull the fuse). I also pro-actively replaced by air springs (VERY easy to do) at the same time. Do it all and sleep easier.

Glad you found my DIYs useful.

The X5 REAR suspension is essentially the same as E39 (my car is 1998 528i).
The ball joint is the same PN, ditto for the Integral Link.
Use realoem dot com to get your PNs.

I feel no need to write a REAR suspension DIY for E53 because the E39 DIY is good enough.

@davesx5,

Use only Lemforder, nothing else.
The BASIC minimum:
- Ball Joint
- The Short and Long Control Arms.
- End Links

The Integral Links were still good when I removed them from my E39 at 110K. It is basically rubber links. This job is time-consuming, you may want to get all the ducks in the row, so you only do it once.

Shock Absorber/Seat should be replaced too.

REAR tires always wear more on the INSIDE. This is because virtually all BMW Rear tires have negative camber.

In the E39, I decrease the camber to 1 degrees or so. I wrote the procedure in bimmerfest E39 section, somewhere...

..comments about neutral toe adjustment in 3 2 1.. :D

You already know what I'm going to say.

Make the toe neutral (.01) and you can have negative camber all day long and have even tire wear, its the combo of both that shreds. Negative camber by itself won't wear the tires down on the inside.

Back to the parts and tools.

I do not have air suspension, I have normal springs.

Do I need a spring compressor to remove the ball joints??

You need a spring compressor to take the pre-load off the suspension by compressing the springs

I believe some wise guy mentioned that little factoid on Page 1. ;)

I loaned my ball joint tool out to another member here who also had coil springs, and he had a devil of a time getting things apart and worse time getting them back together without the spring compressors. Just get the loaner compressor set from Auto Zone / Advance Auto / O'Reilly / Pep Boys / etc... No need to own a tool like that unless you use it often.

Update
I changed out one side.
Lessons learned

USE THE BMW TOOL

Using other presses and tools will work, but it takes allot of time and effort. It turns a 10 minute job into 2 hours.

You do not need a spring compressor.
Using 2 jacks I was able to compress the spring pefect to slide in the long bolt.

I am waiting for the rental tool to do the other side.

Sounds like my experience with the subframe bushings; first one, with a home-built tool, took hours (plus the time it took to fabricate the tool) and broke the tool. Once I got the real deal, the other three took me ~two hours from start to finish. I'm a believer. :thumbup:

x3.

Especially that the BMW tool is only about $110-120 shipped its really a no brainer to use the proper tool for the job. I'll be doing my integral links and ball joints in the coming months and plan on renting from Dave for the job, should make it 10x easier.

The BMW tool is nice but when I did my E39 (link in 1st page):
- Rent the Adaptor kit from Adv Auto = free.
- I already own a set of spring compressor and use the long bolt for the job.

So it cost me nothing.

However, if I own a shop, then I will definitely buy the BMW tool.

There is such a tool I saw posted on eBay if anyone is interested


https://www.ebay.com/itm/174988242713

Get the right toots and your fingers, back and time savings will appreciate the efforts. The BMW style tool from multiple sources like CTA has the "D" flat you need to push out and reinstall the ball joint. Your joint has been dear since 100k