Suspension Noises
 

Okay guys, I know suspension noises can be annoying to diagnose, so I'm asking for some help, I'm currently living away from my permanent address, since I'm taking a course for my licensing and I noticed a clunking noise coming from my front suspension, but it's only at low speeds while I'm turning, I've heard it a couple of times if I'm braking and turning at slow speeds too, anyone have an idea of what it could be. The noises don't happen when I'm driving normally, and I don't notice them over bumps. Could it be the sway bar links? I wanted to order parts before I go back so I have new parts waiting for me, isnt that the best feeling ever, since I forgot my wheel locks, I won't be able to fix it for atleast another 2 week, I hate hearing sounds coming from my suspension, always seems like an expensive fix. Thanks in advance

What E70 are we talking here? Mileage?

You can rebuild the entire front suspension yourself for about $800 with quality parts, or half that with questionable parts. If paying someone, yes, I agree, could get expensive.

Edit: Just saw in the other thread you said nearing 200k miles. If the suspension is original, I'd go for all of it. We did ours in total at 150,000 miles and it made an incredible difference.

It actually is all original, which i was surprised about, since my 5 series need a suspension refresh at 100k. What do you think I should replace?. my CV's are fine, so control arms and possibly tie rods? Or do you think the Wishbone and struts with mounts? I do all my own work. But I broke my shoulder bone 3 months ago so I don't have the strength to work on everything at one time.

Sorry to hear about the injury. Understand working on a car with pain.

I'm the type who replaces everything when I hear a noise and then forget it for another 100k+ miles. From what I've read on here the upper wishbones never* go bad. I replaced ours anyway. It's everything else that goes. If you are looking to start with the easy and cheap, start with the sway bar links as you said. Have a look at the foam "washer" that goes on top of the strut. When it wears out it will let the strut top contact the tower and make a racket. That's what prompted replacing all of the below for us.

https://i.postimg.cc/G25Z0Qwh/20181221-132239.jpg

What foam washer? And how do I check it, I've heard the same thing about the wishbone too, I was thinking about doing a suspension refresh with Lemforder too, but some people say that the bushings are worse than OEM and yeah I won't have full strength in anything that requires my shoulder or arm to be out stretched, the surgeon said it could take a whole year, so that's why I wanted to hope it was something simple... and none of friends I trust working on my car, have a friend with an Audi S4 and his policy is I'll break things taking it apart then replace it with something new lol.

I hear you. I don't trust many of my friends to work on my cars either. Only one really, lol and only under my supervision. :bustingup

This is the foam washer in question.

https://i.postimg.cc/8Cw24GZv/20181221-125813.jpg

And here's a better shot from another user. It leaves foam dust everywhere as a tell tale sign of failure.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2805/...71267071_z.jpg

Edit: Here's a good thread on the rebuild. I posted one too but I used this one to get a good idea of what I was in store for.

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...ive-drive.html

Oh that washer, that was the first thing I looked for, that was fine

Tension arms. There are two 'lower' arms. The tension strut arm takes a massive pounding.

First parts to to are the control arms and tension struts. They have varied level of kits at fcpero.com. Back and front. It wouldn't replace shock unless it's showing age. Our X5s are both about 190,000mi original shock still performing ok. The anti sway links should have failed long ago.

Good deal. Agree with Andrew and ard. Would do sway bar end links as an I'm in there since they are the cheapest component. And look at the tension arm and control arm as your most likely cause of that noise. Don't replace struts unless bad, I didn't.

I was thinking about doing control arms and stuff a couple of months ago, but since I broke my shoulder, I didn't get a my moment back until now, and I still don't have all my strength, so if I can't get a bolt loose, idk what I'll do, I don't thing there is enough room for my impact to get in there. Anyone have suggestions which ones to get, I've always used Lemforder in the past, but whats the current recommendations that people like?

Lemforder

Pay attention on the tension strut- you MUST have the suspension fully loaded when you do the final tightening/torque on the inner bushing bolt. Plenty of DIYs, ask back if you need clarification tho.

^What he said if you do decide to tackle it. Linking my thread below with info and torque specs for the front suspension.

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...ssemblies.html

i used Impact with long wobble. You lose a lot of torque with the extension it acts like a torque stick. That said it worked. +1 on the tighten when compressed but since you can't reach with the wheel on I use a floor jack to lift the knuckle just until that corner starts to float off the jack stand.

I usually put tires on and all that, put a ramp or block under the tires and lower it down. Slide under and tighten.


Doing it with a jack under a single wheel, then the wheel it is being 'helped' by the sway bar. (eg the wheel on the other side that is still hanging down and pulling the sway down) Anyone have an opinion on how much this might be? I dont know, just wondering

It is a royal pain to get in there and tighten things once the wheel is back on and the car is on the ground but my take is that you can get them reasonably tight that way with basic tools. Once you get a decent bit of pull on the bolts, then lift it up again, the bushing is unlikely to rotate since you have some basic torque already.

Then take the wheel off and do the final torque on the bolts when you have regained proper access. Only other solution is a four post lift which is a bit tricky to install for most :-)

It's a Small difference. If i had to guess maybe tye sway. Bar subtracts 200# of the 1200#. You could disconnect the link to have a more balanced connection. I haven't had an X5 long enough to have a tension donut fail after using my solution of just jack up the wheel hub. (learned the method from autodoc YouTube channel)

FWIW, I have always used andrew's method of lifting the side I was torquing just off the jack stand. No ill effects... yet. YMMV

It's just way way easier. Maybe if I was track driving I'd go that extra mile

So an update to my work, I decided to replace Sway Bar links really quick, but I checked my Control arms and those bushings were definitely bad, so I ordered the kit from FCP, but while I'm waiting I decided to get new tires, Gotta say its hard to get tires right now, everyone seems to be out of good tires. I wanted to get an alignment because my Dealer checks and doesn't charge if they can't do it, and with the check, they found out my Outer Tierods are seized as well, which I was suspecting anyways, I mean 200k miles and no tie rod replacements is good for me... my 535 needed them at 90k miles. So I ordered New inner and outer tierods for the X5 as well, anyone know what size tool I need for the Inner Tierods? The typical inner tierod removal tool I used from a Tool Loaner program at Autozone didn't work on the 535, so just wondering if its gonna be a pain or an easy job.

I used a large pipe wrench for the inner tie rods. I forget the actual size but it's up there. 36 maybe? The large pipe wrench always works for me though on every vehicle so I just keep using that (used on e30, e46, e53, and e70).

https://external-content.duckduckgo....jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Yeah I think that's what I ended up doing for my 5 series, just wasn't sure if there was an alternate way. Any problems with access? Since its thanksgiving weekend my parts are gonna take a week to get here, so incase I need anything else tool wise, this is the best week to get them, lots of black Friday sales

No joke... I'm on my way later to Harbor Freight for some "needed" additions to the garage. :rofl:

If your front end is up high enough, no access problems. Make sure you have a new boot kit for the tie rods, but other than that no issues.

THE FCP kit has new boots and clamps too, But thats good, I always raise my car as high as I can for suspension stuff, you never know when you'll need to do some weird maneuvering. I used to like going to Harbor Freight but after breaking too many of their tools, I started going to higher quality, that takes a little longer to break lol. I'm just waiting for those Black Friday sales, where someone has a 4 post Lift 60% off

Mmmm 4 post lift. That's living the dream.

I buy certain tools at harbor freight. Stay away from anything that requires precision like torque wrenches or ratcheting tools. For those lowest I'll grab is kobalt. Going over there later for a router and bits for a woodworking project.

Yeah, I used to just got there for a Wrench or something because I needed it for some odd usage, and everything else was super expensive or special order, I have Craftsman Torque wrenches, Ratchets, and Lisle Tools for some Specialty socks. I don't mind Kobalt, but i've broken 3 sockets from them, and I got lucky with finding a Snap on impact set at a garage sale for like 20 dollars. What router are you looking at? I bought a Bosch 1617 and it was an amazing addition to my woodworking tools, first thing I did with it, was build a Router table for my router.

Nice. That's probably too much router for my needs. Just need something to do roundovers, rabbets, and flush cuts really on a subwoofer/amp rack build. So it will probably only get used 2 or 3 times a year on other things. I'm going to grab the Bauer 1.25 horsepower router. It's between a trim router and that bosch in terms of capability and BF price is 59.99 sooooo yeah, why not. Has decent reviews and $60 is a good price point for getting my feet wet. Can always upgrade if I find I want to graduate to actual woodworking.

My wrenches are all craftsman, kobalt, and gear wrench. I did buy a big set of HF box end wrenches though, they've saved me more than once as the set I bought had a good range of sizes in metric compared to my other stuff. I break something very rarely as down here in south TX we don't have to deal with rusty fasteners nearly as much as in your neck of the woods.

we are all living away from our permanent address....


:(:cool:

\Read this about alignment specs...


https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/w...nt-off.668729/