Just done my wishbone bushes...

[taylor86]

WOW!!!

What a difference! i actually enjoy driving my car again!

E46 330ci with 50k on the clock, so if your near these miles and havent had them done - do it, do it now!

[the hack]

Agreed!

I recently had my front wishbones and bushes replaced - and it's transformed the handling and totally eliminated steering wheel vibration at 60mph and on braking.

2002 E46 320i with 97k miles on the clock. The old wishbones and bushes were the original 9 yr old items!

[PaulB81]

After hearing similar things, I had ALL the bushes on my 330ci at quite some cost. It drives like a new car though now

[nw28840]

Anyone have an idea at what mileage / age these should be replaced on an X5.

It's a 2005 model with 80,000 miles and is juddering on braking.

[the hack]

nw28840 said:

Anyone have an idea at what mileage / age these should be replaced on an X5.

It's a 2005 model with 80,000 miles and is juddering on braking.

Definitely due now then! Check whether the wishbones are on their way out too. May not be just the bushes.

[taylor86]

nw28840 said:

Anyone have an idea at what mileage / age these should be replaced on an X5.

It's a 2005 model with 80,000 miles and is juddering on braking.

Almost definitely over due, the X5 would wear through them quicker being a heavier car.

I replaced BOTH the wishbone arms AND the wishbone "lollipop" bushes (or the front rear wishbone bushes as they are referred to)

It is normally the lollipops that go first and if not changed in time start to wear the wishbone bushes too as they take the extra strain in movement particularly under braking.

It is recommended you do both like you would change a pair of tyres, for even wear.

I got mine on ebay for £100 all in.

[Gad-Westy]

nw28840 said:

Anyone have an idea at what mileage / age these should be replaced on an X5.

It's a 2005 model with 80,000 miles and is juddering on braking.

Juddering may more likely be a ball joint or rod end but often a few of these things start to go at the same time. It's hard to say a mileage or age. Rubber components do deteriate with age but also duty cycle so the harder they're worked the more brittle they can become. They basically start degrading the minute they're manufactured but the rate depends on how they're then used. A car that pounds up and down a motorway racking up big miles in a short space of time could get a lot of mileage out of a set where as a car that spends most of it's life negotiating pot holes and speed bumps might not fair so well. It's worth checking out (particular as you have some vibration) of course but I don't think anybody needs to panic just because their car has hit 50k.

Edited by Gad-Westy on Thursday 1st September 08:36

[tgr]

PaulB81 said:

After hearing similar things, I had ALL the bushes on my 330ci at quite some cost. It drives like a new car though now

Paul what does 'quite some cost' mean? If you don't mind me asking? My 120 000 miler needs the suspension looking at in my opinion, just wondering how far to go and what the likely cost will be

[bababa]

There must be something in the air at the moment!

I did the control arm bushes, ARB bushes and ARB droplinks on the front of my E36 at the weekend, and it's made a massive difference. The old ARB bushes were pretty ropey, the droplinks were mismatched (one had a split gaiter on the balljoint) and one of the control arm bushes had been installed 90 degrees out!

Only downside is that it's now accentuated the sloppy rear ARB bushes and RTABs which I have scheduled for replacement this weekend.

All the steering wheel shake whilst braking and most of the tramlining is now a distant memory...

[i_alan_i]

bababa said:

There must be something in the air at the moment!

I did the control arm bushes, ARB bushes and ARB droplinks on the front of my E36 at the weekend, and it's made a massive difference. The old ARB bushes were pretty ropey, the droplinks were mismatched (one had a split gaiter on the balljoint) and one of the control arm bushes had been installed 90 degrees out!

Only downside is that it's now accentuated the sloppy rear ARB bushes and RTABs which I have scheduled for replacement this weekend.

All the steering wheel shake whilst braking and most of the tramlining is now a distant memory...

I did mine in stages, and the rear anti-roll bar bushes and drop-links made a bigger difference to the steering than anything else. Until I changed them, the front and rear of the car felt almost disconnected. The drop-links must fatigue or something as they had actually bent and they twisted up when undoing the bolts for the mounting bracket.

[PaulB81]

tgr said:

PaulB81 said:

After hearing similar things, I had ALL the bushes on my 330ci at quite some cost. It drives like a new car though now

Paul what does 'quite some cost' mean? If you don't mind me asking? My 120 000 miler needs the suspension looking at in my opinion, just wondering how far to go and what the likely cost will be

Just dug out the invoice, it says:

Fit front bush kit £75.00
Fit read bush kit £50.00

Front bush kit £85.25
Rear bush kit £38.25

Tracking / wheel alignment £35

So all in: £283.50

Thats actually a lot less than I thought. It was done ata local BMW indy

The car felt like it was 'wandering' a bit which is why I got it done. Feels nice and tight now.

[tgr]

nice - thanks Paul, that's a good guide. I think in my case I also need springs and shocks...

[MattOz]

I recently did my front wishbones, lower ball joints and rear fluid bushes and it made a huge difference. Mine's on 103k, so this is round 2!

[beatngu]

If you have 'wandering' steering or creaking, will bushes most likely be the cause then? How often do the actual wishbones/ARB need replacing?

[8Tech]

Wandering and vague steering will certainly mean the front arm rear bushes need doing. Check the balljoints on the arms because loads of these arms are being replaced unneccessarily. Roll bars will last indefinately and the roll baar bushes last a good long time. The next port of call would be the front outer bushes on the rear trailing arms.

The above comments refer to the E36 and E46 cars.

For the earlier question on the X5, this car does not have wishbones but has a front thrust arm and a track control arm. The front thrust arm, front bush is well known to weaken at mileages around 40000 as are the rear subframe location bushes.

Everything mentioned above is also available from Powerflex in urethane with a lifetime warranty and I can thoroughly recommend them for ease of fitting and performance and with stock OEM bushes failing at such low mileages, I dont think I would fit another set.

You will notice the OP noticed a huge difference at just 50000m so they had deteriorated badly by then, and that was a gradual deterioration, so they were probably ready for renewal at 30000! Not a recommendation for the OEM bushes?

8Tech.

Edited by 8Tech on Thursday 8th September 00:44