E53 Tyres, 'Scare Story or True Story?'

[Steamyrotter]

Know the feeling... ::)

Keep us posted

[Turks]

Really glad I read this little tip about letting the air out. I have a decent set of Tyres on the rear which has more than 5mm tread but the inside 2" is absolutely gone! I changed my wheels (stuck the winter set on) last week, with the intention of getting it all bushes etc. checked at the dealer. Had a quick look myself though when I changed the wheels and everything looked rock solid... which left me questioning why the uneven wear... had the car 8 years and not had this issue before.


Turks.

[Greydog]

When your in there checking stuff check the inner swing arm bushes they go soft and split are making it difficult to get adjustment in spec. BMW will tell you you have to buy a complete swing arm !! which of course is twaddle.

I brought Lemforder bushes off ebay and changed mine I also changed the adjustment bolts at the same time. I had uneven tyre wear, no creaking or knocks after reading here about others adventures I brought front and rear refurbishing kits and with the help of one of my sons changed the lot in a weekend the difference was/is night and day.
I made my own Rose bush tool with some pieces of tube and plate cadged from the scrap bin of a local engineering firm I also made a frame to press out the swing arm bushes using a small bottle jack.

[Steamyrotter]

This shows you it, done in a different manner though:-

https://youtu.be/_guTE2ANcIg

[henrym3]

Yea, I watched that vid some time ago but I haven't got the kit/tools to get anything under the airbag platform to relieve the pressure on the bushes/bearings. Its not like a jack fits in there, I'm hoping Steamyrotters solution of letting the air out gives the same result.

[Steamyrotter]

You don't need to jack it .
When you deflate the bags it basically does it for you!!

When you jack the car up and let the air out you can feel the suspension soften and if you really want to you can remove the clip off the bottom of the bag and push it out the way.

I have done the air release a few times now.
You would need to do it anyway when you go to change the bushes.

[RChaloner]

I had the same, car sailed through MOT with no advisory, rear was still suspiciously jumpy over potholes, could never see / find or lever any play in the back suspension at all. Strip down revealed the outer lower rear wishbone balljoints both (1 each side) had about 1mm of free play in them once removed.. massive!

As commented previously the air suspension rear preloads everything to a degree that makes it damn difficult by hand to 'find' the play, the issue being that the airbag doesn't run out of travel before the suspension / shock does, hence the preload is always present.

The rear end is odd, the lower wishbone is joined to the upright by a conventional rubber bush at the front and what is effectively a ball joint at the rear which I think is to cater for anglular changes throughout the full range of vetical movement of the upright. This 'balljoint' looks similar to a normal cylindrical rubber bush, but is all-steel and with very thin rubber bellow at each end, only allows approx 15 degrees of movement, and presses in to ally wishbone sleeve and retained with circlip for safety.

Would recommend you buy the £30 tool for pressing in & out, as the proximity of the other parts of the wishbone body make it tricky to DIY with generic sleeves & suchlike, although the actual press-fit pressure in ally is relatively low for this one.

At 150K miles most of the rest of my rear bushes were still OK, one inner lower wishbone rubber bush was torn, so I ended up doing them all just for consistency.

[chelsea]

its also worth noting that the e53 is set up with silly camber angles for handling,i have done loads of research on this and have owned a z3m(cab) which wore the inside rears exactly the same, my dad also has a z3m (coup)which also wears the rears the same (8000 miles from rears!!), the rear radius arms and bushes etc do wear but be damn sure it is that before panicking as these cars and other bmw's are intentionally factory set up  this way.
there is a way to counter the inside wear and that is to take it for 4 wheel alignment and have the rear set up to run maximum toe in....bmw will not do this !
if both of your rears have worn exactly the same on the inside edge then it will probably be just the set up and not a mechanical issue

[henrym3]

Took Steamyrotter's advice, let the air out and guess what, play, have the poly bushes but they are all black apart from ARB. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be getting the old bushes pressed out, one of the poly bushes has to be pressed in instead of the usual push in half from each side. The only real problem I've had is the top bolt of the integral link semi stripped the thread on both sides. Yes I did clean up the exposed thread before undoing. Who ever fitted the last bits on it must have been a strong lad my torque wrench was clicking at 250Nm and still not undoing.
How come when you decide to do a job like this and it's stripped down you always find other things wrong. ie Brake lines looking very sorry, MOT fail. I'l call it preventive maintenance.

[Steamyrotter]

Glad you found it.
Pretty worrying when you see the difference the air suspension makes..

These bits get forgotten about and do see a lot of grime, mud, water etc.
Those bolts can be a right royal pain in the......... wallet!

Whilst you are there it is probably a good time to check the pads and handbrake shoes.

[henrym3]

renewed parking brake shoes last year, any theory why rear pads and disc has higher wear rate than fronts?

[henrym3]

So, fitted all the poly bushes, the complete bush was a right pain in the arse to get in, but didn't annoy me as much as getting it back from alignment with the steering wheel aiming at oncoming traffic (that was last week) couldn't wait to get it back on the ramp so took it back today, guess what, first straight bit of road, still pissed just not as bad. So have decided I've wasted enough of my life at Pro Tyre and will mark the TCAs every 1/4 turn and see how I get on straightening the wheel.

[Davrosbimmer]

I too read loads about this and replaced all four tyres at the same time...did I see you say it made no difference on the pre-face lift?

Mine is a 2003 (03)...Rear tyres had about 2.5mm an fronts 5.5, but fronts were not BMW star marked, so changed them all....at huge expense...

Please tell me the BMW marked tyre thing and having them all replaced at once wasn't an old wives tale!

[X5Sport]

It isn't.  Many stories of broken diffs, with more appearing as the cars age and putting the right (expensive) rubber on can be too much on a car worth £5-6k meaning new owners take a chance - with the best of intentions it must be said - and get a nasty surprise.  Different tread depth is significant and it can be tyre tread pattern dependant too with more 'agricultural' patterns having a higher risk.

The hardware should not be as weak as this, but with BMW giving a service life of just three years, one has to wonder just how low their spec was pitched against cost benefit analysis by the bean counters!  For a 'luxury' car, these BMWs have a nasty sting in their tails.  >:(

Perhaps being US built for roads with few corners means they can't cope with our roads very well.  [cynical mode off]

[henrym3]

Have to be honest and say I just don't get this tyre thing, surly the difference in thread depth must be miniscule and even itself out when cornering, 3 point turns and the fact that it is an off road vehicle where a wheel will spin slightly, you lock one wheel up on ice etc etc. A diff is designed to cope with these things. I just don't see how a diff can wind itself up to breaking point. Perhaps I'll change my mind if I find the contents of my diff on the drive tomorrow or someone can explain the mechanics of how this happens.