Suspension Rebuild Advice

ttr · Post by **ttr** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 12:50 pm

Eh up all,

Its been a while since i posted as been busy sorting my daughters Fiat 500 she got recently !!!!!!!!! Anyway having got through the major fixes i can now look at the X5 again.

Whilst ive not got any issues with the suspension im thinking of doing some maintenance in advance of any issues.

I have read some of the threads on here and was looking for opinions/advice on the where to start first, Im prepared to have a go at the majority of it but accept some aspects will require a lift so will leave those for my friendly garage.

Im tempted to start with front suspension first and replace the standard consumables, ( upper/lower arms / bushes/ drop links etc)i also think it will be the easier of the two ( front v rear) ?

Parts - anyone any views or have used the ebay kits you can get for circa £150.00 - iI am not sure if i should spend more / less as the car only does a few thousand miles a year, but equally i always try and fit decent spurious brands as the time and effort especially on suspension its often not worth the risk of cheaper end parts failing early.

Anyone any dos or donts on the above for the actual replacement of components - i can see the ball joint being a pig to break so will get a heavy duty splitter rather than use the pickle fork

Rear suspension ive really have not decided yet - im thinking i will see how the front goes and how much of an issue it is removing the components. From what ive read it looks for more complex for even the basic components but could be wrong and will take advice from here.

Appreciate its a bit of an open ended thread but welcome the input - i always seek a view as i really dont want to start something on he X5 that gets out of hand and i end up with the car stuck in my garage.

Might be a while with response to anyones comments due to work .

Cheers all and looking forward to working on a car that uses bigger nuts and bolts that the meccanno on the Fiat !

henrym3 · Post by **henrym3** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:59 pm

How old in years and or mileage since they were last done or are they all original

ttr · Post by **ttr** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:47 pm

Eh up henrym3

Mines got 100k on the clock on a 55 plate

Cannot tell you if they have been swapped in the past or not, i suspect not but it’s a pure guess.

No problem and sailed through MOT and rides fine, but you just know at this age something is going to give and I think I would rather be preemptive

I know you have done loads on yours as have a number of other members on here - looking to use all the knowledge to make informed decisions

Cheers in advance

Themoog2 · Post by **Themoog2** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:10 pm

I did the rear on mine 2 years ago. I bought a kit off eBay circa £150 if memory serves and a bush press kit. It took me about 8hrs I recon. It's not too difficult after the rear bags are deflated. Only thing to watch out for are two bolts that screw into the aluminium part and one on mine ripped the thread out.. Why they don't lubricate these things at the factory I don't know (see below)..

The front I sort of did bit by bit. The only parts I didn't do myself were the lower thrust arms and the lower ball joint. On the ball joint - which is bolted separately to the hub carrier- everything was stuck solid and I snapped two bolts trying to remove them. That's when I gave it too my mate down the local garage. I also had polybushes put in the thrust arms too.

ttr · Post by **ttr** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:38 pm

Themoog2

Cheers for that, I’m thinking of a piece meal approach to the fronts too, learning as I go basically

Read about the lower ball joint and what a pig of a job that one can be, hence me wanting to use a splitter for the lowerarm rather than risk a fork and wreak the rubber .

Had polybush in my shogun arbs when I changed them, I’m thinking of sticking with standard kit though on the x5.

How did you get on with the front arms etc any tips

Cheers

mr angry · Post by **mr angry** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 10:09 pm

I have just done my front nearside suspension refresh this afternoon. I bought a Febi Bilsten kit from eBay which was £190, as I couldn't justify £300 for meyle HD kit and didn't trust the £130 unbranded stuff.

The job itself is fairly straight forward.....that is until you try and remove the ball joint.....it was solid! I broke the seal between the thrust arm and the ball joint no problem with a ball joint fork. Then removed the two female torx (think that is what they are called) bolts holding the joint into the hub. Access is poor and I ended up having to remove the outer end of the driveshaft from the hub to allow access to hammer hell out of the ball joint from above. I wont lie....it took some beating before it dropped out and my shoulders are aching now. I think it may be original and my car has 215,000 miles on her now.

The track arm and the drop link was no issues at all and no special tools used, just brute force.

One thing that was a pain, is removing the long bolt where the thrust arm bolts onto the sub-frame. I had to partially remove the lower wheel arch liner and some other plastics to get the bolt out to allow the arm to drop out. This was simply time consuming.

henrym3 · Post by **henrym3** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 11:25 pm

One of the things you can do with the ball joint is leave it attached to the suspension arm, take out the torx bolts, undo the arm from the chassis and set on a block of wood then beat the arm to get the ballpoint out.
lemforder, Mayle and Febi/Bilstein are the best stuff to get, as mentioned not necessarily the cheapest.

sleepyfolk · Post by **sleepyfolk** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:45 am

Did my front bits and bobs with one of the Meyle HD kits from B&B components in Maidstone http://bandbcomponents.co.uk/page/meyle_hd.html.
Went with Meyle HD as it’s supposed to have a 4 year warranty, what the odds of that being any use are I don’t know!

ttr · Post by **ttr** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 9:01 am

Mr Angry,

cracking advice on the febi stuff - i just fit a febi thermostat housing on daughters 500 - it looked good quality.

reads about that bolt and given i just had to remove all the inner arches when i did the diff oil change it wont be a problem assorted all the rusty screws

henrym3

spot on tip. that might though be a part i leave for my friendly garage and they can heat up the joint with luck as i bets ita a real PIA

sleepyfolk

nice job that - those are all the bits im looking at doing - wish i had a 4 post lift

henrym3 · Post by **henrym3** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:18 am

Sleepyfolk, your just making the rest of us feel bad. I see your g/b sump is as rusty as mine. We should have induced an oil leak years ago. Nothing like an oil leak for keeping things rust free

sleepyfolk · Post by **sleepyfolk** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:32 am

Might stick some paint on it when the ramp is working again at work, we’re just redoing the floor in our unit and then I’ll have a 2 post ramp to play with all the time! Think I’ve used up my favours at my mates garage, apparently they have paying customers they need to service, bloody miseries

ttr · Post by **ttr** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:30 am

All,

Any advice on a ball joint splitter - mines out of it depth on the X5

I need something substantial and that will "protects" the rubber boots as best possible, i am not of a mind that these will simply part using a great whack from my hammer however hard i try ( past experience)

?

Will be getting the febi range kit for the fronts first so thats a decision made.

Any other tips / tricks/ order of which parts first to start with ?

Im expecting a day a side if all goes well - sound reasonable or over ambitious - im on the floor in my garage no on a ramp or pit

All advice welcome as usual

mr angry · Post by **mr angry** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:52 am

Why are you trying to protect the rubber seals as the parts are being replaced with new ones? I just used a ball joint fork which was a cheapo from euro car parts.

sleepyfolk · Post by **sleepyfolk** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 11:52 am

There’s some instructions on pelican parts who I find quite helpful at times, when you change the lower ball joint you need to load the suspension, links here

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticl ... cement.htm

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticl ... cement.htm

gchristofi · Post by **gchristofi** » Wed Jun 21, 2023 3:18 pm

sleepyfolk wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:45 am Did my front bits and bobs with one of the Meyle HD kits from B&B components in Maidstone http://bandbcomponents.co.uk/page/meyle_hd.html.
Went with Meyle HD as it’s supposed to have a 4 year warranty, what the odds of that being any use are I don’t know!

Holy thread resurrection Batman! Apologies.

Just coming back here as I have recently taken delivery of the Meyle HD front suspension arm kit from B&B components but noticed that only half the parts therein are actually the HD Meyle (the drop links and the thrust arm). The wishbones and balljoints sent in the kit are Meyle Original items instead of HD. Anyone else bought this recently and can confirm this to be an error? I have asked seller if it's a mistake and I would be surprised if they're 'trying it on' given their good feedback.

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