DIY Replacing front suspension parts

shaunos · Post by **shaunos** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:12 pm

Hi,

I have been hearing/feeling a knocking noise from the front of my X5 recently (2003 X5 3.0D Sport).
I took the front wheels off at the weekend and had a look and it appears as though the bushings on the front struts have seen better days.
See item 6 here: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=31&fg=05

How easy is it to DIY replace just the bushing on this arm or am I better off just buying a whole new arm with bushing in place?

I'm guessing I might need to replace item 15 too...

Any feedback from anyone that has done this would be appreciated..

Cheers,

~S.

shadrack · Post by **shadrack** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:34 pm

yeh item 15 are Â£12 each on ebay, then get all four arms, upper and lower each side and thats everything while its in bits! id also check the cv boots while your looking there very prone to splitting

shaunos · Post by **shaunos** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:46 pm

FWIW I did these last weekend, it was a bit of a pain getting item 15 out without the necessary tool but doable.

Managed to horlicks my thumb mind you while torqing a bolt, socket slipped and I essentially punched the ground (concrete) full force as a result! OWee Owee Owee!!

Still have a knocking noise from front which I now suspect is from front anti-roll bar droplinks or rubber mounts..... this weekends investigation task weather permitting...

~S.

thedweeb · Post by **thedweeb** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:00 pm

It will be the sway bar links.

Mother · Post by **Mother** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:58 am

[quote=""thedweeb""]It will be the sway bar links.[/quote]

Or anti roll bar if your from the UK.

dirtymonkey29 · Post by **dirtymonkey29** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 1:46 am

Or drop links

x555 · Post by **x555** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 10:42 am

[quote=""shaunos""]FWIW I did these last weekend, it was a bit of a pain getting item 15 out without the necessary tool but doable.

Managed to horlicks my thumb mind you while torqing a bolt, socket slipped and I essentially punched the ground (concrete) full force as a result! OWee Owee Owee!!

Still have a knocking noise from front which I now suspect is from front anti-roll bar droplinks or rubber mounts..... this weekends investigation task weather permitting...

~S.[/quote]
LOL i too have battle scars from similar parts including a socket flying off and twating the side of my head

...its more dangerous than extreme sports working on these beasts.

I too still have a slight knocking (way less than before)so drop links are next on the to do sheet

EDIT... the knocking has disapeared now after re tightening the tension strut under load

shaunos · Post by **shaunos** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:52 am

Update:

Well I had hoped to check out the anti-roll bar drop links over the weekend, but unlike most of you on this forum from the UK, us poor folk here in Ireland could only look jealously at the weather you were having.... but we kept ourselves busy loading animals two by two into a big boat......

Anyway, yesterday evening turned out to be relatively dry and so I went about changing the drop links after work, took about an hour or so and now the nasty knock has disappeared, can't tell you how glad I was to see it go.... like someone scratched an itch I couldn't reach!... And in the process I discovered that it looked like the previous owner had replaced one of them at some point, which makes no sense to me, if you're gonna do one then do both! the links are only 20 quid a side!

Tools reqd:
Trolley jack
Axle stand (to take the weight of the wheel hub etc and hence release the tension in the roll bar so I could remove the links)
Socket set & Spanners
Torque wrench.

Cheers,

~Shaun.

XSeries-forum

XSeries-forum