Rear wishbone bushes

[sunnybono]

Hi,

Having taken the car in for an alignment it looks like the rear inner bushes are on their way out. Does anybody know if you can replace these or is it a whole new wishbone?

In the below it would be #16 that needs replacing, maybe also #18.

Thanks

[Raj]

The lower swing arm bushes aren't replaceable so it is a new one.

BUT they are like £350 each from the dealers….

I'd recommend getting a secondhand one with fair condition bushes still in there.

I was only talking to Jason about this earlier today and he said that generally they don't tend to go very often so I'd hope secondhand units would still be good.

[sunnybono]

[quote="Raj"]
The lower swing arm bushes aren't replaceable so it is a new one.

BUT they are like £350 each from the dealers….

I'd recommend getting a secondhand one with fair condition bushes still in there.

I was only talking to Jason about this earlier today and he said that generally they don't tend to go very often so I'd hope secondhand units would still be good.
[/quote]

Interesting, thanks. My car is on 98K now so I would have thought the rear bushes could do with a refresh, but if it is uncommon perhaps it is just the outers that look perished. What commonly goes on the rear? I thought it was something to do with camber?

Is Jason the best place for X5 work in berks? Heard him mentioned a couple times.

Thanks

[Raj]

[quote="sunnybono"]
[quote="Raj"]
The lower swing arm bushes aren't replaceable so it is a new one.

BUT they are like £350 each from the dealers….

I'd recommend getting a secondhand one with fair condition bushes still in there.

I was only talking to Jason about this earlier today and he said that generally they don't tend to go very often so I'd hope secondhand units would still be good.
[/quote]

Interesting, thanks. My car is on 98K now so I would have thought the rear bushes could do with a refresh, but if it is uncommon perhaps it is just the outers that look perished. What commonly goes on the rear? I thought it was something to do with camber?

Is Jason the best place for X5 work in berks? Heard him mentioned a couple times.

Thanks
[/quote]

tbh I would have thought like you that getting on to 100k miles the bushes would start to perish too. In some cases they have but I'm just going on what Jason was saying over the phone today.

Check for any actual movement as opposed to just visual check.

Also camber issues can be caused by worn rear ball joints too. Subframe bushes are common on the rear though.

[sunnybono]

Thanks. Is that #2?

I'll have to check that out when I get it on the ramp.

[davesavage257]

I've just changed my rear ball joints at 106k and it's transformed the rear.  if you have rear air suspension you need to let the air out of the spheres first (after removing the fuses 75 and 81 off the top of my head) before checking for play, or the pressure exerted by the air springs will mask it.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

[Greydog]

The rear swing arm bushes can be replaced Lemforder do make them I had them replaced on the 4.4 X5. The garage that did the work were sceptical so I got a lower arm from a breaker friend to test out just in case it furbared the arm.
Changing all three bushes on an arm was around £50 (coet of bushes) an arm so with fitting the whole job was under £300.
Unfortunately 3 weeks after I had it done a tree fell on the car !!! So I cant comment on life of the bushes.

[Raj]

[quote="Greydog"]
The rear swing arm bushes can be replaced Lemforder do make them I had them replaced on the 4.4 X5. The garage that did the work were sceptical so I got a lower arm from a breaker friend to test out just in case it furbared the arm.
Changing all three bushes on an arm was around £50 (coet of bushes) an arm so with fitting the whole job was under £300.
Unfortunately 3 weeks after I had it done a tree fell on the car !!! So I cant comment on life of the bushes.
[/quote]

Any links as I've not come across any in searching. All the ones I've found are for the front arms.

Also was £50 for bushes and pressing?

There's only 2 bushes per arm too.

[Greydog]

Hi Raj
They had trouble with getting enough adjustment at the rear on a wheel alignment and diagnosed the inner bushes and told me the whole arm had to be changed which seemed nuts.
I talked to a shooting friend who has a scrap yard (sorry Bill re-cycling center) he gave me a swing arm to test things out on.
I just Googled BMW X5 Rear Swing Arm Bush one of the links took me to Ebay I ordered 2 sets (a set for each side) When they arrived they were in Lemforder boxes. We tried it out the spare swing arm I got from the scrap yard just to be safe. As the swing arm is off to do the work my garage suggested changing the spherical bush as well the garage ordered those in. Cost of bushes was from memory about £50 per side (hence 3) with pressing and fitting the whole job was around £300.

[kkx5]

No 18 are replaceable. I've done it on mine.