XSeries-forum

Slightly unusual combo, but I've got a couple of issues that I'm going to get my indy to look at next week

The first is a front bush issue (I think) - braking from speed on the motorway results in a bit of a judder. The car has done 94k so I guess some of the front bushes are at end of life. Would the correct name for them be front thrust bushes, would these Powerflex ones be good to fit?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POWERFLEX-BMW ... 5ae922dde3

The second problem is a bit of water ingress in the left corner of the boot nearest the DVD/CD players :blink:
I've checked all the rubber seals and they don't seem perished. Anyone got any ideas of common problems that could cause this?

Thanks 

Hi Waka,

I had both these problems...

Re front joints... they can pass an MOT, but the vehicle is sooooo heavy that the slightest slop will cause this judder...
Mine ended up being right bottom swivel & left rod end.... both MOT passable,  but when 2.5 tonnes of monster is hanging off it, that's a different issue...


Re boot leak...
3 places to look... scrub the boot rubbers with an old cotton kitchen towel & WD40 to get all the crud off... even if it looks clean, it won't be !, additionally the seal between top & bottom tail gates....
AND clean the area the rubber sits on until SHINEY PAINT is clearly clean,,,, then get a can of SILICON release agent from a Motor Factors, and apply to the rubber seal strip.... and to the paint contact area.

last place to look is the light cluster..... often leak...
Likely dirty seal edges, and treat the same as the boot/door seals, should cure that too.
When you refit the lamp cluster... Press the lamp home from the outside, then nip up gently... but don't over do it or you will tear the fixing off the lamp or crack it.
You could even apply a bead of none-setting gutter sealant to the rubber lamp seal strip... B&Q £6.99

Regards
Grant B

Buy the bushes direct from power flex there cheaper.

are the bushes easy to fit?

[quote="chelsea"]
are the bushes easy to fit?

[/quote]

To remove the old bushes you will need a heavy duty press to get them out, over time the grime and age build up make them hard to press out, when I did mine I used a 10ton press and I was still a struggle. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies folks - especially Grant 

Been manically busy this month and my indy never got back to me with prices for the bushes. Area around the boot is very clean (I have OCD and am a member of deatilingworld  ) but good shout on the rubbers between the top and bottom part of the boot, I'll check later.

Seems to be a fair few people on pistonheads who don't rate powerflex bushes on their BMWs:
http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topi ... +E46&mid=0
This thread is specific to old 3 series though - anyone used them on their E53?

Thanks again,
W.

I'm struggling with the same boot leak issue. I have tried pouring water into the rear panoroof drain channel, and it pours out successfully from the drains by the top of the upper hatch hinges- can't see any leaks below these with the headliner pulled down a little. Also the 2 drains under the fuel flap filler, which exit just in front of the right rear wheel-again no apparent problem. And poured water all over the rear lights, (gas) strut mountings, hatch buffers and all body joins, including rearmost side windows. I removed all the rubber plugs at the bottom of the lower and upper hatches, and no debris in those.

Nothing at all while I watch it. Next morning after some light rain both rear wells under the lights contain a few drops plus some along the rear valence just above the start of the spare wheel well. Very frustrating

Hi Chrisn7,

Read my post - 2nd one in this thread, and do the stuff listed...

The emphasis of TOTALY clean rubber surfaces & mating painted parts... the same for the rear of the lamps...

The silicone the lot so you can clearly see the surfaces are wet with silicone....
Don't forget the left to right seals along the joins between upper & lower tailgate & where there is a 3 way mating of lower tailgate to rubber boot seal to upper tail gate seal... this one is a good leak entry point - conveniently close to both lights too !

Cheers Grant. Had another look today, but as is the way with these things, no water in the L/H side, and one drop in the right side. I took off the r/h out lamp cluster and the seal was perfectly clean with absolutely no sign of water having been there. It does seem unlikely that this would be the source though, as the 3 fixings have flat surfaces covering both sides of the mounting holes.

I did also remove the black sliding section of the lower tailgate, together with the trim that covers the rear edge of the boot, with the fold down hooks in it. Now this is a possible source: if you get any rain on the inner side of the tailgate, this runs down to the bottom edge when the tailgate is closed. The trim removed above covers a channel which has 4 screw holes in it where the trim is retained, but any water arriving here has no where to go, as there is no drain, although there is a black plug right in the centre which I thought at first might have been a drain, but isn't. It could be that water is seeping past the coarse sheet metal screws. There isn't really room to add a seal, so I applied a good dollop of the Waxoyl, so I'll see how that goes. I added some BMW gummifledge (spelling?) to the cleaned seals as you suggested as well

I fitted powerflex on my E39, after around 20,000 miles of use with them the thrust arm bushes were as good as new, the tension arms were knackered ... The main point though is that changing the powerflex bushes is a very simple job second time round which only requires removal of one bolt per bush. The tension arms take around 10 mins each, thrust arms a bit longer due to location of bolt.

Personally I wouldn't now fit powerflex bushes to arms which have covered 90 odd thousand miles, I've done it before,  the extra rigidity in the bush soaks up much less shock/vibration which causes the well used balljoints at the other end of the arms to fail.

Interesting point.... will stick with standard parts when I come to do mine soon.

thanks for the tip.