XSeries-forum

I have an awful squeaking at the rear of the x5. If you just rock her side to side when parked you can hear it but it's worse driving low speeds over bumps, I think it's the rear wishbone bushes, but when I rang bmw parts they said the rear wishbone bushes are pressed into the wishbone and you have to replace the whole wishbone at £410 each before fitting? Anyone a place to get aftermarket or cheaper ones, and also is it a big job, looks like about 5 brackets to me?

First I would suspect the Rose Bushes are the culprit and are a fairly simple DIY replacement there are several excellent videos showing how I made my own tool.
Second don't let BMW fob you off, you can buy the inner bushes from several sources even Ebay I brought mine from a local motor factor and they were in Lemforder boxes.
I got hold of a bit of 6" channel and welded a plate on each end then using a socket and a bit of tube with a small bottle jack pressed the old bushes out and new ones in. With help from my son (he's younger and bendier) we replaced swing arm and rose bushes both side comfortably on a Saturday and still got some golf in .Total cost was under a £100 including making up the tools

Just to add, I recently did my rose bushes / rear ball joints (depending on who you speak too).  I had a bit more trouble than Greydog did, although I think mine were really old.  But having done it once, I'd definitely rather do it again myself than pay BMW or and Indy.  It also improved the handling of my car no end.

Also, since you asked, you can get wishbones whole of eBay for ~£60 for the pair.  Having spent a bit of time under the back of mine, I wished I got one of the full rear sets of (wishbone, control arm, links and bushes ~£200) .  Because on mine I don't think any of it has ever been changed and it would have been easier to change the lot in one go while it was all apart.

Cheers

I've just had all my rear trailer arm bushes changed! My car had also started to squeak which has now gone! BMW don't sell the bushes separately, just the whole arm. I bought the bushes for my car off ebay and then got a garage to fit them as they need to be pressed in!
Once this was done I had the 4 wheel alignment done, its like a new car!