bmwm750

Figured this out already on my own

bmwm750

Well, now that I have the arms out at the bushing end, I'm having one hell of a time getting them out at the ball joint end.

Obviously, this bolt needs to come all the way out, but I've lubed the whole thing up with PB Blaster and this thing is still a bitch to turn.....

This is seriously the most annoying car job that I've done in quite a while

bmwm750

Well a little persuasion with the impact and the air hammer and out we go. I don't really like using air tools on suspension bits, but this was the only way it was coming out.

Now, on to press in the PowerFlex bushings and put this back together tomorrow....

Vicl

bmwm750 what a great job!
How many miles your car has? I would assume it is the first replacement?
Thanks!
And good luck with install! It will be nice to hear if you managed to do all this successfully.

Edd W

I dropped the mount from above to save any damage - it's just the best way to do it but unless you mark up carefully beforehand you'll have to reset camber and the tracking.

Swissman564

This thread reminds me that about a year ago the service advisor at the dealership said I should replace the upper control arm bushings. I have never noticed an issue with handling or steering. All seems fine to me. I have 125,000 miles on my '07 D3. What will be he upshot of not replacing these? I lost all faith in the service department at Criswell Audi in Annapolis. They know how to pad a service order like nobody's business.

bmwm750

All back together. Have to run the car by my friend's shop tomorrow to get it aligned, but man does this feel fantastic. Soooooooo much tighter than stock.

I wound up buying new factory arms, THEN pressing PowerFlex bushings into those, so I have new balljoints and urethane bushings. Wound up being ~$1000, but I will never worry about this again while I own the car.

While I was there, I did new inner and outer tie rods, since the last time I had it aligned my friend complained that my tie rods were just about seized.

MP4.2+6.0

Nothing catastrophic generally. First they make noise--creaks and such--and suspension is somewhat looser. As they get really bad, the rubber bushing toward the inside virtually completely tears out, and then you get a metal on metal impact sound (or at least I did on one on my A6)--the through bolt is now hitting the outer bushing sleeve and/or the upper front arm. Then you want to change it immediately of course, which can be awkward on a longer trip.

Besides the mechanical, it will start to throw the alignment off some with wear, and in turn can affect tires. It's insidious though, because if you get it aligned without changing the part, then when you do change it, alignment will be off again. In other words, if you just change it out, alignment was set before it wore and nothing else has been disturbed, then it doesn't need another alignment. But once you start aligning it and wear is being compensated for, you are kind of stuck w/ another alignment when the change out happens.

If you have 125K miles, I would expect they are not in great shape, unless you bought second or later hand and they were already done earlier.

Swissman564

Thanks very much. It sounds like I had better make some inquiries with my mechanic about getting this work scheduled and completed, or at least have him take a good look to determine need. I trust him, which is more than I can say for the service dept. at my "former" dealership. I appreciate the lucid response.

tjf

Another thing you can do if you want a tighter feel is to when replacing the arms, use S8 arms instead. They are the same except the bushings are stiffer and maybe/hopefully they will last a little longer. This has been a common practice on the B5-A4's.