supark
08-02-2005, 12:47 PM
Before I bought my 540i, the mechanic who'd checked it out said that it was about due for new front lower control arms. I noticed a bit of clanking when going over large bumps - so I was wondering if perhaps the ball joints/bushings had gotten so loose that they were hitting something (I ended up beng wrong about that - see below).
I got the parts from EAP4parts. They tend to have the best prices - but do take a couple days longer for shipping - worth it if you can wait a little.
With the help of a friendly fellow forum member, i was able to get torque specs for the lower control arms on my 97 540i.
Pretty straightforward install but with a tricky method of getting the ball joints off. The steps i took were the following:
1) jack up the car and remove front wheels
2) loosen ball joint and bushing nuts, remove bushing bolt and nut.
3) in order to get the pickle fork in there you need to turn the wheel all the way to the left if your working on the left wheel - that way you'll get just enough clearance to pass the pickle fork through.
4) after popping out the ball joints, make sure that you keep the larger spacer/washer under the nut
5) install new control arms, place bolt through bushing but do not tighten completely
6) in order to tighten the ball joint nut, you need to place a jack on the bottom of the control arm and give it a bit of pressure to seat the ball joint so it doesn't move. You can't get a torque wrench in there easily - so I just used a crescent wrench and tightened to about the same torque as the bushings (about 78 nm)
7) tighten bushing nut to 78 nm
8) reinstall wheels and take her for a spin
My thoughts:
I didn't really feel a dramatic difference after replacing the control arms - handling does feel a bit tighter with better road feel though - less vague. I feel more comfortable taking turns quickly - especially at speed. I'd had a bit of bumpsteer at higher speed turns, which now seems to be gone. All in all I'm glad I did it.
I wasn't able to get rid of that weird metal clanking sound over larger bumps - i'm wondering where it's coming from - definitely emanating from the front driver side wheel.
I got the parts from EAP4parts. They tend to have the best prices - but do take a couple days longer for shipping - worth it if you can wait a little.
With the help of a friendly fellow forum member, i was able to get torque specs for the lower control arms on my 97 540i.
Pretty straightforward install but with a tricky method of getting the ball joints off. The steps i took were the following:
1) jack up the car and remove front wheels
2) loosen ball joint and bushing nuts, remove bushing bolt and nut.
3) in order to get the pickle fork in there you need to turn the wheel all the way to the left if your working on the left wheel - that way you'll get just enough clearance to pass the pickle fork through.
4) after popping out the ball joints, make sure that you keep the larger spacer/washer under the nut
5) install new control arms, place bolt through bushing but do not tighten completely
6) in order to tighten the ball joint nut, you need to place a jack on the bottom of the control arm and give it a bit of pressure to seat the ball joint so it doesn't move. You can't get a torque wrench in there easily - so I just used a crescent wrench and tightened to about the same torque as the bushings (about 78 nm)
7) tighten bushing nut to 78 nm
8) reinstall wheels and take her for a spin
My thoughts:
I didn't really feel a dramatic difference after replacing the control arms - handling does feel a bit tighter with better road feel though - less vague. I feel more comfortable taking turns quickly - especially at speed. I'd had a bit of bumpsteer at higher speed turns, which now seems to be gone. All in all I'm glad I did it.
I wasn't able to get rid of that weird metal clanking sound over larger bumps - i'm wondering where it's coming from - definitely emanating from the front driver side wheel.