Hey guys, I just had a long look under my car and realized that most of the rubber bushings on the front suspension components had developed small cracks. I am guessing that the most important bushings on the front axle are the control arms, thrust arms, and sway bars (frame and end link joints). When I was in the Honda world (it was high school, give me a break) installing polyurethane bushings was an easy way to tighten up the handling. I was wondering if any of you had ever installed polyurethane suspension bushings on an E39? Where did you find them? Are they squeaky? Would you recommend them?

Thanks for any help :help

From my experiance with urethane bushings, they sqeak a lot. Im not sure if its just the cheap ones that do or what. On my friends 280Z and another one of my friends WRX the bushing sqeak just enough to make it annoying and slightly embarrasing infront of the ladies you're trying to impress.

They do however last forever and stiffen things up.

I finally found a company that sells polyurethane bushings for the E39.

http://www.powerflex.co.uk/select_products.asp?catalog=&cat=

Its a british company, seems a little expensive but it will be worth it. Ill let you guys know how they perform.

I finally found a company that sells polyurethane bushings for the E39.

http://www.powerflex.co.uk/select_products.asp?catalog=&cat=

Its a british company, seems a little expensive but it will be worth it. Ill let you guys know how they perform.

Let us know how it goes. I am going to have to start replacing bushings soon as well and like the idea of polyurethane

Have you seen these?

Website is bavauto.com

Have you seen these?

Website is bavauto.com


Yeah - I have bought a few things from them. Somethings are pricey and others aren't. Haven't looked to see if they have complete bushing sets (or at least every individual one).

the front of my car has them and its definetely a lot stiffer. As long as you use the a lot of the right grease (usually comes with it) they wont squeek.

I have the Powerflex urethane bushings on the tension struts and control arms and also have urethane sway bar bushings. They do really tighten up the suspension and a natural result of that is more road feel in the car and in the steering wheel. I find it necessary to re-lube the bushings about every six months or else they get pretty squeaky.

Most people report they get 70k+ miles out of the stock bushings so I wouldn't recommend it to the street crowd as you really don't replace them that often while maintaining a compliant ride. Definitely an advantage to the autocross and driver's ed folks however.

bump --
for those of you using poly bushings -- did you replace your upper control arms/ tension struts when you went with them or just pressed the poly bushings into the old arms? I am about to order a set but am having difficulty deciding what the best approach is. My car has about 90k on it and has the shakes.

So the options are:

a) buy lemforder or meyle uca/lca with rubber bushings installed and be done
b) re-use arms, press out old bushings and install poly bushings.
c) buy new arms w/o bushings and press in poly bushings.

Obviously the cheapest option is to re-use the arms, but I would hate to have the ball joint fail and have to do it all over again in 10k...

I recently put X5 thrust arm bushings on my M5. They are a bit stiffer and last longer than the stock M5 bushings. Just a thought.

re-use the thrust/control arms....aluminum and expensive. Just take them to a machine shop and press in the bushings. Worked fine for me.

If you are going to reuse the thrust ams don't remove them. It is a PIA. Make a kit to press them out. Posts are all over about this.

If you are going to reuse the thrust ams don't remove them. It is a PIA. Make a kit to press them out. Posts are all over about this.


Harder than trying to press it out from under the car? I would think it would be easier to pop out the balljoint, set the arm on the bench and press it out that way. I have some concerns about possible tweaking the aluminum arms if I crank on them too hard -- anyone done this and want to provide some input on how you went about it and what tools you used? I can't seem to find anything directly pertaining to replacement of either the upper control arm bushings or the thrust arm bushings for the e-39

The bushings will squeak if they are not lubed. Marine grease, wheel bearing grease, waterproof grease, will stay on a longer than your everyday grease.

I did mine. It's the ball joint side that's the question. And you won't know until you try. One of them came right off. The other one was a REAL BEEotch to get the ball joint side off. Took about an hour to get it off. A lot of banging and cursing. Once thery're off, it's cake.

Harder than trying to press it out from under the car? I would think it would be easier to pop out the balljoint, set the arm on the bench and press it out that way. I have some concerns about possible tweaking the aluminum arms if I crank on them too hard -- anyone done this and want to provide some input on how you went about it and what tools you used? I can't seem to find anything directly pertaining to replacement of either the upper control arm bushings or the thrust arm bushings for the e-39

Go to the bottom of this thread
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=566232&highlight=thrust+bushing+press

I've seen a hand held device that is connected with a small hydralic hose to a small hydralic pack that sits on the floor with a 110 V motor. The hand held device is aluminum but its still heavy. It grabs the backside of the suspension member and then pushes the bushing in. I've seen it done. It was slow and seemed to just barely have the force required to get the bushing in but it did. The bushing and the arm were all greased up. You could use it under the car in the driveway but it would be a bit of a task.

http://trackjunkie.entrophy-free.net/small-pics/bushing-press.jpg

Exactly what I am looking for. Couple of questions --

What is the diameter of the conduit used?
I don't have a lathe -- could the same thing be accomplished with appropriately sized washers -- assuming I can find them in a large enough diameter?
Could you list all the parts for me...thanks!

Is it necessary to re allign or weight the car down before tightening down the bolts after you have replaced the bushings by this method (ie leaving the ball joint ends attached?

Buy the new bushings. With these in hand, go to a hardware store with this picture. You could use washers or order something online. You could also stop by a machine shop at lunch with $20 and ask to see the Sup and you could get everything. They like that stuff.

Yes you should weigh down the car. Read that post again for the other stuff and have a Bentley manual for torque specs. I use salt bags for the weights and then use them in our water conditioner.

I think I recognise that picture...

I'm sorry but I don't remember the conduit size, but I'll guess it is 2". Plain washers, if you can find them large enough and with a small enough hole will work. If steel you'll need a stack at least 1/4" thick. Aluminum plate at least 3/8" thick will be stong enough. That can be cut to the right size with band saw or sabre saw. While it isn't evident in the picture the plate that presses against the bushing has a recess in it for the metal center of the bushing and the outside diameter has to be just a touch smaller than the diameter of the bushing. The bushing's outer sleeve isn't very thick and that's where the force has to be applied. You could probably find a machine shop that could make the plates for you pretty cheaply.

The picture shows 7/16-NC all thread, which was what I had on hand at the time. A much better choice would be 7/16-NF all thread as the torque required is right at the yield limit for the nuts and they can strip. Also it helps a lot to use a flat file to clean the exposed part of the bushing that you'll be pulling through the arm to bright shiny metal.

If the replacement bushings are the OE variety it is very important that the car be resting on the wheels before you tighten the bush bolts. Otherwise you'll pre-load the bushing and cause early failure. Two 4x8x16 concrete pavers under each wheel will give you enough room to torque the bolts.

Thank you! I am going to collect the parts tomorrow and put one together.

So if I am using the polybush replacements no need to worry about weighting the car before torquing them down?

Correct, you don't need to weight the car or have it on the wheels when using urethane bushings that have a floating sleeve.The floating sleeve can rotate, unlike the fixed sleeve in an OE type bushing.