Front Control Arm Diagnosis Hell

[RED_Y_]

Originally Posted by virtualbong

Agreed, at this point, I'd rather not self diagnose when I am not a professional mechanic. I will have to just lean on them to do their thing and hope they find the culprit.

In the meantime, I am already imagining my wallet being drained...

It should not be that bad, worst case scenario you can always get a kit like this:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-31126864821kt
And just do it all in one seating, do the alignment and forget about it for another 75K miles.

[virtualbong]

Originally Posted by RED_Y_

It should not be that bad, worst case scenario you can always get a kit like this:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-31126864821kt
And just do it all in one seating, do the alignment and forget about it for another 75K miles.

So they couldn't see me today so I need to wait until Thursday. I'm wondering if I should just go and purchase it and tell them to install on Thursday when they can take me in.

[M302_imola]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Clunks can also be worn strut mount bearings. After 100k they’re questionable and if youre in there consider worth the time/money to replace them

You're correct and I thought this was my issue at first. Said f it, and installed BC Racing coilovers but the sound was still there so in my case it wasn't any to do with the strut mounts.

[dave617]

Originally Posted by RED_Y_

May be a tension strut (#8)? Ask you shop to lift the car and check closely all the bushings.

Thrust arm bushings were the problem. Ended up replacing the arms and bushings. Now drives great and noise is gone. Thanks for the help.

[RED_Y_]

Originally Posted by dave617

Thrust arm bushings were the problem. Ended up replacing the arms and bushings. Now drives great and noise is gone. Thanks for the help.

Glad you got it fixed, I still haven't got mine into the shop, they are busy and funniest part is that noise is almost gone all the sudden. I am very confused, got appointment scheduled on Thursday.

[virtualbong]

Here is my update. So I had the thrust arm bushings on both sides replaced by my shop but I still had the clunking noise. My shop was finally able to take a look at my X5 and they came back stating that I needed to replace my driver side strut and that I might as well replace both sides. Since I had to go out of town with the X5 that weekend and they were unavailable anyways, I took the car back. I now barely hear or feel the issue. I am wondering if they somehow screwed me the first time and never changed it or maybe they didn't screw something tight. But it's definitely apparent that the clunking is not happening when I start driving 0-10 mph. I am going to keep looking out for it but I am going to not replace the struts unless I hear things again.

Note: I have trusted this shop for some time but it's way to coincidental that it stopped happening as soon as I brought it back to them to check things out. They didn't even charge me for the re-diagnosis.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by virtualbong

Here is my update. So I had the thrust arm bushings on both sides replaced by my shop but I still had the clunking noise. My shop was finally able to take a look at my X5 and they came back stating that I needed to replace my driver side strut and that I might as well replace both sides. Since I had to go out of town with the X5 that weekend and they were unavailable anyways, I took the car back. I now barely hear or feel the issue. I am wondering if they somehow screwed me the first time and never changed it or maybe they didn't screw something tight. But it's definitely apparent that the clunking is not happening when I start driving 0-10 mph. I am going to keep looking out for it but I am going to not replace the struts unless I hear things again.

Note: I have trusted this shop for some time but it's way to coincidental that it stopped happening as soon as I brought it back to them to check things out. They didn't even charge me for the re-diagnosis.

Tough situation. Mostly, I like to trust people until proven otherwise. Definitely don't replace it until you hear it again, but stranger things have happened!

[virtualbong]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Tough situation. Mostly, I like to trust people until proven otherwise. Definitely don't replace it until you hear it again, but stranger things have happened!

Agreed, I would like to think the best of people and they have been good to me in the past so I will let this go as a big coincidence.

[RED_Y_]

Just got a call from the shop, they are very surprised how did I get this far (73K miles) with these lower control arms, they have P/N which were mentioned in SIB and replaced by BMW under warranty. So replacing both sides and alignment, keeping fingers crossed this does the trick.

[menelaos]

Originally Posted by RED_Y_

Just got a call from the shop, they are very surprised how did I get this far (73K miles) with these lower control arms, they have P/N which were mentioned in SIB and replaced by BMW under warranty. So replacing both sides and alignment, keeping fingers crossed this does the trick.

Update: replaced my front control arms w/lemforders, no alignment required.
Unfortunately, my driver's rear one is on the verge of needing replacement, but will require an alignment.....could not escape it after all!

[Gkacmaz]

Update on mine. Changed the stabilizer bar links, my car is completely noise free!

What else has been done

- upper and lower control arms on each side

I wish I had bought the whole control arm kit from FCP Euro instead of getting them individually.

For anyone :

Changing the control arms and stabilizer bar link is pretty easy and doesn't require any special tools. You can save yourself some serious money by going DIY

[randrews15]

I had a E70 X5 until we got a F15 that had suspension wonder at around 50k miles. It had the sport suspension that was known to eat up control arms. I did a total refresh of control arms and it solved the problem. While it wasn't cheap, I went with Lemforder from FCP Euro for their warranty. I had to warranty the FCA after about 20k miles as they were leaking fluid again. A heavy vehicle like this takes it toll on control arms. It's the price we all pay for these vehicles.