front Wishbones bmw

Trhiggy83

Was at the mechanic today and he told me my front wishbones were gone on my bmw 320cd. Can anyone give me more info on these. He didnt really recommend replacing them straight away but surely if they are gone they should be replaced. what problems should i expect if i dont repair them anytime soon

bazz26

I had worn lower control arm bushings on my S40 and was adviced to just change the wishbones altogether as it was easier than trying to press new bushings into the existing wishbone. The inside of my two front tyres were completly worn down to the wire as a result of the worn bushings. Not sure if your car will have the same effect but I would keep an eye on them for uneven wear.

DublinDilbert

They are a wear item and do need to be changed. They have to transmit all the breaking force for a fairly heavy car. You'll probably be able to feel it in the handling of the car when going over uneven road.

The bushings at the rear of the wishbones should be changed at the same time.

Myrddin

DublinDilbert wrote: »

They are a wear item and do need to be changed. They have to transmit all the breaking force for a fairly heavy car. You'll probably be able to feel it in the handling of the car when going over uneven road.

The bushings at the rear of the wishbones should be changed at the same time.

Agreed, you will eventually feel a knock under braking & there will be some free play in the wheel hub.

As Dilbert also said, you should replace the bushes at the rear of the wishbones also, as the wishbones have to be dropped anyway to replace the rear bushes.

Tails142

It will affect tyre wear and ride comfort/handling.

Unfortunately you will probably realise that it can be cheaper to just replace your tyres than to repair the bushings and any other suspension components that may be worn.

Last time I had my 5 series in for service the garage told me the suspension needed doing on all four corners and quoted me €250 euro per corner on parts. Something to do with them being aluminium parts to keep unsprung weight down

I havent found my tyre wear to be excessive, plenty of thread still on the same set 15k miles later so you would need to judge for yourself. It may get picked up at NCT stage at which point you will have to get it done although I just got my car throught the NCT without them commenting on it. So I guess it depends on whether you feel the handling has degraded too much for your taste, whether you're flying through tyres or how soon your NCT is.

Trhiggy83

cheers for the replies, i just imported the car and was getting the swirl flaps removed this morning from the engine and the mechanic said you should replace wishbones and he said the rear suspension should be checked also. He also mentioned that my 4 glow plugs were showing up as open circuit so need to get that checked as well. Does anyone know when you should nct a vehicle that has just been imported?

Silvera

RE: Wishbones..

What mileage is on your car?
I'm considering buying a 3 series and am interested in any known faults, costs, etc

RE: NCT...

Afaik, it's up to you to contact the NCTS and organise a test appointment. All cars over 4 yrs old have to be NCT'd.

DublinDilbert

Silvera wrote: »

RE: Wishbones..

What mileage is on your car?
I'm considering buying a 3 series and am interested in any known faults, costs, etc

RE: NCT...

Afaik, it's up to you to contact the NCTS and organise a test appointment. All cars over 4 yrs old have to be NCT'd.

What year / model are you looking to purchase?

Common on all them are things are:-
Front Lower control arms (wish bones)
Front Lower control arm bushings
Rear Trailing arm bushes
Front brake discs/pads
MAF
Cooling system expansion tank
Cooling system o-rings + plastic pipes
Radiator


The petrol engines are fairly reliable once you look after the cooling system (same as any other car really).

demag

I'd get a second opinion on the wishbones if I were you, it's the rear bush on these that wear out usually. The wishbone is aluminum mounted in rubber so the wishbone should be ok unless it's damaged.
I replaced my 320d bushes a couple of months ago. Took about an hour without a ramp and cost €90 for the parts. The only things to remove are the wheels , a cover underneath and the bushes themselves. Check bimmerforums for advice.

JHMEG

Trhiggy83 wrote: »

Does anyone know when you should nct a vehicle that has just been imported?

If 4+ years old, then immediately, as not having a valid NCT is an offence and can get you 5 penalty points.

PaulKK

You can replace just the bushings only, check out eurocarparts for the lemforder replacements.

You can also upgrade to powerflex ones which are ment to be excellent and much longer wearing.

johndaman66

If you are replacing the complete wishbones and are anyway half mechanically minded I would suggest changing them yourself if you have a few hours to spare as they're not really that difficult a job assuming they are similar to my Vectra. I failed NCT on excessive play on ball joint on wishbone attaching to back of hub. I just changed the ball joint but depending on whats worn on yours it may be just as cheap to replace the whole wishbone as oppossed to paying garages to press out bushings.

All I needed was 16mm and 17mm sockets and driver a large steel rod and axel stands. Wishbone was attached to chassis of car with two 17mm nuts and a 16mm nut attaching ball-joint to rear of hub. The only thing that proved somewhat difficult was removing the ball joint from back of hub. Levered it out with the large steel rod (but it wasn't majorly difficult either in my case). Then I needed to drill the out the three rivets holding the ball-joint to wishbone (the reason Opel riveted them on as oppossed to nuts and bolts I'm unsure). Then I attached new new ball joints with locking nuts and bolts...but if you are replacing complete wishbone you will be by-passing this stage anyway. Then whacked on wishbone again, job done. You may need to put a jack under wishbone and carefully raise the ball joint into its housing. Overall process may be somewhat different for the BMW but I'm sure it would be well documented on a BMW forum.

If you are attacking such a job I would recommend you use an axle stand as you cannot be too safe when working underneath a car. Also I needed to be careful when removing the wishbone that I did not pull the hub excessively to pull it away from driveshaft but I believe your car would be RWD so you may not necessairly encounter this problem.