Rear Suspension Bushes

A

AndyMitton

Member
Hi All

Just in the process of changing rear springs.

The upper control arm (the one that holds the spring) had a hell of a lot of movement in it...mainly from the outer bush. Can move this by hand without much force (broken spring still attached but the same on both sides - this is the case whether the suspension is loaded or unloaded). Guess this is completely shot?

Also when the suspension is loaded, there is a fair bit of play in the bottom arm too.

Looks like changing more bushes!

Great fun

Seen the write up on the polybush upgrade.

Anyone else had much experience of doing this?

Cheers

Andy
 
I replaced all bushings in the car for poly bushings (front, rear, subframe/drivetrain). The handling gets considerably better.
For the rear lower outer bushing you can use the rear upper outer bushing (which is technically not a bushing but a ball joint). The z4m uses the same combo, and for the lower outer bushing there is no poly bushing available without modification (on a lathe).

If you're going to do this yourself, you'll need special tools. To pull out the outer rear bushings without removing the rear brake discs and brake disc inner protection plate, BMW has a special puller (that ball joint is seated in an angle), and maybe there are specialty tool sets from china for that. If you use a generic puller set you'll need to disassemble the rear discs and partly the inner protection plate. (you don't have to get that off completely, so you don't have to remove the wheel hub).
 
Cheers, yea just realised the top one is a ball joint

OK, was just thinking of repalcing with standard parts really, not too bothered anout upgrading.

Want wheel alignment done but can't see the point when there's a fair bit of movement in the bushes

Cheers

Andy
 
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