BMW control arm premature wear

[RandallNeighbour]

My other sports car is a BMW 550i, MY2007, 45 days out of factory warranty and has 31k on the odometer. My CPO warranty doesn't cover wear items like bushings.

The dealer might be full of crap and just trying to make money off me, but my SA tells me the control arms up front have cracked bushings... at 37 months and 31,000 miles! He quoted $850 to remove and press in new bushings and align the car, which isn't in my budget for the next year, actually.

Have any of you other BMW owners experienced this sort of quick wear on your cars?

.... and I thought my lower front control arms on the boxster went out frequently, even though I don't track the car.

[Bladecutter]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

The dealer might be full of crap and just trying to make money off me, but my SA tells me the control arms up front have cracked bushings... at 37 months and 31,000 miles! He quoted $850 to remove and press in new bushings and align the car, which isn't in my budget for the next year, actually.

When in doubt, take it someplace else, and get a second opinion.

Oh, and a search on a BMW forum might get you more leads.
My quick searches for this brings up cars that are much older, much higher miles, or have liquid filled bushings. One search indicates that the damage might be caused if the control arm is used as a lifting point for a jack.

Good luck on finding out if the issue is true, and if there's a cheaper cure.

BC.

[kotto]

hi there, need to replace control arm.. please recommend me where to buy replacement parts. also need some bmw accessories. thanks

[Brockmeister]

Hi Kotto. I have an '04 325i. I usually hang out at the e46fanatics web site. There are several places to get parts, such as ********************************az, pelican parts, Bavarian auto Werks, Parts geek, etc.

good luck w/ the search.

[Brockmeister]

That should have said ********************************. I don't know what happend there.

[LAP1DOUG]

OP - search around over at bimmerforums.com. There are very active forums for every model Bimmer ever made. I do believe I had read of similar complaints on recent models in Roundel, the BMWCCA magazine. You may want to join BMWCCA too.

Good luck.

[pompous]

There are a handful of very active BMW forums, but I'm sure you know that since your practically a founding member of this board lol

That all said...I have a bimmer FRESH out of factory bumper to bumper warranty and now into my CPO warranty. Big question is...Did you buy the BMW there? That goes a long way with regards to their compassion for your situation. If you push the issue nicely, they should cooperate, or very least only charge for the parts and no labor. ...at least they did for me at Tom Bush BMW here in Jax FL. Then again, they have bent over backwards and gone just plain out of there way to make me happy. No question that I will buy another BMW and I will buy it from them! I could go on forever about how great they are haha but I won't. As close to the warranty as you are...even a Porsche dealership would help you out.

[thstone]

I had the same recommendation from my BMW dealer on my 325i at 60,000 miles.

I found that the bushings were *slightly* worn and the dealers definition of worn (slightly less than brand new from the factory) and mine (worn bad enough to need replacement) were quite different.

Get a second opinion and then decide what you are willing to live with. I left the *worn* bushings on my car until 120,000 miles and replaced them myself (and saved $400 in dealer labor) when they finally met my definition of worn (as in worn-out!).

[seventythree]

If you have no sympthoms indicating worn out bushings, you can safely ignore their recommendation for the time being.

[fivepointnine]

I had to replace my front forward control arms and ball joints on my X3 at 75k miles, ran me about $500 including alignment from an indy shop

[Dave928]

the control arm bushings on my 2001 325i went bad at about 30k miles.