01 325Ci Rear Suspension
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 7:53 pm
This thing handles poorly. Much of that is the tires. The rest is....something? Anyway, I was poking around underneath this past weekend to try to identify the source of the rattle and found something peculiar. Not the rattle.
This is the lower control arm in the rear on the passenger side. There is a bushing pressed into the spindle plus another one that is part of this arm where it joins the rear subframe. Pretty straight forward. This one seems fine, even though there is some rust. However, when you look at the driver's side, something is wrong. No idea how this happens. The previous owner doesn't recall any incident that would have made this happen outside of some potholes. I don't think a pothole did this, unless the potole was 14" deep. It was actually hard to see at first, there is a plastic cover that BMW clips over this arm for appearance/aerodynamic reasons. The one from the RH side was missing and the one on the LH side partially obscures the state of the arm. However, it is meant to clip to the space between the halves of the arm. I noticed it didn't appear to be attached correctly, so I removed it to inspect and noticed this problem.
Fortunately, replacement arms are $27 each, so I've ordered new ones. I'll install those this coming weekend provided it comes apart. This explains why the car felt worse turning right compared to turning left. The camber is probably all wrong on the LH side in the rear. I'm also surprised there wasn't abnormal tire wear in the rear, but maybe it's not off by enough to affect that.
This is the lower control arm in the rear on the passenger side. There is a bushing pressed into the spindle plus another one that is part of this arm where it joins the rear subframe. Pretty straight forward. This one seems fine, even though there is some rust. However, when you look at the driver's side, something is wrong. No idea how this happens. The previous owner doesn't recall any incident that would have made this happen outside of some potholes. I don't think a pothole did this, unless the potole was 14" deep. It was actually hard to see at first, there is a plastic cover that BMW clips over this arm for appearance/aerodynamic reasons. The one from the RH side was missing and the one on the LH side partially obscures the state of the arm. However, it is meant to clip to the space between the halves of the arm. I noticed it didn't appear to be attached correctly, so I removed it to inspect and noticed this problem.
Fortunately, replacement arms are $27 each, so I've ordered new ones. I'll install those this coming weekend provided it comes apart. This explains why the car felt worse turning right compared to turning left. The camber is probably all wrong on the LH side in the rear. I'm also surprised there wasn't abnormal tire wear in the rear, but maybe it's not off by enough to affect that.