E60 control arms

[bimmer nut]

I'm about to tackle control arms on a 2004 530, rear drive. Doing the uppers and the lowers. Any different that doing an e34? Any insight would be great. I'll post pics when I do it. Prolly this Friday.

[bimmer nut]

About as difficult as a difficult set on an e34. Just all different problems.

7675

7676

The ball joints all popped off easily enough, but one spun while on the hub and I could not get the nut off. I shattered a t40 torx driver trying to hold the bolt while taking the nut off. Went to the store bought another and then stripped the inside of the bolt where you stick the torx driver into. What a pain. The nut was just about all the way off and it was still so hard to turn. I could turn it back on, and get it just about off, but it would just stop at the bottom of the threads. I ended up using an impact gun and channel locks. Putting pressure on the control arm onto the hub, and zipping the bolt on and off maybe ten times before making it past that last thread to get it off.

The other pain was having to loosen the strut to get room to remove the upper arm.

[BennyM]

That looks painful. Everything looks pretty clean in the photos, so I can't tell, were the thread gunked with road grime or rust or what? Overall, how do you find your E60 from a reliability standpoint? BMW mechanic friends have told me that car is a throw-away car in that it's too difficult to work on to be a DIY vehicle, and too expensive once repairs come up otherwise.

[bimmer nut]

No offense, but your friends are full of bunk.

The M54 is rock solid. Yes, it's an '04 so it still has the M54.

The rest of the car has been great, light feel, tossable chassis. These control arms have gone 140k miles before they needed to be replaced. Try that on an e34! lol

This actually is my wifes best friends car that I'm doing the work on in the above posts. We both have e60 stick shift 5ers. Hers has 140k miles on it. Mine has 120k miles on it, and I've not replaced any control arm on mine. Her ball joint had play in it, and when I looked closer, her bushings were ripped a little to. That's why I'm doing uppers and lowers on hers.

[BennyM]

I think my friends were more concerned with the electrical side of the equation, like having to tell the computer to pair a new lightbulb with the car before powering the socket....that kind of thing. On another note, I find it fascinating how many different engines they used in that model line.