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      12-02-2010, 10:47 PM   #1
Hairballs58
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Broken rear control arms

Took my car in after noticing something wrong during a trip in the canyons. During turns, the car no longer seemed stable and felt like the rear end was moving all about. I thought I had a flat tire at first, but after a visual inspection and stopping at a gas station for air, the tires seemed fine.

Took it into the mechanic and he reported that both rear control arms were broken. My questions to you guys is do both arms just brake like that, together? and also how long should the repair take? Can it be DIY? Thanks in advance!
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      12-03-2010, 07:25 AM   #2
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Are you the original owner? The arms were probably damaged some time ago if the car has been involved in an "incident." Or someone might have tried to jack the car up the wrong way. I would have them inspect the entire suspension and subframes while swapping out the control arms.
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      12-03-2010, 10:24 AM   #3
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Wow. Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully, you get that fixed soon.
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      12-03-2010, 11:32 AM   #4
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There are multiple control arms in the rear, there's an upper control arm which the spring seats in, a lower control arm that ties the subframe to the king-pin, and a trailing arm that ties the king-pin to the chassis at the front of the wheel. Which one of these control arms broke?
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      12-03-2010, 09:19 PM   #5
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Damn, someone must have dicked up bad. I literally jumped my car over a 8 inch plus median at around 40 mph and luckily nothing broke on mine.
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      12-04-2010, 01:19 AM   #6
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I got the car as a CPO and the carfax was clean.

The damage was to the trailing arms. I have pictures of what I was shown when I went back to the garage.



Does this look like damage that can happen while on the car? They said it would take 6 hours to fix. I have seen videos of bushings being replaced and it seems pretty straight forward. The garage seems shaddy and I have my doubts.
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      12-04-2010, 09:07 AM   #7
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The part all chewed up with the metal sleeve is from the front of the trailing arm, the RTAB that gets upgraded all the time. What is that other part though, behind the RTABs? A Ball joint gone to hell or one of the bushings on the control arms ("wishbones" per RealOEM).

The RTABS are really chewed up, but that could have been secondary to that other part going bad first. There must be more to the picture - when RTABs fail, I haven't heard of them going like this anyway....
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      12-05-2010, 03:02 AM   #8
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The parts behind were the bushings on the control arms.

I'm just trying to figure out if the damage shown was possible from the car.

Thanks for the help so far everyone.
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      12-20-2010, 04:42 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hairballs58 View Post
The parts behind were the bushings on the control arms.

I'm just trying to figure out if the damage shown was possible from the car.

Thanks for the help so far everyone.
NORMAL.

Those trailing arm bushings are not the most durable parts BMW has ever made/designed. In fact, it's been problematic since the 1980s and on the E9Xes BMW ditched the trailing arms. What you are seeing, is the damage from the removal process, without the proper tools the best way to remove the trailing arm bushings is to cut them up and push them out destroyed like that.
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      12-21-2010, 12:26 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK View Post
NORMAL.

Those trailing arm bushings are not the most durable parts BMW has ever made/designed. In fact, it's been problematic since the 1980s and on the E9Xes BMW ditched the trailing arms. What you are seeing, is the damage from the removal process, without the proper tools the best way to remove the trailing arm bushings is to cut them up and push them out destroyed like that.
It's normal for them to go bad, but it should not take 6 hours to replace them.

OP what EXACTLY are the bushings in the back, I have never even seen those before and there are no real bushings on the rear axle besides the RTABs the rest are ball joints except where the upper and lower control arm meet the subframe, but those are much smaller.....

You made it sound like an arm broke in half.

Either way, this should not be taking 6 hours, unless the shop has no idea what they are doing (which they obviously don't based on the bushings)
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