Andrew

Meyle HD, yeah they are good. Ask the garage if they tightened it up with car at ride height

I can recommend Car Mechanics mag as a good alternative from Kelsey. I think if you were a subscriber of one of the bmw mags they did they offered you Car Mechanics mag. Every so often there is a good BMW article in it. They’ve covered most popular BMW models 1, 3, 5, 7, X3, X5 etc etc and some coupes and even a few good reads on a 3 Compact. Current project car is a 335i E92.

Avoid any and all JLR products. If they don’t get stolen (a blessing really) they will break and are worthless on resale. The whole EV market is quite broken. No one wants a new one (unless you’ve got day release from the asylum) so they won’t take any in as trade in as they have no hope in hell of selling a used EV if they can’t sell new. Yes MG are selling new EVs for the price of a weeks Tesco shop, but they are utter junk and will cost you money to dispose off after three years as who of sane mind will buy a used MG EV at three years old with 50k on the clock. As long as you own a socket set and a diagnostic machine with this here forum there is no need to buy an EV as we can keep any ICE BmW on the road

Ah I assumed you did it when you said Take it back and ask them to slacken them all off and replace the bolts and tighten at ride height. Bolts are stretch bolts so need replacing each time they get undone. It’s normal procedure when replacing suspension components to tighten their bolts at ride height so as not to stress up bushes or affect ride height. Garage should know that. Assuming the garage fitted decent OEM or genuine parts and not cheap Chineseium grade made to incorrect dimensions.

Welcome to the twin single tails club. It’s a sign of exclusivity amongst us F10/11 owners. 🤣

Did you tighten the bolts on the bushes at the subframe at ride height/with the weight of the car on them? Main wishbone arm fitting Front banana arm tension strut fitting

Ahhhh just like being at home then 🤣 Mega jealous of your road trip. Been to Sorrento a couple of times, lovely place

This! I've replaced stuff on my F10 at 50k miles that was lasting 70k miles on my E60.

Banished? More like promoted to higher grades above us scruffy 5 Series owners. 🤪 Isn't the dark side, Mercedes ownership? Great post and useful info on exhaust removal which would appear to be similar to mine. What mileage is on your GT?

Ashamed to admit, but I had to top up my engine oil after a 120 mile motorway blast today. It's done 5,500 miles since the last oil change last October. This is the most amount of miles its done between any oil changes since 2018! So it's probably used oil but because the previous highest miles between oil changes was 4,500 miles I've never ever had to top up. I had been very bad in neglecting to check the level. Since doing more motorway miles the car has been running really sweet. If only it had a physical dipstick. Must remember to check it more often... It does have a slight sweat from the rocker cover gasket but what 11 year old BMW doesn't? So I'm assuming it's drinking it as there is nowt else obvious well, other than a slight sweat from the turbo oil return pipe.

😰 And their mum and dad will be paying for that I presume? That is impressive, pity it's now covered with triple X glass which will literally be everywhere inside the car. Hope it gets sorted quickly.

It is the same soap. 😝 It's Clean Your Cars own brand of snow foam.🤪 I have snapped the car before in the same spot with soap on it (more room there than when its parked safely on my driveway), but it was three weeks ago since it was last washed. Quite a lot of brake dust build up on the front wheels which made me want to clean them.

Washed it.

I should add that when using these tools that rely on threaded rods to generate the forces involved, make sure you lubricate the threads with a good quality high load grease such as CV joint grease with molybdenum in it. It does make a difference and you are less likely to snap a threaded rod. You can see my tin of grease in the background of some photos

This is a guide on how to replace the rear balljoint on the lower arm on an 2015 520d F11. The same balljoint is used on all F10, F11, F07 version of the 5 Series plus the 6 and 7 Series along with some posh Rollers too of similar vintage. Part #13 in this link The lower arm used in this is unique to the F11, but I do not believe there will be much difference in the arms used on the F10 saloon. O.k. so we’ve got this easy as the lower arm is a good used replacement and is on my bench for this work instead of fixed to the car. After @VPCAPTAIN's lower arm lost a fight with a raised manhole cover the anti roll bar link bracket broke off the arm. As the cost of a new arm made him break out in a cold sweat, a complete used rear F11 hub assembly was sourced for £80. The lower arm was removed from the rest of the parts and we took the opportunity to replace the balljoint as a new one could be had for £20. Tools needed 5 Series Balljoint tool Generic Bearing and Bush removal/insert tool Spanners and sockets for working the above tools Wire brush Screwdriver Hammer Stanley knife Bespoke 5 Series Rear Balljoint tool (<£30 from eBay) Generic Bearing and Bush removal/insert tool. Parts needed Balljoint 33326780438 Snap ring/Circlip 33321091687 If buying an aftermarket balljoint, not all of them come with the snap ring so check the part ordered. The febi part here came with the snap ring. Wire brush around the area of the old snap ring to aid it coming out. I used a wire brush wheel in a drill. This cleared the muck away so I could see the gap in the snap ring. To allow the snap ring to be prized out, I mounted the arm in a vice using a rag to protect the arm. With a few lights taps with a hammer on the end of the screwdriver the snap ring was beginning to come out of its groove in the balljoint. I made some marks on the arm to show where the snap ring sits, this helped me ensure I pushed the new balljoint in from the correct direction! Came out quite easily To give me a firm surface to push the old bush out I started to remove the rubber gaiter on that side. There are two wire clips holding the gaiter on, one at the top and bottom. This isn't essential but it prevents the possibility of the cups moving when pushing the balljoint out. I cut the rubber gaiter off with a Stanley knife Old gaiter removed A 50mm dia cup was used as the driving cup to push the balljoint out, it needs to be a whisker smaller in dia than the balljoint so the cup passes thru the hole in the lower arm. A 70mm cup was used as the receiving cup with a 14mm threaded rod and the slack taken up, once the pressure got too much the arm was mounted back the in the vice…. We were putting a fair amount of pressure on the threaded rod and we’ve got form for breaking these so we decided a squirt of WD40 might ease things along as there was no sign of it moving. Another heave on the tools there was an almighty bang and I thought I had broken another threaded rod but no, the bush had started to move thanks goodness. It’s out. Compare old with new, the balljoint gets inserted from the rear of the arm forwards. Groove for snap ring is at front and the flange of the balljoint is to the rear. Power wire brush both sides of the arm where the new balljoint will be installed. We start the install, using a pair of cups, the smaller one pushes on the rear of the balljoint and this larger cup allows the balljoint thru on the front side (top in this picture). This is where we hit a problem. The balljoint just wouldn’t go in square into the arm. Time for a re-think. I suspected that because the distance between the two nuts on the threaded rods were so far apart there was scope for the bar to be off centre slightly and made the balljoint go in squint. We then invested in a specific 5 Series Rear Balljoint tool which has specific shaped cups to suit the balljoint and more critically are shorter. Start again a few days later with the correct tool. With a few moments and not much effort needed the new ball joint was almost fully installed but I had hit high resistance and was scared to put any more load into the threaded rod for fear of snapping it. I was making my 700mm long ratchet bend putting beef into it. Its not home yet but there is no way I can get it to go further. Stop and think things thru again Checking the receiving end of the insertion tool, it just wasn’t quite deep enough to allow the balljoint to fully pass thru the arm. You can clearly see the snap ring recess, the tool needs to cover over that to allow the balljoint to be pushed far enough So a suitably sized bearing cup (64mm) was found and the threaded rod passed thru and again within moments and with little resistance the balljoint was pushed fully home. Phew hard bit done and there is the gap for the snap ring to ‘snap’ into. I start the snap ring in its slot at 9 o’clock and work clockwise round gently pushing it into place with nothing more than a small screwdriver. That’s it its installed fully. I think the specific 5 Series Balljoint tool was developed for older generations of 5 Series where the ball joint might be of a slightly different size so it would fit into to the receiving cup of the tool, where as I had to use a hybrid version of both my tools to make it fit. This is what the lower arm looks like with the new bolts ready to fit to the car. With a new roll bar drop link and an integral link. This is what we will fit to the F11. And with the rest of the 2nd hand hub and arms so you can see how it all fits together. We will only replace the lower arm on the car, leaving the hub with driveshaft/bearings and upper arms in-situ. Will keep you all posted how that job goes....