[dab1981]

I was under my car the other day and saw a bunch of black stuff around the driver's front control arm. It was on the cover also. Is this the bushing leaking? Steering has been feeling a little off lately, so I'm wondering if this is all related. I'm attaching pictures. Thanks!

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Looks like it. Have you visually inspected the bushing closer and physically move the arm to see if play?

[dab1981]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Looks like it. Have you visually inspected the bushing closer and physically move the arm to see if play?

I'll have to do that. I tried getting a hold of it in the parking lot, but I'll have to lift it up to get a closer look.

Also, the car has 93k miles on it. How long do the control arms usually last?

[e90yyc]

The thrust arm bushing is a hydrostatic bushing, so it has fluid inside that can leak out if its torn. This appears to be what's happened with yours. Common failure point.

I'm at 200K+ miles and mine seem to be fine. So quite literally, YMMV.

[Efthreeoh]

Leaked the juice out. Need to convert to M3 trust arms. Have you experienced any brake vibrations?

[dab1981]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Leaked the juice out. Need to convert to M3 trust arms. Have you experienced any brake vibrations?

No brake vibrations; just the steering feels a little off at highway speed. I'm going to pull the wheel off at lunch today and get a closer look at it.

Is there any reason not to do upgrade to the M3 arms?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by dab1981

No brake vibrations; just the steering feels a little off at highway speed. I'm going to pull the wheel off at lunch today and get a closer look at it.

Is there any reason not to do upgrade to the M3 arms?

Not sure of the price difference any more, but M3 thrust arms have solid bushings, so they'll not leak again. Gives a little bit better steering feel too. A few years ago the price difference was about $25 for the pair. And you do not need to get an alignment after you install them. The M3 parts are the exact same except for the solid bushing.

[CTinline-six]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Not sure of the price difference any more, but M3 thrust arms have solid bushings, so they'll not leak again. Gives a little bit better steering feel too. A few years ago the price difference was about $25 for the pair. And you do not need to get an alignment after you install them. The M3 parts are the exact same except for the solid bushing.

Good to know.

[banglenot]

When mine were wearing at 70K mi, I started to feel a bit of sloppy steering at top dead center. Like it didn't want to track fully straight. New bushings fixed it.

[dab1981]

I checked it out a lunch today. There is a little bit of play. I could twist it just a little bit. I didn't bring tools to take off any of the paneling to get a better look at the bushing itself. The other arm on that wheel was definitely more solid. Am I correct in assuming there should not be any play at all?

[Tambohamilton]

It's just a rubber bushing with quite a lot of cutout area, so you'll always be able to flex them by hand, even when they're new (m3 ones much less so, because solid). Only way to tell for sure is to look at it. But from the symptoms you have, it sounds pretty conclusive to me that this is your issue. I'd replace both of them.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by dab1981

I checked it out a lunch today. There is a little bit of play. I could twist it just a little bit. I didn't bring tools to take off any of the paneling to get a better look at the bushing itself. The other arm on that wheel was definitely more solid. Am I correct in assuming there should not be any play at all?

If there is play at the road wheel, that's telling you the ball joint on the thrust arm may be loose, or the ball joint on the lower control arm is loose. The blown bushing on the trust arm shouldn't reflect in any looseness in the road wheel. The ball joints should have zero play in them. With it safe to be under the car, grab each control arm and try to move them and carefully look at the ball joints for any play, there shouldn't be any. A few years ago, I noticed my left front wheel was loose when I was torqueing the lug bolts on the gravel driveway in front of my garage (I usually torque them on the concrete inside the garage, so I didn't notice it before). So I checked the ball joints on the left hub and the thrust arm ball joint was visibly loose. I never felt it in the steering. I rotate tires about every 6 weeks or so, so I found it a little disconcerting I hadn't found the ball joint issue earlier.

The trust arms are very easy to replace. The ball joints on the E90 separate very easily.

[dab1981]

I got under the car and here's what I found:

Driver's thrust arm - some play at the bushing, similiar play at the ball joint
Driver's lower control arm - solid on both sides

Passenger's thrust arm - same as the driver's side, some play at the bushing and ball joint
Passenger's lower control arm - just a little bit of play at the ball joint.

I checked the tie rod ball joints as well, and those moved a lot (and fairly easily) on both driver and passenger side. Not sure if that's normal or not.

As I think about it, I'm leaning towards replacing all of them (thrust arms, lower control arms, and tie rods). They all of something going on (even if it's small) and I thinking I can just do it all while I'm in there. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

[dab1981]

Originally Posted by dab1981

I got under the car and here's what I found:

Driver's thrust arm - some play at the bushing, similiar play at the ball joint
Driver's lower control arm - solid on both sides

Passenger's thrust arm - same as the driver's side, some play at the bushing and ball joint
Passenger's lower control arm - just a little bit of play at the ball joint.

I checked the tie rod ball joints as well, and those moved a lot (and fairly easily) on both driver and passenger side. Not sure if that's normal or not.

As I think about it, I'm leaning towards replacing all of them (thrust arms, lower control arms, and tie rods). They all of something going on (even if it's small) and I thinking I can just do it all while I'm in there. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

I replaced the control arms with M3 arms and replaced the tie rods with the Meyle's over the weekend. Thanks to all of the great advice in this forum, it went pretty well. Thank you! After reading some other posts about the Meyle tie rods going out after some months, I'm going to keep an eye on them. At least I got them from FCP Euro and can use their return policy if they go bad.

I had an alignment done today and everything feels more firm. I don't know how much of it is the M3 arms vs just getting new parts in. The one thing that feels different in a negative way is that it seems I am making constant minor corrections at highway speeds to stay straight. Maybe it's the road, or maybe I'm noticing what it's like to not have that play at the center now. Not sure. I haven't driven it much yet, but overall the upgrade is a positive. I didn't notice any more noise or harshness.

[dab1981]

I realized that my steering wheel isn't quite straight! It's just a pointed a little to the right. That must be what was throwing me off on the highway. I'm going to take it back and get them to line it up.

[Tambohamilton]

make sure they're paying attention! Really grinds my gears, alignments done wrong. Yes, it's sensitive, but it's not complicated; no excuse for getting it wrong, and it happens so often!