New trailing arms needed?

[Muzzled]

Hi everyone, proud new owner of a Z3M here! Just had a scary quote for fixing a past MOT advisory and hoping you can confirm / deny what I'm hearing please. The advisories:

- Nearside Rear Inner Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
- Offside Rear Inner Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))

I called my local BMW specialist and they said I would need to replace both of the rear trailing arms at nearly £2000 a side. Really hope this isn't true.

Is it possible to replace the worn pin or bush rather than the whole arm?

If you have any tips about these other advisories please I'd really appreciate that too. Big bills?

- Wear in Steering Rack inner joints
- Brake reaction bushes starting to seperate

Thanks a lot for your input!

 

[Stevo7682]

Hi not so sure about the m models but certainly on all other z3 you can buy separately the trailing arm bushes.
The arm should only ever need changing if it was excessively corroded or had sustained damage.
And as you will have found out z3m arms different from standard arm and is mortgage material to buy new and as with most M parts that are unique to the M all but impossible to find second hand.

Stephen.

 

[Muzzled]

Hi not so sure about the m models but certainly on all other z3 you can buy separately the trailing arm bushes.
The arm should only ever need changing if it was excessively corroded or had sustained damage.
And as you will have found out z3m arms different from standard arm and is mortgage material to buy new and as with most M parts that are unique to the M all but impossible to find second hand.

Stephen.

Thanks Stephen. I will add the shop hasn't looked at the car, I just told them these advisories over the phone. I've got no reason to believe they're damaged or corroded so really appreciate you mentioning that.

 

[Stevo7682]

RealOEM.com - Select Your BMW Model

RealOEM.com BMW Parts website. This site can be used to look up BMW part numbers and approximate part prices. The Parts are grouped into diagrams and diagrams are grouped into categories and subcategories

www.realoem.com

.

If you go on real oem put in your chassis last 7 then find your rear suspension diagram it will show you all its individual components and give you part numbers.
Then you can go on Autodoc , Ebay and the likes to try trace them.
This is how my 2.8 looks on there.

So for mine bush is number 8 when you go down list shows 2 different bushes a standard and an eccentric one.
Stephen.

 

[AntStark]

Sounds like inner tie rods and some bushes…2k! The trailing arm ones rarely fail anyway
That’s not an Z3M in your profile pic though…3.0l?
As you are in Guildford you are lucky to be in the vicinity of ZedShed HQ ..you may want to consider this https://zroadster.org/threads/the-quick-dirty-chronicles.68521/

 

[Muzzled]

Sounds like inner tie rods and some bushes…2k! The trailing arm ones rarely fail anyway
That’s not an Z3M in your profile pic though
As you are in Guildford you are lucky to be in the vicinity of ZedShed HQ ..you may want to consider this https://zroadster.org/threads/the-quick-dirty-chronicles.68521/

This is a great referral thank you, I would much rather deal with a proper specialist like ZedShed.

My profile pic is still set as my previous car which was a lovely black 3.0, sold it very recently to fund the M purchase. I'll update it soon

 

[AntStark]

We all love a Z3M pic

 

[Althulas]

That does seem odd, when I did my rear end refresh I could have left my bushes in the arms but while I was there I thought it be rude not to. I changed mine to poly which I possibly may regret due to reports from others of squeak but will see in time.

I wonder if they were referring to the rear beam as the bushes will be knackered by now unless they have been changed. I also would recommend to have a Zedshed consultation if your not confident enough to get it up on axel stands and have a look yourself.

 

[Pingu]

That does seem odd, when I did my rear end refresh I could have left my bushes in the arms but while I was there I thought it be rude not to. I changed mine to poly which I possibly may regret due to reports from others of squeak but will see in time.

I wonder if they were referring to the rear beam as the bushes will be knackered by now unless they have been changed. I also would recommend to have a Zedshed consultation if your not confident enough to get it up on axel stands and have a look yourself.

The rear arm bushes last an incredibly long time.

The rear beam bushes are much more likely to need replacement.

 

[Muzzled]

That does seem odd, when I did my rear end refresh I could have left my bushes in the arms but while I was there I thought it be rude not to. I changed mine to poly which I possibly may regret due to reports from others of squeak but will see in time.

I wonder if they were referring to the rear beam as the bushes will be knackered by now unless they have been changed. I also would recommend to have a Zedshed consultation if your not confident enough to get it up on axel stands and have a look yourself.

This is great, sounds like confirmation that the trailing arm bushes / pins can indeed be replaced. Thank you. The garage I was talking to told me they couldn't!

Sent a PM to Lee at ZedShed and hope to discuss with them soon nice and local

 

[Stevo7682]

@Lee Is your man if your local Zedshed does first-class work and will give you an honest appraisal of your new purchase.
Stephen.

 

[Muzzled]

Pleased to say I'll be heading to the Zed Shed tomorrow! Really looking forward to it. Thanks for the recommendations everyone.

 

[AntStark]

Remember to take a load of pictures

 

[KASPar]

Remember to fully take a load of pictures your breakfast bap

FTFY

 

[AntStark]

FTFY

That too !

 

[Muzzled]

Had an excellent time at The Zed Shed yesterday! Really great to meet everyone. I'm so grateful to have a fairly clean bill of health for my new M, gave me the confidence to drive the car enthusiastically that afternoon.

I'll be back soon to see if we can track down my vacuum leak and look forward to getting my rear beam / diff bushes sorted in future

 

[Jam03]

So are the trailing arms actually okay? Would be good to know which garage advised otherwise.

 

[AntStark]

They look ok from the picture.. think it was the bushes that were suspect anyway.. but how they would tell that I have no idea

 

[Muzzled]

So are the trailing arms actually okay? Would be good to know which garage advised otherwise.

Yes the trailing arms are fine. To be fair to the garage that told me otherwise, they were only going off my description of the advisories (on the phone) and hadn't looked at the car. Perhaps not quite 'name and shame' worthy but close!

 

[Pingu]

It looks like your front tracking and rear camber are waaaay out