Suspension Bushes

[196806]

My daily drive is an E90 320i 6MT and it's rather firm and solid on the road, despite having standard suspension running on 16" RFTs.

My Z3 seems remarkably soft and less sporty by comparison.

Wondering if I need to replace suspension bushings - has anyone done so on their Z3 and what was the result? Worth the effort? My bushes do not seem worn in any way after a visual inspection but I suspect after 15 years they will be worn. Rubber doesn't last forever.

 

[Aceman]

Replacing the suspension bushes will give the feeling of tightening things up. You can either refresh with oem or go down the polyurethane route and install Powerflex bushes which are not cheap if you do the entire lot but you can do them a bit at a time. I would start with the front wishbone bushes as these usually are the most worn and do have quite a positive effect in reducing tramlining. I would advise not replacing the rear trailing are bushes though with powerflex ones as these are known to sqeek quite badley after a few weeks so stick with oem for those.

 

[zedonist]

Yep it is certainly worth doing, and don't forget all the ball joints, especially on the front lower control arms, I used all oem bushings and ball joints, car is tight as a drum now.

 

[Brian4]

I've just replaced the front control arm bushes with purple powerflex and certainly improved the ride. You can tell if they are worn by putting the wheel nut spanner on and trying to tighten the front wheel nut up and the wheel will move a surprising amount. No movement when you have changed them. I haven't done the ball joints as I couldn't detect any play in them.

 

[196806]

Great tip. I'll try shortly. I used to be an MX-5 driver and advice from all and sundry about older NAs was when you first get one - renew the bushes.

I'll order some OEM ones. Back on my car feels like it needs more attention that the front.