Close-up pics of bad control and thrust bushings (warning: 400+kb)

[Jeff N.]

Here is a close-up of the old thrust arm bushing. This bushing was allowing excessive movement of the thrust arm leading to bad tracking (tramlining). It's certainly not obviously bad via the visual inspection. If you look close, you can see some very slight tears in the rubber but that's all. Pretty interesting.



Here's the control arm bushing. Wear's a little more obvious here. I don't think you could have seen this with the bushing installed as it's covered but the chassis.



Hope this helps others assess the conditions of their front end.

Jeff

[George M]

great pics Jeff and as you say it does put into perspective how difficult it is to assess bushing condition by visual inspection. Hard to see the tearing which I am sure is much more pronounced under load or flexion and inspection doesn't address how the durometer of the rubber has been degraded by repeat loading over time.
Thanks,
George

[Jeff N.]

Yeah...sort of surprised me too George. Question for those of you in the know - are those "stock" E34 bushings? The new ones that went in had green plastic surrounds. If BMA did their job, the green ones are the upgraded version.

Martin and I guessed they had to be bad based on a simple push/pull test. You could yank on the thrust arm and basically move the linkage. Figured that *couldn't* be good, huh?

Those had 60k miles or so on them. I think that just must be the life of those things period.

BTW, nice pics huh? New Canon S50 camera just rocks!

Jeff

[winfred]

525 535 blue
735 white
750 green
m5 no stuped little plastic crutch
i can't remember the 530/540

[Jeff N.]

ah...thanks Winfred! Ever priced out the M5 bushings? These 750 ones (as you've kindly IDed) feel stiff as heck. Can feel every little pebble...which I like. I would suspect that the M5's are stiffer still...wonder what they cost.

[winfred]

m5s are all i install at the shop on e32s and e34s, we got tired of the crappy plastic spacered bushings dieing quickly, i've had the blues come back in 3 months. i can't really say i've really noticed the stiffness of the m5s over the turd bushings, the roads suck so bad around here you just kinda tune it out, both of my bimmers have bilsteins and m car bushings, i have the m3 offset solid's on the 325 and the m5s on the 535. i can't remember list on them but they are not much more then the blues. i think you can thank us for creating a demand through our supplyer worldpac, they got hard to find a couple years ago, i beleve we used up the old stock, then they came back as a heavy duty alternitive listing about $20 cheeper through our wholesaler in california

[winfred]

i almost forgot to tell you why it feels so stiff, you old bushings sucked up the small bumps and just didn't pass em on to the body, remember how you could move the wheel, watch a front wheel on a e32/34 or a 700/900 volvo with old thrust bushings during braking, it shifts back about a inch, the wheel will also shift back on a bump too

[George M]

absolutely...Canon cameras do rock. Congrats...S50 is a wonderful camera. Many Canon digicams on this board...from real high end to what I have which is a modest A40...one of the most popular 2MP cams of all time...still love it and am amazed at the picture quality.
As to bushings...sounds like Winfred has it pegged. Personally I always go with the 750 bushings...but maybe the M5 bushings are the ticket.
George