[sle39lvr]

I have had M3 front control arms for about 50k miles or so. The other day, I noticed a significant amount of oil residue accumulated on the chassis side of the passenger lower control arm.



Far as I knew, these things just have ball joints in them? No liquid? The oil could be dripped from somewhere else from the engine?

[feuer]

Probably VCG.

[Camman]

To continue on feuer's comment, it could be multiple things depending on how old the car is and what gaskets have been replaced. Valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, and oil pan gasket are 3 items that will need to be changed before 100k miles.

Regarding, the M3 control arms. I can't answer that. I'm not sure how different they are to OEM's. I just know they are a little longer, hence the added negative camber they give.

[Volasko]

Its my impression that the M3 arms are solid rubber bushings vs. the fluid filled bushings in the OEM arms. Do I have concrete evidence? No, but I do remember the solid bushings being one of the advantages of upgrading to the M3 arm, along with the extra camber.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by Volasko

Its my impression that the M3 arms are solid rubber bushings vs. the fluid filled bushings in the OEM arms. Do I have concrete evidence? No, but I do remember the solid bushings being one of the advantages of upgrading to the M3 arm, along with the extra camber.

Is not oil filled, is not rubber but spherical bearing.

[bNks334]

The bearing grease could be leaking from the rubber boot that covers the joint. Inspect that the green piece of metal is in the correct groove.

People have stated that trw arms are bmw rejects. I think this makes sense that they are pieces that didn't pass bmw qi... the boots on my trw arms were not clamped in the correct place (where you point to). I had to undo the metal lock ring holding the boot in place and pop the lock ring into the correct groove.

[sle39lvr]

Now it makes sense. I had my VCG go bad about 10k miles back. After the recent visit to dealer, I was mentioned that the oil pan gasket might be going bad since the technician saw oil residue around it.

So the control arm is fine it so seems...

Originally Posted by Camman

To continue on feuer's comment, it could be multiple things depending on how old the car is and what gaskets have been replaced. Valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, and oil pan gasket are 3 items that will need to be changed before 100k miles.

Regarding, the M3 control arms. I can't answer that. I'm not sure how different they are to OEM's. I just know they are a little longer, hence the added negative camber they give.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by bNks334

People have stated that trw arms are bmw rejects. I think this makes sense that they are pieces that didn't pass bmw qi...

uumm... no!