[E92William]

Hello. Recently my e92 328i has developed this condition where when cornering hard at say over 60 mph it feels really loose and the car kind of dives into the side of the car turning into the corner and the rear feels like its lifting up on the opposite side. Very scary and not confident inspiring at all. It corners fine until you push a bit harder then starts doing that. Best way to describe it would be if the rear of the car was on top of an inflatable gym ball, feels like the front and rear are rather disconnected until you reel it back in by slowing down. It was fine a few weeks ago.

The car has good quality tires which were fine before
The car is on KW coilovers so the shocks are likely not the problem at hand
I was told at the alignment shop before this started happening that the front lower control arm bushings were worn. Could this be the culprit?

Any insight or experience is very appreciated.

[The Nightman]

Mileage? The front diving behaviour sounds like failed tension strut bushings. The factory bushings are fluid filled and typically fail after 60k miles. Do you also hear clunking or feel the front end shifting under hard braking?

A visual inspection can confirm if the bushings have failed. Check for fluid leaking under the bushing:

[relative4]

Failed rension struts will clunk when braking hard at parking lot speeds and swerve slightly when braking at high speeds.

[Serf27]

My e90 has the tiniest clunk on the driver side when hard braking at parking lot speeds! Not a metal to metal clunk but more of a muffled clunk.

Signs of the tension strut failing?

[E92William]

Update. The car had indeed failed tension arm bushings. Replaced them and the problem went away. I plan on doing a front suspension overhaul aswell too eventually. Thanks a lot guys, seems these fail quite often. And I'm not sure what shape other stuff down there is in. The repair of these bushings also helped vibration on the highway. The car has 110k.

My bushings weren't oil filled so seems they were at some point replaced with aftermarket.

[Paliator]

Originally Posted by E92William

Update. The car had indeed failed tension arm bushings. Replaced them and the problem went away. I plan on doing a front suspension overhaul aswell too eventually. Thanks a lot guys, seems these fail quite often. And I'm not sure what shape other stuff down there is in. The repair of these bushings also helped vibration on the highway. The car has 110k.

My bushings weren't oil filled so seems they were at some point replaced with aftermarket.

What part did you replace with?

[E92William]

I got some dorman ones from amazon and they're alright. The car is not perfect yet I feel it might need balljoints

[E92William]

Well another update and first of all thanks for the help with the issue I posted guys, really appreciated.

The car is not body rolling anymore but what it's doing now is randomly when driving it'll suddenly feel loose and wander around from left to right kind of have to fight it a bit to keep it going straight.

It doesnt happen consistently, for example today I took it down some back roads loading up the suspension in turns real good and was fine but soon as I got out of that and was on a straight road it started wandering pulling left or right and then stopped and did it again.

It makes a few clunks when reversing and turning aswell as it has a bit of a shudder sometimes when turning at parking lot speeds not always though so I wonder if it might be related to that. Any insight helps. Cheers

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by E92William

The car is not body rolling anymore but what it's doing now is randomly when driving it'll suddenly feel loose and wander around from left to right kind of have to fight it a bit to keep it going straight.

It doesnt happen consistently, for example today I took it down some back roads loading up the suspension in turns real good and was fine but soon as I got out of that and was on a straight road it started wandering pulling left or right and then stopped and did it again.

It makes a few clunks when reversing and turning aswell as it has a bit of a shudder sometimes when turning at parking lot speeds not always though so I wonder if it might be related to that. Any insight helps. Cheers

Did you get an alignment after replacing the thrust arms? I've experienced similar symptoms after replacing control arms on different car (not a E90) and had that same wandering feeling which was resolved after an alignment. On my E90, I recently noticed this wandering feeling after replacing struts, which increased my ride height slightly and affected my alignment. I'm doing thrust arms and getting tires within the next few weeks and getting an alignment afterward, so I'll report any updates.

You mentioned you still hear an occasional clunk at parking lot speeds. When you replaced the thrust arms, did you inspect the end links, tie rods, and the rearward control arm?