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Originally Posted by liquidshadow22

I've got new M3 lower and upper front control arms new in a box and they certainly don't move that easily by hand. I can barely move the joint and it only rotates on the ball, no side to side sway like that at all...

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liquidshadow22 ,

An update to my earlier post.

The stock front lower control arm on my 335i Msport does NOT move in the same direction (almost no movement at all) as compared to the upgraded M3 lower control arm as shown in the quoted video above.

The new M3 lower control arm does in-fact have that much play as new out of the box. Mine seemed to be stiff at the start but after 2nd or 3rd movement it was freely moving just like in your video. I too was skeptical before putting them on my car because the original did NOT allow such movement and it mechanically felt wrong.

After installation I heard hard knocking and clunking from turn to turn as the ball joint would freely move in those directions under driving conditions.

The car was undrinkable and an alignment did NOT make it any different.


I regret installing them and had to re-install the original lower control arms.

[_nwilton]

Generally in my experience a clunk comes from a ball joint over a control arm bushing.

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Originally Posted by _nwilton

Generally in my experience a clunk comes from a ball joint over a control arm bushing.

The clunk was least of my worries.