[sirleeofroy]

Hi Guys,

So recently my front end has been "wandering" whilst going in a straight line and frankly feels horrible at speed as it's just not that solid feeling we come to expect.

I'd suspected the arm bushings were knackered as I doubt any of these components have been changed since factory and this was confirmed by my indy.... He showed me by rolling the car and jabbing the brakes and you could quite clearly see the movement of the wheel in the arch.... pretty bad to be honest

Anyway, my indy said that he could replace the bushes however, I argued that I should probably replace the arms each side as well as the drop links as these would all be as worn and I would likely need to come back to it, seeing as the arms come with the bushes it made sense...

That said, has anyone just replaced the control arm bushes and if so, how did you get on?

I imagine someone will mention M3 arms which I have considered but it looks like pricing has gone up on those....

Does anyone know of a good supplier for the entire front arms kit? I'm just looking at Autodoc at the minute at the TRW/Lemforder etc pieces but I have noticed a full kit on fleabay which is unbranded....

[rasa bmw]

gonna probably cost more with labour having to do the arms,,also arms on my 335d needed heat to remove,,they also have knuckles on them not just a bush,,i replaced my control arms/drop links/radius arms on my 330d,,around £180 for the parts all febi from german company buycarparts.co.uk,,quality parts..also put new control arms on my 335d...

[RajB]

Personally better (as you have said) to just replace the complete arms. New bushes and joints and everything is fresh and new. You still have to remove the arms to press new bushes in anyway most likely. Plus you don't want to be in a position where you change just the bush and then the ball joint goes afterwards.

I posted up quite sometime ago that you can get the M3 arms from spareto at around £60 per control arm.

[buddyboy]

I just bought the trw M3 control arms, i got them on Amazon, They are the oem arms with the M logo grinded off. Cost me 220 quid for the arms delivered

JTC 1424
JTC 1425
JTC 1426
JTC 1427

You also need the me control arm leveling rod 37142283867 which is less than 20 quid

[Bash*]

Originally Posted by buddyboy

I just bought the trw M3 control arms, i got them on Amazon, They are the oem arms with the M logo grinded off. Cost me 220 quid for the arms delivered

JTC 1424
JTC 1425
JTC 1426
JTC 1427

You also need the me control arm leveling rod 37142283867 which is less than 20 quid

Would you know if these would also be applicable for 2008 e93 330d?

Thanks,

Bash.

[buddyboy]

I presume they should be ok, I cant confirm obviously.

This thread seems to agree:

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showt...=925188&page=2

[mjn77]

The TRW M3 arms were £195 when i bought them 3 years ago, so cost has only gone up slightly.

[Tambohamilton]

The only bits which keep the front wheels in place are the 4x control arms (2 either side)... And the struts and strut top mounts. I recently replaced all of that lot due to wandering and tramlining, and it's made a massive difference!

Definitely best to replace the whole arms - then you get new ball joints as well, which can be a source of movement. The garage will need to remove the whole arm anyhow, to replace just the bushes!

You don't need to do the drop links at the same time really, though I guess makes sense if you're paying someone to do it. They're a super simple job if you fancied doing it yourself!

I'd go with TRW arms, or lemforder as a second option.

Definitely get the geometry done be somebody who knows what they're up to. That will make the biggest difference! I had to take the alignment pins off my strut top mounts to get the camber into spec, interestingly.

[tadaska]

M3 control arms have bushes that rotate, at least mine did. I think it's better than the fixed bushes in the long run as they won't stretch every time the car is lifted.