e36 318iS Front Suspension Help Required

[320Touring]

My daily drive e36 318iS coupe is making a knocking noise from the front left and has play between the 3-9 and 12-6 positions with the wheel jacked up.

Damper is dry, no leaks, and the spring is fine..

Car is totally stock- no lowering springs/dodgy camber etc

I've narrowed it down to either the Track control arm, balljoint or wheel bearing..

Has anyone else experienced this?

If so what did it turn out to be?

had a pain of a day workin on the car- stripped sump plug and wrong oil filter

All help appreciateds

[pacerpete]

Sounds like the outer balljoint. The play/movement is usually most apparent on full lock. ECP sell a Meyle 'heavy duty' balljoint which is similar in design to an E30 balljoint.
The standard E36 balljoint is mounted in rubber , has a steel 'strap' holding it all together at the base and are usually showing excessive movement within 10000 miles. In fact, VOSA MOT notes actually specify that movement is to be expected in e36 balljoints and not neccessarily a reason to fail !
The good news is the Meyle balljoint is a lot cheaper, I.E less than a tenner , than an O.E lemforder part. The bad news is you will need the proper tool to replace it or to remove the arm and use a press


PS; my lovely 318i has Meyle balljoints and E36 M3 concentric bushes fitted and is as tight as a nuns nasty !

[320Touring]

Sounds like the outer balljoint. The play/movement is usually most apparent on full lock. ECP sell a Meyle 'heavy duty' balljoint which is similar in design to an E30 balljoint.
The standard E36 balljoint is mounted in rubber , has a steel 'strap' holding it all together at the base and are usually showing excessive movement within 10000 miles. In fact, VOSA MOT notes actually specify that movement is to be expected in e36 balljoints and not neccessarily a reason to fail !
The good news is the Meyle balljoint is a lot cheaper, I.E less than a tenner , than an O.E lemforder part. The bad news is you will need the proper tool to replace it or to remove the arm and use a press


PS; my lovely 318i has Meyle balljoints and E36 M3 concentric bushes fitted and is as tight as a nuns nasty !

cheers Pete..

Is the e30 tca a direct replacement? as that may just be the plan!

PS, its still an m43 quattroporte

[bss325i]

Yes an E30 wishbone is a direct replacement.

[320Touring]

Yes an E30 wishbone is a direct replacement.

Ok- Thats what I'm calling a Track Control arm? 2 balljoints and mounts into the lollipop?

sound

[bss325i]

Yes.

[daimlerman]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ball-joint-remove ... 24&afsrc=1

This is the tool that Barry/Pete are refering to,in your position,you may well be able to get your money's worth out of one!

Thanks to Barry for the link,BTW,I stole it from one of his posts from earlier in the week.....

[320Touring]

Thanks for the link Macolm, looks a handy bit of kit

[daimlerman]

Thanks for the link Macolm, looks a handy bit of kit

I'm dithering about buying one myself,point is,though,both of my cars have had wishbones(TCA,whatever!)within the last two years,so it is unlikely that I could break even on the cost of the tool....

But as a bit of kit for 'Cartech'....

[sweep]

Got one of those tools at my place there brilliant

[aj_mckay]

Also worth checking the track rod ends, front wishbone rear bushes and ARB drop links while you're in that area; all prone to failure at same sort of time as ball joints in the wishbones.