Anyone ever have a ball joint fail on an E9?

[thehackmechanic]

Anyone ever have a ball joint fail on their E9? In my book and presentations, I talk about "The Big Six" things that can cause a car to go from traveling happily down the road to dead on a ramp truck. They are cooling system issues, ignition issues, fuel delivery issues, charging issues, belts, and ball joints. Ball joints sort of are a forced fit into this list, but they are the part of the suspension/steering that receive most of the road pounding, and are the part that, if they fail, you lose control of the car, with the wheel folding under like a broken ankle. (google "ball joint failure." it's scary.)

Has anyone ever had one fail on an E9? In general, I've found ball joints on vintage BMWs to be extremely long-lived. Years back, I gave up replacing them prophylactically and only change them if there's obvious play or if the boots are ripped.

To wit, I'm about to take my E9 1200 miles to Virgina Beach and back (I'm speaking at the Coastal VA auto show on Saturday the 18th). I just crawled under the car to check it out, and found that the boot on the right ball joint is ripped. I've checked the joint by squeezing on it with big pliers and detect no play. I can't imagine that they're not the original control arms and ball joints; I've owned the car since 1986 and I've never changed them.

I'm trying to decide how much of my own advice to take and whether to move heaven and earth to get lower control arms with integrated ball joints delivered and installed before I leave.

--Rob

 

[bill]

I did my control arms/ball joints a couple of years ago. I used non-BMW parts from I forget who (made in Italy). Only problem I had was the arms came with the bushings incorrectly installed; the big hole bushing was where the small hole should have been and likewise with the other bushings. I had them re-arranged at a shop with a press. The other issue is the length;my '74 takes the longer ones which were the only ones the supplier had at the time. I think pre-74s take shorter arms. Other than that it was pretty straight-forward; piece of cake for you Rob.

 

[Stevehose]

That boot could have been ripped for years and several of your previous trips? I recall that there is a lot of chinese junk control arms etc out there that do fail so if you choose to replace try to find german ones.

 

[Arde]

Google "survivor bias", that may explain why we do not hear about ball joint failure...

People like Mike that experience and enjoy piston slap, per the other thread, live to tell about it.

I would replace it, even if you face the choice between new Chinese and broken German.

 

[pat cooks]

if you don't have time right now to repair it I would just try to inject some fresh grease into the split, that will flush out any dirt and prevent any more getting right inside, use a syringe or cake frosting thingy, just don't tell your wife what you want it for, if the joint has no play just replace the rubber boot when you get a chance, don't worry about it for this trip, a split boot will not cause the joint to suddenly fail, a good used genuine BMW arm / joint will outlast most modern replacements, Pat

 

[Cornishman]

You talk of the big six that will stop you from completing your journey without the help of a tow truck. I think hydraulics ie clutch and brakes need to be on the list.
Clutch slave cylinder is a favourite, as are sticking brake calipers.
If it will drive 30 miles I am sure it can do a few thousand, so don't worry. I agree with Pat on the ball joint.
Good luck
CB

 

[pat cooks]

For 25 years I used to drive an old 3.5 ton van, Ford Transit, Mercedes sprinter, LDV, etc. often towing a trailer back and forth to Germany, once a month to collect BMW parts, never had to get recovered, two or three times I stripped the teeth from second gear so only had third and top, twice lost the clutch so drove without one, once had to bleed the diesel system every 2--3 miles, alternator packed up so drove with no lights, diesel froze one night so I had to light a fire under the engine and fuel tank, a couple of times I went to the Frankfurt motor show on a BMW R90s, broke an exhaust rocker both times, so just removed the spark plug and rode home very noisily on one cylinder at 2500 rpm, you can usually get home if you want to, Pat

 

['69 2800cs]

When I bought my CS the ball joint had massive play on one side...you would have thought it would have fallen out it was so loose.

But it hadn't...and it must have been that way for years. Of course I replaced it ASAP but if I had a tear like yours I wouldn't worry about it immediately-even for a long trip.