# Rear Ball Joints



## WLN1951B (Jul 17, 2003)

A friend of mine is being told by his dealer that replacing rear ball joints on his 2001 535 after 50,000 miles is common. Anybody have any comments to this statement? Thanks for your help.


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## kowached (Jun 20, 2003)

WLN1951B said:


> A friend of mine is being told by his dealer that replacing rear ball joints on his 2001 535 after 50,000 miles is common. Anybody have any comments to this statement? Thanks for your help.


Just replaced mine at 92k and suspect that they had been bad for a while.

My car had been "tramlining" (following the grooves in blacktop lanes) and had been steering erratically on uneven pavement. I looked for slop up front twice and found nothing. It took Nikolas Motorsport about 5 minutes to fins 2 worn rear balljoints. The problem is so common that he actually keeps the parts in stock. The car feels great again.


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## Tom S. (Nov 15, 2003)

kowached said:


> Just replaced mine at 92k and suspect that they had been bad for a while.
> 
> My car had been "tramlining" (following the grooves in blacktop lanes) and had been steering erratically on uneven pavement. I looked for slop up front twice and found nothing. It took Nikolas Motorsport about 5 minutes to fins 2 worn rear balljoints. The problem is so common that he actually keeps the parts in stock. The car feels great again.


Did you do it yourself? If you did, did you use the BMW Ball Joint Tool that looks like crows foot on one lower section and plate on the other being held and spread by two screws or did you use ball joint fork? TIA


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

Tom S. said:


> Did you do it yourself? If you did, did you use the BMW Ball Joint Tool that looks like crows foot on one lower section and plate on the other being held and spread by two screws or did you use ball joint fork? TIA


Ah, you mean a "pickle" fork! Wow...it has been a while since I used one of those but way back when on my '69 Firebird, I had to replace my fronts and ended up renting one. My dad then bought a couple of them....

Chris


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

kowached said:


> Just replaced mine at 92k and suspect that they had been bad for a while.
> 
> My car had been "tramlining" (following the grooves in blacktop lanes) and had been steering erratically on uneven pavement. I looked for slop up front twice and found nothing. It took Nikolas Motorsport about 5 minutes to fins 2 worn rear balljoints. The problem is so common that he actually keeps the parts in stock. The car feels great again.


Good to know! Thanks for sharing, Dave.

Chris


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## kowached (Jun 20, 2003)

Tom S. said:


> Did you do it yourself? If you did, did you use the BMW Ball Joint Tool that looks like crows foot on one lower section and plate on the other being held and spread by two screws or did you use ball joint fork? TIA


No, its the first job that I have not done myself. I'd been looking for the slop (only looking up front) for a while. When the shop found it, I figured "finders keepers" and gave them the job, partially because I was having them mount new rubber, and wanted to have the alignment checked after the ball joints were replaced and before I drove on the new rubber.


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