I need to do a wheel bearing on my 2006 E61. Is there really no way to do this without taking half the suspension apart?! Wheel alignments are a right faff so wanted to avoid it but it seems like the only option to do this is to take the strut out completely by unbolting it at the top mount. It all seems excessive for a little old wheel bearing! Of the aftermarket options available i am leaning to Febi or SKF - the SKF is about 35£ more expensive from Parts In Motion but am thinking they are well known for good quality bearings so worth the extra?
Have you considered FAG bearings? Unfortunately, IIRC, you are right - the whole strut need to be taken out. Are you planning to do both sides? If one is kaput, the other one won't be far behind.
Well... I may have been premature. I thought I could detect play in the front left consistent with wheel bearing play - along with a rumble from the road when driving. I was away with no tools all week but pre-emptivley ordered the bearing. Just jacked up and the bearings are fine! Whilst on the jack I had a poke around and there is significant play in the track rod joint at the rack end on the drivers side though. This wouldnt cause a rumble though would it? I'll get it on my ramp now and confirm for sure but looks like the track rods will need to be changed whatever.
My advice would be to have replacement lower arms to go in too. The shanks on my 2004 E60 back in 2012 had rusted badly and the nyloc nut just jammed solid so they ended up being cut off. When I did the nearside on my E60, I removed the pinch bolt and dropped the hub from the strut and then removed the two arms from the subframe and track rod end from the hub then separated the bearing from the hub on the bench having first cutting off the balljoints in both arms as I was also replacing the arms. The offside was done much easier by removing the track rod end from hub, arms from the subframe and top mount from the wing. Separating the hub from the strut was much easier on the bench than on the car. Again lower arms were being replaced so their balljoints were hacksawed thru. Obviously caliper, cradle and discs need removing first and ABS sensor and pad wiring were disconnected too.
Its a faff unfortunately, The E60 suspension design doesn't help. I was able to replace them in situ for FAG items sourced from Autodoc, but the strut had to be separated from the knuckle, and one of the control arms at least needed to be removed to allow access to the 4 bolts in the back. Most of the fight was with the Strut coming out and the control arms.
Little late to the party, I know, but many years ago I changed my 57 plate E61 front hub bearings following vibration under braking. Spinning the discs while on the jack it was obvious they were not warped so I bit the bullet and went for changing both hubs. Yes it was one hell of a faff, taking the entire strut assembly out to get to the four bolts and remove the hub. I had the kit so changed them despite no feeling of play or movement.... but whilst doing the job I did notice one hell of a lot of play in the strut top bearings. Long story, short... 12 quid each and dead easy to change out.... made all the difference. We live and learn. It had the N53 engine, which was almost constantly faulty and damned expensive to drive across europe, so I binned it for the ex-plod F11 530d which has been awesome!
That's good to know. I'm now experiencing spring tension unloading and pinging repeatedly as I move the wheel getting off my drive and in car parks, most likely will need to change the top mounts, and soon. Do tell more about the N53 experience, I'm curious. - I know about electric water pumps, and oil leaks from the oil housing, but what else is common and costly? - Also you said mpg was shit?
The biggest problem was the injectors. I believe BMW put them shooting directly into the cylinders which meant they easily got coked up. Last I heard BMW had developed up to index 16 injectors before giving up trying to make it work. Obviously when cold the cylinder burn was dirtier, exacerbated by the egr system. In terms of economy, back then I'd not long started working overseas and was driving back to UK a couple times a year. Being petrol the range wasn't good, but the problems with the N53 made it lousy. I was struggling to get 600miles from a tank even just sitting at 100kmh on cruise. Compare that to a consistent 950miles in a loaded up F11 530d or just over 1000 miles in the G31 530d. Oh, and it also had no dipstick (other than the driver) and was randomly reporting oil level sensor failure. Also an overheating CCC head unit and front passenger cupholder failed (obscenely expensive replacement). No xenon lights was a pain as I had to fit stickies on the lenses and the angel eyes were tiddly little bulbs (I still have a bunch of them) which were an utter mare to replace. The rain sensor gel had dried out and was on the list to replace, but I binned the car before getting around to that one.
@Humour i changed my top mounts too a few weeks back. It was knocking too much...and when we took them out they were totally collapsed. Where still the factory ones. I remember you having problems with wheel wobbling? did you sort that out? it was front hub runout?
I have top mounts in stock now but havent done that job yet. Yes I sorted out the wobble under breaking. Yes it was due to runout, but the causes were multiple. One was the original front hus had runout on the face where the disk mounts, two the assembly of new disks was done in a hurry and improperly by wither me or an apprentice who was helping out, grease was put on the new hubs (its doesn't take much), causing a lair of new disks to develop runout too and be scrapped. Properly fitted new set of disks front and rear and the issue is finally gone. Worn control arm bushes were a contributing factor but not the root cause.
