E70 Monoball Upgrade

[JWMich]

Monoball replacements for some critical suspension bushings have been available as an upgrade in BMW world for some time, with front control arm/thrust arm bushing kits available for many platforms. Steve Dinan did a short piece on these that you can find at:

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I've personally done these on my E60, E46, E39 and E53, and I like them all. No one has these on offer for the E70, but I was able to find a vendor willing to do a one-off kit with control arms for my new-to-me E70 X5M. They've just been installed this week. No surprise, I really like them here, too. As with the other installs I've done, turn-in and general steering precision is noticeably improved. There is zero added NVH.

A lot of the vendors doing these, Dinan excepted, are pretty grassroots shops, and I've felt good about doing business with all of them (Moosehead Engineering, German Auto Solutions). David Green, at Syncro Design Works, was my source this time, you can find them at https://www.facebook.com/SyncroDesignWorks. David has said he's interested in doing more now that he's used me to prototype, and he can be reached directly at David@syncrodesignworks.com.

Full disclosure on pricing - I paid $1080 for my set of new X5M thrust arms with the spherical bearings pressed in. That's more than the others I've done. The price breakdown really gets down to a $750 going rate for the new thrust arms and about $400 for David's bearings and labor. Unfortunately, there's no OEM supplier for the X5M thrust arms so you're paying the full load for authentic BMW pieces. The others I've done have had a way cheaper alternative available from Lemforder or whoever, and totaled out at less - not us X5Mers, though. At the end of the day, i've paid more for BMW upgrades with lesser results, I'm happy and David's work is worth the price.

[Alliedacid]

off road trucks have been using similar tech for years....

ie.. https://www.ballisticfabrication.com...ts-accessories

I have used them in the rock crawlers I built.. great suspension articulation with zero binding. but the are not sealed, zerk fitting for easy maintenance...