gcalo

Nothing worse than to hear knocking in the front end and not being able to get it identified or to identify what it is.

I have read threads on this in a few forums, and there were good suggestions.

I finally figured out what my knocking was, and I hope this can help others.

First it was identifying that the front shocks had gone bad. One had lost all it's oil; the other was nearly as useless.

So after 110,000 miles of driving I found the correct Boge-Sachs shocks and then decided to also replace the springs.

My e60 has factory Sport Suspension and Dynamic Drive. So identifying the correct shocks was work.

I felt the OEM springs had lost life, and replaced those with tremendous aftermarket replacements from ECS Tuning. A wise choice.

Shocks went in, and I could still hear more knocking. Understanable, since new and strong parts show up weaknesses in other parts.

Had an issue with an earlier 7 series with lower front control arm bushings going bad.

Decided on polyurethane bushings from www.armstrongdistributors.com Great product. Great Support. Jon is a champ.

Not yet having a press I had these done.

I would suggest, however, with 100,000 miles to buy new lower front control arms and have the urethjane bushings pressed in. At that mileage new ball joints on these parts are worth the price.

I still heard more knocking! Damn!!!

Checked the inner and our tie rod ends. Bad and making noise. I replaced those.

Better but still heard klunking. I was going nuts at this point.

Everything was tight. What could possibly be causing the noise?

It then dawned on me to then check the Sway Bar Bushings and the Sway Bar End Links.

BINGO!

Major culprit was the Sway Bar End Links. When removed there was no life in the joints. They were limp!

I replaced the Sway Bar Bushings as that was easy to do, and they were only $13.00 each.

So if you are hearing klunking, maybe following what I found will help others.

There is one more thing that needs attention.

It is called a Gland Nut. That is the nut that holds the collapsable steering column together. It loosens and needs tightening.

I am hearing that knock a bit, and that will soon be tightened. Experienced the same on my earlier 7 series.

A note about buying parts. I have been using www.rmeuropean.com. They are fantastic. Highly recommended

I would stay away from www.getbmwparts.com Thier servers were compromised by hackers and exposed tens of thousands of buyers to fraud. They are a BMW dealer in Maryland part of a 47 dealer network. No excuse for this!

I would never buy from them again.

gcalo

Two more things to add to this thread about front end klunks

a) when considering replacing the large bushings on the lower front control arms, if you have 75,000 or more miles, purchase new lower control arms, have the OEM bushings punched out, and then replace those with polyurethane.

The tie rod ends are weak at that point, and you will do well to clear up all issues with the lower front control arms by having new tie rod ends.

Not yet found a source for those tie rod ends. I know Meyle has great ends but not sure they have for these control arms.

b) sometimes you can hear a metallic ting or light klunk, and if you have Xenons it is the headlight aiming control arm called a "Front Angle Joint" OEM P/N: 31-12-6-762-296. It connects to a small electrical sensor which auto adjusts the Xenon H/L's.

It has small balljoints on each end, and they wear and get noisy.

Not an expensive piece, and will stop additional noise.

KyleB

Have any pictures of this 'gland nut'?

Funny you posted this. My 530i has a strange 'pop' noise emanating from the front, but only if I drive over a small pothole/break in the pavement/etc. I've literally replaced everything in the front except for tie rods. I'm at 109K.

I read a couple of posts on another E60 forum where members found loose subframe mounting bolts too causing this noise.

I'm going to have my car up on a lift tomorrow to see if I can find the source.

gcalo

No photo yet but will get one for you.

I have found that culprit to F/E noises is the worn ball joints on the front lower control arms.

They are fixed ball joints, and they wear, but it's hard to detect movement in them due to the F/E stresses unless they are removed.

If you have around 100K miles suspect the front lower control arms.

KyleB

I would suspect those, except that they were changed out with OE Lemforders less than 10,000 miles ago. I changed all control arms, sway bar links, struts, and shocks. The only things I didn''t replace were tie rods, because they simply weren't showing any signs of wear at the time. I changed out all hardware too, per BMW specs.

I'll see what I find tomorrow, if anything.

gcalo

I assumed you had those changed as well.

The inners make more noise than the outers as they are directly connected to steering gear. So they are against more mass to make a more audible sound.

Replace the inners and outers though.

Not a difficult job.

If you are doing it I can give you hints to make it an easier job.

gcalo

Update on F/E knocking.

There is considerable stress on the front lower control arms. Not a revelation but a fact.

The ball joints go bad and you can hear the knocking and grinding especially at low speed while turning or going over speed bumps at angles.

Has to be a major cause of F/E noises.

Definitely replace the control arms with good new ones I used Meyle for their excellent ball joint design), press out the busings that are supplied with them, install the PSB polyurethane bushings by Armstrong Distributors and there go problems down the drain.

It's a whole new car with tremendous F/E feel and control.

Mark Sloe

A front end knocking/clunking noise developed on my E60 as well, I started by checking the strut braces, replaced lower control arms and finally solved the issue by replacing sway bar links. Parts were £32, but what should've been a quick 2-nuts-a-side job turned into quite a struggle as one of the nuts completely seized and in the end I had to cut it of with an angle grinder.

By all means, I found this old thread very useful to narrow down the suspects.