XSeries-forum

Today I had a pair of Powerflex bushes installed at the front of the radius arms on my E53 along with a sheared bolt removed that I did when I tried to remove the arm..The old ones were well past the sell by date and the steering moved when braking at a slow speed.
The steering is now firm, however, there is now a knocking coming from the front somewhere. It didnt knock before. The garage who did it are down the road and the owner is a friend.
How should I handle this?  I am aware that the knocking could be caused by anti roll links and bushes which I would rather do myself but if this as the case surely the knocking would have been there before.
This always happens when I get a garage to do anything to my cars- its never satisfactory afterwards.
What would you do? Opinions please.

its possible that the original worn rubber bushes were helping to mask the effect of other slightly worn suspension parts.
fitting super stiff poly bushes could have removed that damping effect that the old items gave you, leaving you with the evidence of other parts that need attention.

That did cross my mind. I checked, and Steve checked the lower ball joints on the thrust arms and although old, had no play in them. My old E39 I had all the front suspention arms replaced and a knocking persisted. It turned out to be the anti roll "D" bushes that were under tension when the car was jacked up but not when driving. I may just replace the ar bushes and links as they are cheap and easy then see what happens.. Im still going back tomorrw tho'...

It seems that the heavier the car, the louder the noise is from the ARB bushes. I once owned a Grand Voyager with that issue and when driving, it sounded like the suspension was going to break through the engine bay somewhere!

Well I got underneath it today with a crowbar. It would seem that one of the lower balljoints has some play in it so they will need replacing. Not only that but there is a nasty oil leak from the front of the engine that the fan is blowing all over the place...

Oh poop! Well, that's what happens when you start looking underneath.  Lol.  )