[Tim Hancock]

I just remembered that I replaced ball joints and tie-rods at 200k.

David what was up with the lower control arms? It seems odd with that low of mileage.

Was it just due to not being able to adjust the alignment or did the bushings rip?

I had tire wear problems when upgraded the suspension and the local
alignment shops would not touch a BMW so I ended up doing it myself
with parallel strings, home made pivot platforms, electronic level and
a die grinder to slot my strut towers. I was able to adjust the rear camber and toe to spec but the fronts still are at about 1 degree neg camber (I was shooting for 1/2 deg neg). Before I did this work I was at 2.5 neg on the front and rear and the rear was toed out about 1/2 degree (not good on tire wear!).

It is ridiculous that these cars have no provision to adjust front camber, if the rubber control arm bushing sags over time, BMW says you have replace parts which I guess they are happy to sell you!

My experience so far seems to suggest that a clean BMW with 100k of highway miles should perform relatively problem free for another 100k yet cost about 1/4 of the price of buying new. I hope this holds true on this next one!