Signs of Bad Ball Joints in Your BMW

Ball joints connect your control arms to your suspension, so that it will pivot when you turn. Some BMWs, such as the 3 series models, have been known to have ball joint issues from time to time, so it is important to know what you can look for when you think that they might be wearing down.

As you might have guessed, the symptoms are going to be related to your suspension, so let’s take a look at them and we’ll expand on each symptom to help you to know what may be happening and then we’ll talk about what you can do to keep this problem at bay!

3 Telltale Signs That Your BMW May Have Bad Ball Joints

The 3 most common telltale signs of your BMW’s ball joints wearing down are pretty easy to notice. We’ll list them below and expand on each in the sections to follow:

• Shaking of overactive vibration
• Alignment issues with your wheels
• Clunking

Shaking or heavy vibration

Your ball joints fit snugly into a socket, but when they start to become worn down, then suddenly they have a greater movement range. When this happens, you’re going to feel it, and it could range from heavy vibrations right up to actual shaking.

The left and right ball joints will usually both be replaced in order to remediate this, even if only one is severely worn or damaged. This is because once one of the ball joints starts failing, excess pressure is going to be applied to the remaining paired ball joint and so it’s best to simply replace them both.

Alignment issues with your wheels

Have you started noticing your BMW gliding a little to one side of late? If so, that could be related to the ball joints. A differential diagnosis will need to be done in order to confirm this, so you’ll want to have an inspection before you do replacing your tires – Just in case it’s the ball joint that is really the problem.

Clunking

If you notice a sound like parts being knocked around or a heavy clunking when you drive over anything that isn’t completely flat, then this is another common sign that you might have a worn-out ball joint.

In some cases, it may not even repeat this sound without hitting a bumpy stretch of road, so you’ll want to make sure to tell your mechanic if this is the only time that you are hearing it. As with shaking, what’s happened there is that the ball joint has too much space in the socket – to the point that it’s manifesting as a noisy suspension every time you cross a bump.

Preventative Maintenance Can Keep Problems Like This at Bay

While ball joints in your BMW should theoretically last about 70,000 miles, this is assuming that you are taking care of your vehicle by making sure that it gets the preventative maintenance that it needs.

While most cars get serviced every 10,000 miles or so, BMW’s have a stricter requirement of routine maintenance servicing every 5000 miles, and then a full preventative maintenance service every 12,000 miles. It’s part and parcel of the package, really – all that grace and power needs to be carefully maintained, like you would with a race car in a fierce competition.

Once you get used to it, it’s actually not such a hassle. Depending on your driving habits, it might mean 2 to 3 visits to the shop to keep your beloved BMW pristine and its performance top-notch. That leads us to the final point you’ll want to consider if you need your ball joints looked at or some preventative maintenance that you can trust.

Don’t Trust Just Anyone with Your BMW – Always Go with a Pro

At Cerrone’s European of Redwood City, CA, we’ve been providing expert and certified mechanic service to European vehicles since 1976! BMW’s were actually added to our focused lineup back in 2008 and since then we’ve garnered a reputation for excellence in this regard.

Whatever BMW model you own – be it modern or legacy classic models – Our mechanics at Cerrones are equipped to offer full service repair and maintenance for every single part. Not only that, but we know every BMW model, and this makes an enormous difference in the time and money you’ll save.

Come in or give us a call and we can show you firsthand what it’s like to have experts at your beck and call with extensive experience in your specific model BMW. You’re going to love the difference it makes – We guarantee it!