Issue with BMR lower control arm bearing kit bk055

[jmeiers]

The bolt is very difficult to torque. You need to remove the exhaust to get a straight extension on it. Otherwise you're not getting to the torque you think you are. It does not need to be loaded to do this like a bushing. That's the point of having a spherical.

You are right about removing the exhaust to get the bolt that the OP was talking about. However, we are now talking about the bolt that holds the front inner most RLCA bearing. The one that was originally a bushing. You can get to this bolt without removing exhaust. But it may be better to come in from the top by removing the spring and shock and upper camber arm. Ugh!

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[jmeiers]

It is indeed tricky to get to but it will make all kinds of weird noises if it’s not torqued properly.

Yeah, I will go this route if I cannot get it any tighter using the pry bar method. It sucks because I got the passenger side tight with no issues. Thanks.

 

[jmeiers]

That's exactly the one I'm talking about. You can get to it, but not without joints in your tools. The only way to access it it with straight extensions if through the subframe, and it requires removing at least some of the exhaust. I did these last year.

I will look more closely at this method tomorrow then when I get back under there to do it. Is that all you need is to remove the exhaust to get a straight shot at it with extensions? Thanks.

 

[moffetts]

The springs need to come out if you attack it the way I pictured. The spring prevents you from moving the ratchet.

 

[jmeiers]

Update: None of the mentioned ways has solved my RLCA bearing noise issue. I took the time to isolate it to the driver side rlca bearing/bolt. I have even removed almost everything in the area besides the halfshaft and tried tightening even more than the specified 166 ft/lbs for this bolt and the clicking/popping is still there. I also notice my car is more bouncy than before I did the bearings. I am ready to put the stock bushings back in and call it a day. The clicking/popping noise is audible outside of the car and embarrassing.

I am convinced the bearing is bad because I can spray it with Fluid Film and it will quiet down or temporarily stop but keeps coming back. I am going to contact BMR and see if I can get a replacement bearing.

 

[JustDSM]

Try the superpro bushings if you can't get it.

Apologies for the "off-topic" nature here, but when did the SuperPro bushings hit the street? Haven't seen much mention of these prior to a few recent posts.

 

[jmeiers]

I'm not sure exactly. I wish I had known about them before though.

Do you think they would be a good option over spherical in the RLCA application?

 

[moffetts]

I don’t envy you having to do this job again!

 

[jmeiers]

I don’t envy you having to do this job again!

That’s probably the worst part of the whole situation, having to take the lower control arm out again, when the garage is 90+ degrees. At least it’s only 1 side.

 

[KellTrac]

In some cases (not very common, but happens) I have seen an issue with the inner bolt spacers contacting each other inside the bearing causing a slight amount of slop. This happens when compounding tolerances. For example, if the machinining of the BMR spacer is on the longer side and the machining of the FK bearing ball is on the narrow side of its specification tolerance.

Naturally, the answer is for BMR to simply make this impossible by shortening the bearing spacers a bit.

 

[jmeiers]

In some cases (not very common, but happens) I have seen an issue with the inner bolt spacers contacting each other inside the bearing causing a slight amount of slop. This happens when compounding tolerances. For example, if the machinining of the BMR spacer is on the longer side and the machining of the FK bearing ball is on the narrow side of its specification tolerance.

Naturally, the answer is for BMR to simply make this impossible by shortening the bearing spacers a bit.

If the bolt spacers are touching on my setup, would it make the loud snapping/popping/binding sound during suspension travel, especially at low parking lot speeds? While cruising, it’s sounds like clicking.

It actually makes some sense. The more I torque down on the bolt, the louder the snapping/popping I get. If I back off on the bolt torque, the noise is not as loud (as if the spacers are allowed to separate).

I guess the only way to find out is if I pull the control arm off and see if the spacers show any signs of wear?

 

[KellTrac]

Get under car. Move RLCA up and down. See what moves. If the ball doesn't rotate then there is the issue

 

[jmeiers]

Another update: After 2 drives and purposely hitting every bump/dip in the road, the noise is now gone as well as the bouncy feeling. This goes against logic but all I did was put the rear up on my race ramps wheel cribs (suspension loaded). Then I loosened up the RLCA bolt until I could see about 1/8" of space between the subframe ear and 1 of the bearing spacers. Then I tightened the bolt back down until the space was gone. This time I did not torque it down to 166 ft/lbs. again. Again, I only tightened it until all the spacing was removed, that's it.

I don't think I will leave it not fully torqued down but I bought a new house and will be moving over the next few weeks so I don't have the time to fool with it anymore, but at least its quiet and riding the way it supposed to now and I need the car to be able to move it from its current garage to the garage in the new house.

 

[moffetts]

Personally, I would prefer it to be properly torqued and making noise than only cinched up enough to eliminate the gap.

 

[jmeiers]

Personally, I would prefer it to be properly torqued and making noise than only cinched up enough to eliminate the gap.

I would rather it torqued all the way down too but the noise was unbearable. Bystanders could hear it outside the car in parking lots. The bolt is not going anywhere. It's not finger tight or anything like that. It's maybe a 1/4 turn from fully torqued. I think I do have the problem with the spacers being just a bit too long and touching each other when its fully torqued down. After my move, I will be pulling the arm and will machine the spacers down myself and that should take care of it and I will fully torque it back down.

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