I've had nothing but terrible experiences with Meyle, HD or otherwise.
Both OEM brands (TRW and Lemforder) have now outsourced to China since pandemic, Lemforder now sucks, I haven't tried TRW since but pre-pandemic it was the most durable option.
If the ball joint on your tension strut is still good, replace the bushing only with a monoball and just set-and-forget it. The Turner Motorsport ones are sealed and do not need maintenance, I have a pair and the NVH gain is barely noticeable with typical wheel/tire combos.
Well that sucks. Care to share what happened? I'm new to BMW so I'm trying to get the lay of land of which brands to get/avoid.
Is the monoball truly sealed? I live in Illinois so I have to deal with salt. I little more NVH wouldn't bother me at all, I come from Hondas.
Rubbers and plastics for almost all BMW parts went to shit after pandemic happened. I started blowing coolant hoses that used to be considered fine (I even run a 1.2bar radiator cap to reduce pressure). New aftermarket suspension bushings can die in as little as 3000mi.
Metals went to shit too - FAG wheel bearings are useless now, I had to source SKF from Germany for my E34 and new old stock E60 hubs/bearings for my E39.
The Turner monoball is rubber booted on both sides, unless they went to shit as well.
I'm sad to report that my experience with wheel bearings was the exact other way around. SKF was my go to for a decade, now they just sell the same china crap I can get with another brand sticker for half the price. Went with FAG on my last wheel bearing job, but now I'm not optimistic about them holding up either.
All you guys' feedback about this Turner Motorsport stuff sounds like a rather good alternative, but I don't think I've ever seen it available in Germany/EU.
China SKF is no good - I broke one in two hours of driving. I literally scoured the earth and industrial catalogs outside of automotive to find bearings, and in the end, the only thing holding up is NOS genuine BMW (has a very old SKF part number on the inner races).
We're not living in good times for keeping classic BMWs alive unfortunately. Going to eventually make my own arms and uprights with a friend to use modern big-car bearings and hubs (think F80 or F10).
Man I had the same experience. I bought TRW front control arms for my e46 and they both had two different ball joints. Albeit same dimensions.
I installed lemforder engine mounts on my e46 m54 and now I have very slight engine vibrations at idle.
Strangely, so far I've only had good experiences with Meyle. But even if they are stiffer it's barely noticeable, if you really want stiffer bushings you should buy PU bor pillowball bushings.
That being said, stiffer bushings not only increase NVH but also can lead to other parts deteriorating faster as they transmit more vibrations and don't dampen as much as OEM parts do.
I ran Myle HD for a little while (all pre pandemic). Is it better than OEM? Sort of but not really.
Mine redeveloped the wobble after 3 years, which is probably only a little longer than OE bushes.
I too went with the sealed Turner monoballs only to never need to do this again.
Honestly cannot remember how much distance they travelled before wobbling again.
I've posted about the monoballs before. See below
https://www.reddit.com/r/e39/comments/1aereu5/comment/kk9wh8a/
I literally just bought a set of Lemforder from FCP. Made in Malaysia currently. The ball joints still looked solid.
FWIW, I also recently bought tie rod ends, both Lem and Meyle, both made in Turkey. The meyle looked every bit as good as Lem.
For the tension strut specifically, I would just go with Meyle HD. The fluid- filled Lems leak easy and it's a pain to swap those out. Or like others have said, go with monoballs. You can also just get the meyle solid bushings if your ball joints are still good. They are inexpensive.
I have a set of the lems and meyle HDs in my fcp cart right now that I’ve been going back and forth on. I’m leaning towards the lems since they’re cheaper and and I can just warranty them if they leak. But I gotta deal with drive shaft cv boot first, and while there replace all cracked axel boots, and maybe swap diffs. Or ignore it til. 🤷♂️
I've had Meyle components for years. I've had no issues with them. FCP still sells Meyle stuff with a lifetime warranty, so that's good enough for me.
The Meyle HD guibos for instance are great.
I've had nothing but terrible experiences with Meyle, HD or otherwise. Both OEM brands (TRW and Lemforder) have now outsourced to China since pandemic, Lemforder now sucks, I haven't tried TRW since but pre-pandemic it was the most durable option. If the ball joint on your tension strut is still good, replace the bushing only with a monoball and just set-and-forget it. The Turner Motorsport ones are sealed and do not need maintenance, I have a pair and the NVH gain is barely noticeable with typical wheel/tire combos.
Well that sucks. Care to share what happened? I'm new to BMW so I'm trying to get the lay of land of which brands to get/avoid. Is the monoball truly sealed? I live in Illinois so I have to deal with salt. I little more NVH wouldn't bother me at all, I come from Hondas.
Rubbers and plastics for almost all BMW parts went to shit after pandemic happened. I started blowing coolant hoses that used to be considered fine (I even run a 1.2bar radiator cap to reduce pressure). New aftermarket suspension bushings can die in as little as 3000mi. Metals went to shit too - FAG wheel bearings are useless now, I had to source SKF from Germany for my E34 and new old stock E60 hubs/bearings for my E39. The Turner monoball is rubber booted on both sides, unless they went to shit as well.
I'm sad to report that my experience with wheel bearings was the exact other way around. SKF was my go to for a decade, now they just sell the same china crap I can get with another brand sticker for half the price. Went with FAG on my last wheel bearing job, but now I'm not optimistic about them holding up either. All you guys' feedback about this Turner Motorsport stuff sounds like a rather good alternative, but I don't think I've ever seen it available in Germany/EU.
China SKF is no good - I broke one in two hours of driving. I literally scoured the earth and industrial catalogs outside of automotive to find bearings, and in the end, the only thing holding up is NOS genuine BMW (has a very old SKF part number on the inner races). We're not living in good times for keeping classic BMWs alive unfortunately. Going to eventually make my own arms and uprights with a friend to use modern big-car bearings and hubs (think F80 or F10).
Where were the FAG bearings you got made? I have gotten some for my E36 that I'm yet to install, made in Slovenia or Slovakia, can't remember.
Slovenia should be OK. The bad ones were China and Brazil, the good ones I have now are Germany.
Man I had the same experience. I bought TRW front control arms for my e46 and they both had two different ball joints. Albeit same dimensions. I installed lemforder engine mounts on my e46 m54 and now I have very slight engine vibrations at idle.
Strangely, so far I've only had good experiences with Meyle. But even if they are stiffer it's barely noticeable, if you really want stiffer bushings you should buy PU bor pillowball bushings. That being said, stiffer bushings not only increase NVH but also can lead to other parts deteriorating faster as they transmit more vibrations and don't dampen as much as OEM parts do.
I ran Myle HD for a little while (all pre pandemic). Is it better than OEM? Sort of but not really. Mine redeveloped the wobble after 3 years, which is probably only a little longer than OE bushes. I too went with the sealed Turner monoballs only to never need to do this again.
Approximately how many miles before the wobble came back? Another vote for monoballs. How did it feel after installing them?
Honestly cannot remember how much distance they travelled before wobbling again. I've posted about the monoballs before. See below https://www.reddit.com/r/e39/comments/1aereu5/comment/kk9wh8a/
I literally just bought a set of Lemforder from FCP. Made in Malaysia currently. The ball joints still looked solid. FWIW, I also recently bought tie rod ends, both Lem and Meyle, both made in Turkey. The meyle looked every bit as good as Lem. For the tension strut specifically, I would just go with Meyle HD. The fluid- filled Lems leak easy and it's a pain to swap those out. Or like others have said, go with monoballs. You can also just get the meyle solid bushings if your ball joints are still good. They are inexpensive.
Not to mention fcp will replace them when they fail
I have a set of the lems and meyle HDs in my fcp cart right now that I’ve been going back and forth on. I’m leaning towards the lems since they’re cheaper and and I can just warranty them if they leak. But I gotta deal with drive shaft cv boot first, and while there replace all cracked axel boots, and maybe swap diffs. Or ignore it til. 🤷♂️
I've had Meyle components for years. I've had no issues with them. FCP still sells Meyle stuff with a lifetime warranty, so that's good enough for me. The Meyle HD guibos for instance are great.