Turner Motorsport BMW Control Arm Replacements & Upgrades

Our sealed Monoball Rear Trailing Arm Bushings (RTAB) are the best solution for completely eliminating deflection and unwanted toe changes on the rear of the E36, E46, and Z4. While rubber and urethane bushings flex during load, the toe can change widely giving you nervous and unpredictable handling. These RTABs have a solid aluminum housing with a high-quality sealed OE bearing. These bushings were developed from years of competition use in various racing and HPDE events. There is simply no better RTAB unless your racing class rules prohibit the use of mono or spherical bearings.

The rear trailing arm bushings take a lot of abuse from acclerating, braking and cornering. The stock rubber bushings are just not up to the task of keeping rear wheel alignment in spec for very long, especially if you have upgraded to stickier tires and a better suspension. The pliable rubber flexes and twists which slows down reaction time and leaves you with a car that feels nervous and 'tail happy'. Urethane helps to control the alignment but issues with fitment, maintenance, and longevity keep us from recommending urethane on anything but a street car. We also offer a Delrin RTAB for cars that must conform to certain racing class rules. These sealed spherical bearings are the best at controlling rear toe alignment.

Our aluminum RTABs are very well made - high grade aluminum alloy and steel CNC'd out of a billet by an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer, each component is either hardcoated or nickel plated. While multiple manufacturers offer two piece designs, our research showed that a one piece bushing is a better design featuring a sealed bearing to keep contaminants out extending the life of the bearing.

Features:

Key Benefits:

• Rear Trailing Arm Monoball eliminates unwanted deflection, maintaining alignment settings and minimizing wheel hop.
• Allows full rear trailing arm articulation for low friction movement and eliminates binding found in rubber and poly bushings.
• Completely streetable: utilizes an OES Lemforder brand sealed, greased ball joint for an extremely long service life with no increase to NVH.

Design Features:

• Housing: Billet CNC 6061-T6 aluminum, type II anodized for exceptional durability and corrosion resistance
• Bearing: OE Mercedes/lemforder 2043520027 Sealed ball joint
• Bearing inserts: CNC machined 303 stainless steel.
• Rebuildable

Clickhere for installation instructions.

This item fits the following BMWs:
1992-1998 E36 BMW 318i 318is 318ic 323is 323ic 325i 325is 325ic 328i 328is 328ic M3
1999-2005 E46 BMW 323i 323ci 325i 325ci 325xi 328i 328ci 330i 330ci 330xi M3
2003-2008 Z4 BMW Z4 2.5i Z4 3.0i Z4 3.0si Z4 M Roadster M Coupe

BMW’s are known to have failure prone front thrust arm bushings.  The flexible rubber bushings, even those found in M performance models, allow significant movement of the front wheels to maximize daily driving comfort, but also allow considerable alignment change.  This results in a disconnected and numb road feel, standing between you and a confidence inspiring driving experience.  Eventually the fluid filled rubber bushings fatigue and crack due to continual deflection and ozone degradation, and eventually the damping fluid leaks out resulting in complete failure. 

For the enthusiast looking for superior performance and longevity with a crisp, confidence-inspiring driving experience, our sealed ball joint monoballs are the best solution available!  Our experience with spherical front control arm ball joints go back to those we designed and used in our IMSA E90 328i and E92 M3 racecars (GS class Champions in 2011).  We wanted to offer E31, E32, E34, E38, E39, E53, E60, E63, E64, and E83 owners similar levels of handling precision and control for the track and street. 

The bearing housing is precision CNC machined from 6061-T6 anodized aluminum and features a knurled OD to ensure a perfect press fit, and utilize a sealed OEM BMW ball joint for exceptional quality and durability, making them completely at home on both the street and track with no compromise.  We have done extensive street, autocross, and track testing to ensure the ball joint used in this bushing design excels in each setting.  The advantage of a sealed ball joint is that it eliminates all unwanted deflection while still allowing complete bind-free movement throughout suspension travel, resulting in exceptional control of wheel alignment.  What you get is superior steering precision, turn-in response, direct braking feedback, and better handling.

In short, if you're seeking the ultimate in precise, predictable handling and control, with crisp braking response and a long service life that’s equally at home on the street or track - look no further. We have you covered.

We offer these thrust arms with the monoball bushings pre-installed for your convenience. Since BMW recommends the control arms be replaced for every other bushing change, we prefer to sell these as a pre-assembled set. The bushings are also available separately if you wish to source your own control arms.

Features:

Bearing housing

• Precision CNC machined from 6061-T6 blue anodized aluminum
• Knurled OD to provide the perfect fit for the wide range of thrust arm bore diameters among brands.
• CNC machined 304ss ball joint sleeve inserts, providing a precision fit between the ball joint and the subframe. 

Bearing

• OEM BMW sealed and greased ball joint for exceptional durability and service life.

Performance

• Nearly instantaneous, crisp steering and braking response.
• Maintenance free, long lasting performance. 
• Improved road feel without undesirable NVH.

Sold as a pair for RWD models only.

Click here for installation instructions.

This item fits the following BMWs:
2008-2012 E82 BMW 128i 135i 1M Coupe
2006-2011 E90 BMW 325i 328i 330i 335d 335i M3 - Sedan
2006-2012 E91 BMW 328i - Wagon
2007-2013 E92 BMW 328i 335i 335is M3 - Coupe
2007-2013 E93 BMW 328i 335i M3 - Convertible
2009+ Z4 BMW Z4 sDrive28i Z4 sDrive30i Z4 sDrive35i Z4 sDrive35is

Here at Turner we understand the importance of an upgrade that will get the results you need on the track and still be tolerable on the drive around town. When it comes to control arms on the track, making them as stiff as you can (usually using solid mounts) is the best way to increase your driving precision by eliminating the deflection of rubber. The next best thing to create a balance would be to stiffen up the control arm with polyurethane, giving you the option of a more stock like feel with 80a or closer to the solid feel with 95a durometers.

When it comes to the E36 chassis you also get the options of choosing a stock centered design or going with the E30 inspired offset bushing to increase castor, further taking advantage of improvd handling. These poly bushings will give your control arms a direct connection between your suspension and the body of the car eliminating the slop felt under take-off and braking so you feel more in control of your vehicle.

This item fits the following BMWs that use a centered-style bushing: 

1984-1991 E30 BMW 318i, 318is, 325, 325e, 325es, 325i, 325is 
1992-1999 E36 BMW 318i 318is 318ti 318ic 323is 323ic 325i 325is 325ic 328i 328is 328ic
1996-1999 E36 BMW M3 S52
1997-2002 Z3 BMW Z3 1.9 Z3 2.3 Z3 2.5i Z3 2.8 Z3 3.0i MZ3 M Coupe M Roadster 

Click here for installation instructions.