Trailing arm bushing coming out
 

A new rattle this morning turns out to be the RTA bushing is sliding out of the arm's housing and the arm is hitting the side of the braket. I had both bushings replaced just a few months back by the local dealer where they used a cold chisel to remove the old ones... perhaps the housing got bent but the new bushing is out by about 10mm now. There also seems to be oil present perhaps used to help slide in the new bushing, is this normal?
Why would it be coming out already or at all?

Feed back please before I go and rant at the stealer.

Ok just got back from stealer/dealer who dealt with me on the spot.

Seems there was some grease on the bushing and maybe this caused it to slip. Plus killer pot holes here in Fiji...

They took the bushing out and measured it with some calipers and seems it is still round and no signs of damage. So they pushed it back in and have told me to monitor it. I stood over them as they did it and I have just had a look a Dudski's tutorial and notice that they actually put in the bushing 90' off from where the notches are supposed to go and they did not line up the housing properly (8mm above centre point)!

Bush mechanics man!

Wishing I got the powerflex urethane bushings now.

At least they didn't even try to charge me, not that I was going to pay them. Looks like it has chewed my relatively new tyre tho.

I ll keep you all posted.

That's too bad, sorry about your experience. They're not supposed to use grease to slide that bushing in. There's a special lubricant for it called Circolight. If not, dish detergent is the next best thing. Either choice will dry up and not stay slippery. And when they didn't reassemble the parts correctly, that was just waiting to happen. Unfortunately not all BMW dealerships are authorized service centers, and many of their techs aren't trained properly- not even here in the US :(

Last night I hit a pot hole and the bushing has popped out again!
Not cool...

Will try today to get them to pull it in again and then I am going to order the eurathane bushings with the shoulders. Maybe it is a sign that something else has given up... I replaced the shock mounts late last year and alot of the rubber has perished. Perhaps another bushing is dead in there. Any thoughts?

Jack that wheel up and see if there is any unusual movement. Maybe check your rear control arms and their bushings- you may have something bent or worn there that's causing the trailing arm to move in a weird way? I dunno.

Just put in a pair of uuc urathane rta's. Hopefully they will last the life of the car... Thought they would make the rear end feel more stiff than it does. There is a bit more cabin noise going over pot holes but not too bad.

:drive2