I was performing DiscoMike's 60k service yesterday and had my 2002 Disco II (102k.. so far) up on ramps and noticed that the rubber mounting on the bottom of the wheel assembly was perished. Not a great surprise after 7 years of use, but I could not find anything about it in the RAVE manual.

Any ideas? Do I need to panic?

 

OK, now have realised it is the ball joint (doh!). Can anyone advise whether the rubber part of the ball joint needs to be replaced when it perishes?

 

A little or maybe a lot of panic is a good thing once in awhile.
You will, sooner then later, need to get all the ball joints checked and replace as you can't replace just the boot, and with the boot being torn, failure can be short coming.

 

Thanks Mike, it looks like it has just degraded over time and I guess that after 7 years you can't expect thin rubber to last.

 

I don't know if they're available, when you replace the ball joints, try and get them with grease fittings. I noticed while working on my Rover that NONE of the steering linkage has them. Stupid BMW.

 

Good point, I haven't seen them with fitting, but who knows.

 

I was at the dealership yesterday and I know that the stock replacements are as fitted, except that the rubber part that has perished on my truck has been replaced with a clear silicone material. I will investigate further...

 

I recently bought 4 tierods to rebuild my steering linkage, and these are available with grease fittings. They were non greasable on my DI too.

 

Dap Inc,,, Greasables .. 20 bucks apiece... 1 left handed thread... 3 right handed.... http://www.dap-inc.com/parts/d1/d1_parts.shtml#STEERING ,,, Sorry this is for a D1

 

Haha, the first thing that popped up on my screen was the background. That's pretty cool.