checking the play in w124 balljoints is very misleading, you need to raise the car and rest its weight on the control arms, only then can you lever the hub upwards to check the joint. If you do it with hanging wheels the joint will show itself super tight and perfect.

if the boots are bad, its already game over, replace the joints they are not too expensive either, you just need to make a pressing collar with a grinder or make a whole tool like I did and change them out both. Its not too bad of a job.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)