Anyone have photos of...

[Ferret]

The ends of the thrust control/upper control arms?

I've done the lower control arms on my car recently, but it still vibrates a little at speed - nothing like it used to.

You can quite easily get a look down the manifold side of the diesel engine and it looks like one of the bushings is coming apart down there. I'd like to have a nosey at what shape they're supposed to be, then swap em out for powerflex bushings.

[g7syw]

Have a look here - I took these last weekend when I replaced my thrust bushes & TCA's

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z6/g7syw/Suspension/

[Ferret]

Have a look here - I took these last weekend when I replaced my thrust bushes & TCA's

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z6/g7syw/Suspension/

Ooh, mine appears to have the green 750i ones fitted... I wonder what the PO was upto.

Must be the balljoints on their way out then as the bushings on mine look in reasonable nick - might pull the whole thing apart at the weekend and get a screwdriver near the balljoints.

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

The ends of the thrust control/upper control arms?

I've done the lower control arms on my car recently, but it still vibrates a little at speed - nothing like it used to.

You can quite easily get a look down the manifold side of the diesel engine and it looks like one of the bushings is coming apart down there. I'd like to have a nosey at what shape they're supposed to be, then swap em out for powerflex bushings.
Go with standard and Sikaflex `em, stronger than M5 then and a lot cheaper. If you want OBC, car now in shed, come and get it.(Too lazy to PM!)

[g7syw]

the bushings on mine look in reasonable nick - might pull the whole thing apart at the weekend and get a screwdriver near the balljoints.

Mine looked OK in situ - have a look at one of my close up pics and you'll notice the deterioration in the rubber.

[Ferret]

If you want OBC, car now in shed, come and get it.(Too lazy to PM!)

Crap, I'd totally forgotten about that, sorry!

I'll have to give you a shout about it in a few days cos I'm having the week from hell at work. (Still there at the moment, and will be for a while yet!)

Gawd, sometimes I'm a muppet!

[leicesterboy15]

G7 - those pics are superb!! They show so much. Did you use only one axle stand when you were doing the job or did you support the front on two stands? Re Pic 1: How on earth did you get a spanner in that gap? I couldn't get one in there, do you need to loosen anything before gaining access? One last thing when you torqued the thrust arm up did you hold the nut in place with a spanner and torque up the bolt? I always thought you needed to torque up the nut not the bolt or does it make no difference? I am half way through this job and having a horrible time trying to release the bolts, I will definately be using those pics for reference, thanks again!! By the way where abouts are you? Can you recommend any good garages that know what they are doing?

[g7syw]

G7 - those pics are superb!! They show so much Hey, glad they are some help to you - I'll keep adding pics as I do jobs...


Did you use only one axle stand when you were doing the job or did you support the front on two stands? Yep, I did - I only had one side up off the ground at a time as I don't have a driveway and have to do all my stuff on the grass, it's a bugger to do anything if it's been raining, luckily the ground is nice and hard - I did put paving slabs down first to put the stands on - I didn't want it to sink...:)


How on earth did you get a spanner in that gap? I couldn't get one in there, do you need to loosen anything before gaining access? Very tricky - it only just went in there, it wasn't a metric spanner so that may have something to do with it, and no, I didn't loosen anything else to gain access.


One last thing when you torqued the thrust arm up did you hold the nut in place with a spanner and torque up the bolt? I always thought you needed to torque up the nut not the bolt or does it make no difference? AFAIK it makes no difference - logically, you can only torque up on the bolt in here anyway - remember the car needs to be in it's "normal" ride position before fully tightening the bolts. I cheated slightly here - I tightened the bolts up just enough to stop them coming off and drove the car about 0.25 mile to the local tyre & exhaust place and gave the guy a few quid to get it up on the lift and torque it for me.


By the way where abouts are you? Can you recommend any good garages that know what they are doing? I'm about 10 miles from Colchester in Essex - I haven't many dealings with garages as I've done nearly all the various jobs on the different cars I've had over the years myself.

[Shankster]

Hard to see these unless you've got it a foot from your face. My drivers side arm bushing was torn in exactly the same place as the pics in the thread.

Theres a pic in bimmer.info or on gales page of the "special tool". Take a regular 22 mm wrench and grind down the sides till it's a little less than 1.5" across. I paid a hardware store a couple bucks to do this.

[Shankster]

G7 - those pics are superb!! They show so much. Did you use only one axle stand when you were doing the job or did you support the front on two stands? Re Pic 1: How on earth did you get a spanner in that gap? I couldn't get one in there, do you need to loosen anything before gaining access? One last thing when you torqued the thrust arm up did you hold the nut in place with a spanner and torque up the bolt? I always thought you needed to torque up the nut not the bolt or does it make no difference? I am half way through this job and having a horrible time trying to release the bolts, I will definately be using those pics for reference, thanks again!! By the way where abouts are you? Can you recommend any good garages that know what they are doing?

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_26.htm

[leicesterboy15]

Shankster - another great link, cheers! Are there bushes for the sway bar? If so is it worth replacing them while you are there? Is it worth replacing the whole sway bar? Do they deteriorate over time? I don't think a standard one is too pricey from BMW.

Sorry Ferret - I don't mean to hijack!