Front upper and lower control arms & bushings - tough job to do???
Was told I need Front upper and lower control arms and bushings plus Front stabilizer links. Is this a super tough job?
3 Grand Master
Except for a joint splitter its a pure nuts and bolts job. Its in Bentleys or you could do a search. My tips would be:
1. Get control arms with the bushes already fitted
2. Make sure the car is very safe on axle stands
3. Use a floor jack to stop the plate at the bottom of the shock twisting when you undo the upper control arm joint nuts.
4. Make sure the groove/ridge in on the strut/plate line up when assembling
5. Fully tighten the through bolts when the car is on the ground and loaded
Oct '00 E46 330i. Feb '92 525i (departed)
Major Contributor
And remove the rubber around the old ball joints on the upper and lower arms, otherwise it will absorb the energy from any hammering. I used a pickle fork, after my splitter broke in 2 and only after removing that rubber I got the conical ball joints to separate!
CD43,Style 21s,K&N Insert,White blinkers,LED 3rd brakelight,HIDs,front Monroe sportsshocks/Weitec 35 springs,540 Calipers, Zimmermann Discs and Textar pads.
2 Grand Master
bill r wrote a good writeup a few years ago how to do the job good and easy.
I need to do the same thing, I saw on Ebay a couple places sell whole front end kits for around$250. Has anyone tried any of the Ebay kits? They say they are just like OEM and have the bushings already pressed in. I drive the car every day to work and I have to floor it when I hit 50, so I can bypass the extreme shaking.
89 535I
89 volvo 240
78 Pontiac Trans Am, 6.6
4 Grand Master
Don't do it... those cheap parts don't last past a couple of months is what most people says... stick with Lemforder TRW and higher quality parts.
Big, Big Time Poster
I need to do this on my 535. Not too bad yet but I can tell it's a bit off. I kinda agree with not going with ebay as well. Are there companies out there that make it easy and sell a package deal at a decent price?
1952 MG TD
1963 MGB
1967 MGB GT Special
1974 MGB Roadster
1991 Ford Ranger
1997 BMW 528I
2000 Harley Davidson Softail
2004 Ford Expedition
4 Grand Master
No... everyone has their own brands and prices... I see Rockauto has Moog aluminum lower control arms for $72 each... a deal since Moog carries lifetime warranty.
AutohausAZ got Meyle HD Upper control arms with bushings for $77 each side...
Pelican Auto got Febi Upper control arms for $48 and you can get Lemforder M5 bushings for $22 each... Pelican should be able to press them in for you for free.
I didn't see who got the best deal on sway bar links... mandatory change and a major improvement in car suspension on itself alone!
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