Control Arms - 1996 318ti

[susteve]

I have a 318ti. It's a 1996 and just turned 100k on the odometer. I bought this car with a bad wheel bearing. Had that fixed. However, the new bearing revealed a wobble. The rim was bent... Replaced that and rotated the tires. The wheel that wound up on the left front was also bent. I whacked it into as close as I could get to round... and replaced it. However, there was still wobble at around 45mph... Ball joints on the driver's side! Yeah! A shop wanted almost $400 to do one ball joint on one side. No way. I'm an adult. I can do this! Here is what I did. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did fixing it. Enjoy. Click HERE for a pdf with lots of pictures and informative bits. (http://www.missedgear.net/images/318ticontrolarm.pdf)

[salsanchez]

What an incredibly detailed post. I appreciate the comedy. It is reminiscent of the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive,Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot " book I bought with my first car. Great job.

[mohaughn]

I have two comments, one, you shouldn't be working under a car like that without jack stands. I wouldn't trust a jack, or that thing that BMW calls a jack...

2, if you jack up both front wheels you will remove all tension from the sway bar, so the control arms don't "pop" on you when you undo the sway bar bolts.

oh.. I guess I have three comments. Use a mini-sledge hammer to bang on the pickle fork.. Works much better and faster than a hammer. The heavier the sledge, the better.

[Steve in No Va]

Also, before you use the pickle fork, get the biggest hammer you can find and bang as hard as you can multiple times directly on the metal part the end piece goes through. I was told to do that by a mechanic. It helps loosen things up when I was replacing control arms on my E28. Don't worry, you can't hurt the metal piece you're hammering on.

[Steve in No Va]

I just finished replacing the bushings at the rear of the control arms without taking the control arms out. This presents interesting problems and is truly a biatch. However, if they are only bushings that need replacing, it is much cheaper than replacing the control arm.

1) Best way to get the old bushings off is to use an electric saw to cut the rubber between the inner and outer parts of the bushing. Once they are separated, carefully cut the inner bushing metal, which is surrounded by rubber and pry it apart with a big screw driver. Don't cut through too deep. You don't want to cut into the control arm.

2) You have to press on the new bushings. Hammering and your arm strength won't do it. After much head scratching and trial, I figured out how to press on the bushing. First, sand the surface rust off the end of the control arm. After cleaning, apply a lot of grease. Also, put some grease in the bushing hole and jam it on the end of the control arm, just so it stays on. Then, using a long (1.5') adjustable clamp and a 22mm socket, put the end of the clamp in the 2nd hole on the control arm and adjust the other end to push the socket at the center of the bushing. Then tighten the clamp as much as it will adjust. This is your press. I used an adjustable wrench on tightening arm of the clamp to move it in. You have to do this several times to move the bushing completely into place. Then, bolt the bushing to the body and you're done.

[Flametail]

I was thinking...when you get the control arm off and need to press on the bushing, couldn't you just put it into the freezer to have the metal shrink? I'd imagine this would help along with WD40 and grease.

Also, if you are in a class and reading this, DON'T! lol. I almost started laughing during Chemistry due to mental pictures.

[Steve in No Va]

Freezing the bushing wouldn't help if metal shrinking is the goal. You would only be shrinking the ring that goes on the control arm, making it harder to get on. Freezing the control arm probably won't work as it is a solid piece of metal and, since it is still on the car, you would need a drive in freezer to roll your car into. I'm guessing not a lot of us have the means to test the freezing theory. Also, WD40 doesn't work, you need actual grease.

[Flametail]

1. I meant the control arm.

2. I also meant off the car.

Sorry I guess I wasn't crystal clear.

[TI-driftin]

Freezing the control arm does work for putting th bushing on. I did my first control arm with just grease and it was a royal pain in the a$$. The second control arm i stuck in the freezer and when i pulled it out i greased it up and the freaking bushing just slid right on by hand. I couldn't believe it i just had to laugh.

[Flametail]

My dad actually did that to get some brake parts on to one of his buddies trucks one time. I knew they were metal and that was the first thing that popped into my mind when i read that it was a pain. I can only imagine the seal when they heat back up though! lol.

[R111S]

I just finished replacing the bushings at the rear of the control arms without taking the control arms out.

Thanks for your tips Steve! I just replaced those Bushings on my '97 318ti and your electric saw idea surely saved me allot of hard work. :smile: I used your Clamp idea too.

After removing the rust on the Stub I used Silicone Grease on the Stub and the Bushing to help it slip on easier. This made it real easy to position the Yoke correctly so the two Bolt Holes line up.

I had a shudder in my steering wheel only at highway speeds when in a gradual curve or changing from right lane to left lane. Now it steers more smoothly and doesn't shudder...just feels much better too but it's difficult to describe here. I suppose after 126K miles they needed replacing. :biggrin:

[mbradican]

The link in this post is no longer active. I'm pretty sure this is the DIY I used when I changed my LCA's and LCAB's a couple of years ago. I was hoping to see it again as I'm doing the same job on another car.

[tungsten2k]

I emailed susteve and he popped the file back up.

No applause please, just throw money :-p

-=dave


From: Steve <stevecurtiss@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Your 318ti control arm bushing replacement PDF ?
Date: May 10, 2013 9:04:34 AM PDT
To: Dave Johnson <davejohnson3000@gmail.com>

Dave -

Don't know how this went away... But I've replaced the file in the folder so it should be all good now.

Thank You for the "heads up" on the broken link :)

Steve Curtiss / Missed Gear / ti owner

[96318ticali]

I just finished the driver side LCA yesterday, I couldn't have done it w/o this thread. Thanks susteve!
Also I froze the LCA and sure enough I could push the bushing on by hand. Great tip! Thanks Flametail & TI-driftin!

Here's another tip: I bought a ball joint separator on Amazon made by OTC for around $35. I removed the front strut assembly (6 bolts... and the brake caliper 2bolts). This gave me easy access to the steering spindle ball joint nut and the ball joint separator took just seconds w/ an air impact gun. Did same for tie rod end ball joint.

Now with the spindle removed, I had easy access to the subframe ball joint. I purchased a 4lb mini sledge hammer from Lowe's $22 and standing up, leaning over, I wacked the pickle fork only 3 or 4 times and the LCA dropped to the ground (less than a minute).

For less than $60 I saved a lot of effort, time and aggravation. Today I'll do the other side. That's 6 ball joints less than $10 each. Well worth the cost IMHO.