DIY: Just Another Lower Control Arm Bushing Swap

[Tommy R]

No sweat. I remember asking about that years ago, but never did to either of my cars since it's not legal. I picked up some sway bar reinforces to weld in, but unsure of the legality of those, too, I elected to not install them....at least not yet.

I sometimes go to fairly rediculous lengths to assure my stuff is 100% legal (take a look at SCCAforums.com for my posts!). You see, when I was co-driving in FSP with my friend (in his VW Scirocco) we were protested at Nationals in 2002 because there was no documented proof that the head on the car was legal. At least there wasn't at the time. It was considered a weak protest by 99% of the competitors, but it was upheld. Everyone else in the class believed it to be legal, too.

I lost a 2nd place trophy. The car owner lost a 3rd place trophy. It was later proven that the head *is* legal, but we simply didn't have the documentation to prove it at the time. We do now, but I'm in my own car again so it's not an issue for me anyway.

So having been through that, you can see why I'd get pretty defensive about my car's legality.

Tommy

[robisconfusedd]

LOL! this has got to be the most informative while funniest DIY i've ever read, i haven't read any of your others though but THANKS! I will be doing this in the future and man your write up makes me a lot more confident about doing it!!

keep up the excellent work my fellow bimmer enthusiast!

[Tommy R]

LOL! this has got to be the most informative while funniest DIY i've ever read, i haven't read any of your others though but THANKS! I will be doing this in the future and man your write up makes me a lot more confident about doing it!!

keep up the excellent work my fellow bimmer enthusiast!

LOL... No sweat, man. Glad you enjoyed it...

Tommy

[Switch Monkey]

This is how I installed my bushing on the arm in under a minute

[Jude]

This is how I installed my bushing on the arm in under a minute

I gave THAT a go last night, to no avail. It is a good idea, though. I just put my control arm in a vice and whaled on the bushing till it went into place

Thanks to this thread, I was able to get up and running. I just wanted to say thanks to bimmerforums and its members.

[silver36]

awesome write up!!!

thanks!

[The Accountant]

Thanks for the info - very useful!

[delmarco]

You don't have to change out the whole Control Arms everytime you change the bushings?

[Tommy R]

You don't have to change out the whole Control Arms everytime you change the bushings?

Nope!

Tommy

[kawi008]

Nice diy man thanks!

[orbphobic]

guys i was wondering if i do the front do i have to let the car settle for a day before i get started on the rear or can i begin right away? Also can you please clarify for me one thing. You mentioned that once the bushing is installed you have 30 minutes to have it installed on the control arm, does that mean that the car has to be dropped on that side to allow for settling? Is it recommend to have the car lifted up on both sides and do them both at the same time?

[Mike 01Hawk]

I know this probably won't be of any help to you orbphobic as it's over 2 months past... but the 30 min rule as I'm reading it deals w/ the type of lube that BMW uses in the installation of the bushing. After 30 min it 'welds' the bushing to the arm. Since we're using liquid soap, I don't believe we are prone to this limitation.

Oh and great idea on the strapping ratchet to do the install

I'll be doing this install over the weekend on ole Penny to replace the Treehouse Lollipops... Poly for DD = LOSE!!!

[Wangrocket]

Just to clarify - I'm putting OEM rubber bushings on my 99 M3. Do I need an alignment afterward?

[hellrot325]

Just to clarify - I'm putting OEM rubber bushings on my 99 M3. Do I need an alignment afterward?

Yes.