Newbie- Help me make a horrible automotoive decision

[douglawrence42]

ah, but the hypothetical 10k one is owned by a maniac who probably has meticulous records and while you will be replacing things, you'll know exactly when you need to do it and can plan ahead
cheaper cars, in addition to needing a lot, generally have little to no record keeping so you pretty much HAVE to do everything at once because who the hell knows when it was last done.

Well, maniacs have to come from somewhere. Whatever I overpay I'm happy to consider tuition for my maniac training program


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[douglawrence42]

Pulled the whole tie rod assembly this morning. Wanted to show that the illustrious harbor freight ball joint tool works for all 4 joints on the center link / ends.



I had a pretty easy time of it. Pb blaster on the joint, tighten the tool between snug and tight, walk away. 1-2 minutes later, hear a gunshot, go find the tool, repeat.
As reported elsewhere, counting threads or any other "in place" measurement for the tie rod end setting would have been misleading because of the differences between old and new parts.

Finally, I'm not sure how valuable the wiggle test is for evaluating ball joints, but my uneducated opinion is that the tie rod end ball joints were toast but the Pittman and idler joints were probably still good after 100k miles and unknown abuse


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[douglawrence42]

I don't like when people drag vendor disputes into the forums, but a vendor screw up has officially put me on delay. When I ordered my stuff from FCP Euro, the control arm stuff said "ships within 1 day". I ordered May 15. May 17, nothing has shipped and I call them. I wasn't insistent, and I didn't really get any help. I called the next day (18th) pissed, and they agreed to overnight everything, which felt like good customer service. Parts showed up Friday and Monday. But the order was on about 10 different tracking numbers, and there is no way to see what parts go with what shipment. So yesterday I figure out that installing the rear control arms to the frame while the center link is out makes a lot of sense. But I can't find my parts. There is at least 1 tracking number on my order that shows "ready for UPS" since the 18th, but no movement. I call FCP Euro again. They can't tell me what I have and haven't got, or when I'll get it. I explain the car is sitting on the lift waiting for parts I ordered a week and a half ago, they say they will look into it and call me back. No call back all day. This sucks. I don't have my parts and I have no idea when I'll get them, and the follow up from FCP Euro has sucked. So public shaming for them. End rant.


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[jp5Touring]

Sorry to hear about FCP. They were really slow with my last two orders to ship out. My car sat for five days waiting on UPS pkg I paid extra to get early.

[FCPEuro]

I don't like when people drag vendor disputes into the forums, but a vendor screw up has officially put me on delay. When I ordered my stuff from FCP Euro, the control arm stuff said "ships within 1 day". I ordered May 15. May 17, nothing has shipped and I call them. I wasn't insistent, and I didn't really get any help. I called the next day (18th) pissed, and they agreed to overnight everything, which felt like good customer service. Parts showed up Friday and Monday. But the order was on about 10 different tracking numbers, and there is no way to see what parts go with what shipment. So yesterday I figure out that installing the rear control arms to the frame while the center link is out makes a lot of sense. But I can't find my parts. There is at least 1 tracking number on my order that shows "ready for UPS" since the 18th, but no movement. I call FCP Euro again. They can't tell me what I have and haven't got, or when I'll get it. I explain the car is sitting on the lift waiting for parts I ordered a week and a half ago, they say they will look into it and call me back. No call back all day. This sucks. I don't have my parts and I have no idea when I'll get them, and the follow up from FCP Euro has sucked. So public shaming for them. End rant.

Firstly, let me apologize for any issue involving the shipment on your order. I'm not blaming you for a public rant on your experience at all. If I were in your shoes I would feel the exact same way. We've been working to make improvements as of late in fulfillment and if there are issues like this I would rather know about them vs not know about them so I can work with our staff here to get it sorted out. I am sorry for your lack luster experience. Please either PM me here or email me at gareth1@fcpeuro.com and I will be more than happy to go through your order and figure out what happened. I would also like to make this right for you however I can.

- Gareth

Sorry to hear about FCP. They were really slow with my last two orders to ship out. My car sat for five days waiting on UPS pkg I paid extra to get early.

I apologize for any delay you experienced. Like I just said to douglawrence42 we've been going through some changes to improve operations and ship faster. I don't know why an order would be held up with no communication from someone here. This also concerns me. Please PM me or email me at gareth1@fcpeuro.com with your order number so I can look into it and see what happened. Any and all feedback (positive or negative) allows us the opportunity to improve. I would like to make this right for you.

- Gareth

[jp5Touring]

Gareth, Thank You for the interest,will pm you the details,

[StephenVA]

Gareth,
In FCP Euro defense, I ordered a ton of suspension stuff at one time earlier this year for my '03 E39 Wagon and not only did it come in on time, but it was all there, brand correct, PN L&R correct, and it fits! The work is complete and the wagon was transformed by the process.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to this forum.

[douglawrence42]

Hopefully my issues are resolved. I don't understand the full story, and I don't think they do either, but basically a sub-vendor screwed up multiple ways, resulting in no parts for me. But FCP Euro is doing all they can to make it right. I think they have stand up customer service, and as I said earlier, I chose them because of the price, warranty, and especially because their kits took a lot of the guesswork out of ordering. That's all still true, and I'm definitely open to doing business with them again. But I think it is fair to fault them for the lack of follow up. Over the ten days it took to resolve this, they had signs from their vendor that something wasn't right, they had messed up tracking, and they had the fact that 10 days had passed without the order closing. Any one of those things should have flagged the order for follow up, but it took 5 phone calls from me to get a resolution. Ok, enough whining, back to the regularly scheduled "idiot pours way to much money into a salvage title e39"


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[douglawrence42]

All right, so after getting parts, then having a sick kid for a couple days, I finally got back to work today, impossibly way behind schedule. New traction struts went in, then the center link and tie rod ends. I was quickly having visions of completing the whole front suspension today! Then I went to pop the ball joint on the control arm. I had already done 6 or so ball joints without any trouble at all. I had achieved that sense of smug that all idiots achieve immediately before failure. I wondered what all those losers on the interweb were whining about, ball joints are easy! Well the control arm ball joint is to tall for the harbor freight tool. No problem, I'll make an adapter

I bent a 3/8 bolt, ripped the holes out of 1/8 plate, bent a 3/8 steel rod like a noodle, did another 3/8 rod to noodle because I'm stubborn, upgraded to 3/8 grade 8 with 1/4 adapter plates and after a quick 4 hour struggle involving 3 trips to the hardware store, the ball joint broke loose

So at the end of the day, I have all new arms, and a ton more work to do. Surely tomorrow will be better




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[dannyzabolotny]

Yeah, my Harbor Freight ball joint tool didn't like that one either... I just ended up beating it with a sledgehammer until it popped out. If you're replacing the ball joint anyways you might as well just beat it out.

[StephenVA]

Looking great and your are turning the corner on the job. Keep up the efforts!

[FCPEuro]

Gareth,
In FCP Euro defense, I ordered a ton of suspension stuff at one time earlier this year for my '03 E39 Wagon and not only did it come in on time, but it was all there, brand correct, PN L&R correct, and it fits! The work is complete and the wagon was transformed by the process.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to this forum.

Of course. I don't want to see customers have a bad experience. If we mess something up on our end I want to make sure it gets addressed and the customer gets taken care of. Any and all concerns or feedback is always welcomed. I look at it as an opportunity to make improvements.

[FCPEuro]

Hopefully my issues are resolved. I don't understand the full story, and I don't think they do either, but basically a sub-vendor screwed up multiple ways, resulting in no parts for me. But FCP Euro is doing all they can to make it right. I think they have stand up customer service, and as I said earlier, I chose them because of the price, warranty, and especially because their kits took a lot of the guesswork out of ordering. That's all still true, and I'm definitely open to doing business with them again. But I think it is fair to fault them for the lack of follow up. Over the ten days it took to resolve this, they had signs from their vendor that something wasn't right, they had messed up tracking, and they had the fact that 10 days had passed without the order closing. Any one of those things should have flagged the order for follow up, but it took 5 phone calls from me to get a resolution. Ok, enough whining, back to the regularly scheduled "idiot pours way to much money into a salvage title e39"

Many many things went wrong on your order. It doesn't happen often but I agree with you that the lack of followup is the primary issue here and it's something that is being addressed and hopefully won't be an issue again in the future for anybody. Like I've said before, feedback and public criticism isn't an issue and I personally welcome it. This is a very unique business in the respect that we're tied in so closely with the enthusiast communities. It's our job to service your needs and do it timely. If we mess something up on our end it is not the customers fault. It's our job to make it right and it's also our job to make sure we put the mechanisms in place to make sure it doesn't occur again.

[douglawrence42]

Finally some progress! Wheel bearing and wired guard thing installed. Sway bar bushings installed. Brakes, and one wheel will finally be done.

Painted calipers and carrier, along with the guard thing shown earlier. I resisted the urge to go Brembo red with white lettering "STOCK", and just kept it simple black.

Finally a day that is going well!


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[douglawrence42]

And brakes are in, one side done

So much shiny


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[douglawrence42]

Passenger side suspension is complete, going a lot faster now




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[lesguy]

Yeah, my Harbor Freight ball joint tool didn't like that one either... I just ended up beating it with a sledgehammer until it popped out. If you're replacing the ball joint anyways you might as well just beat it out.

Tip: cutoff wheel on dremel to chop off half of that old ball joint allows the HF tool to fit

[nikh23]

Tip: cutoff wheel on dremel to chop off half of that old ball joint allows the HF tool to fit

I had the same problem. What part did you cut off with the dremel, I'm assuming the actual stud portion?


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[douglawrence42]

Tip: cutoff wheel on dremel to chop off half of that old ball joint allows the HF tool to fit

Wow, I'm kicking myself, that is such an obvious solution, and it never even crossed my mind. Ultimately, the modified HF tool worked, the second one was actually easy. My biggest tip is that PB blaster is awesome, but you have to give it time to work. On my second wheel, I got the ball joint nuts off immediately, and let them soak while I did other things. Much easier.


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[lesguy]

Yep, the stud. Maybe not even full half, I seem to recall slicing off about 1/3rd of old stud.

[nikh23]

Yep, the stud. Maybe not even full half, I seem to recall slicing off about 1/3rd of old stud.

That would have saved me hours of cursing and banging on it with a hammer. I even broke out the dremel to grind down the tool! Will keep this in mind for next time


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[dannyzabolotny]

That's a good tip indeed. I didn't have an angle grinder or a Dremel when I did my front suspension, but if I had to do it again I would just bust out my angle grinder and wreck that stud.

[douglawrence42]

Front suspension and brakes complete! I still need to let it down, weight it, and tighten the control arm bushings though.

Now I need to go back to work for a week, then on to the rear. I think I will put motor mounts and subframe bushings off for a while, I really miss driving this thing.


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[douglawrence42]

Finally back to the 540i. I tore into the drivers rear suspension. Everything came apart nicely as far as brakes, shock and control arms. Now the ball joint in the lower control arm is whooping me. Try some new ideas tomorrow.

In other news, if you are replacing the upper rearmost control arm, getting it out of the way does make it possible to remove the shock without removing the fender liner. Not that the liner is hard to remove, but I'm definitely trying to avoid touching as much 16 year old brittle plastic as possible.

If it weren't for the ball joint, I'd say you could easily do one side of the rear suspension in a day. Hopefully better luck tomorrow


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[dannyzabolotny]

I tried using all the generic C-clamp tools on that lower ball joint and I just couldn't get them to work, so I caved in and ordered the official BMW tool for it. It might have been $100 but it was well worth it for the peace of mind.