Broken front strut, tie rod help

[Phillipdaddy]

I broke my front driver's strut, to get it out no problem . To put the new one in hell. Tried to remove as little as possible, I have to take off the whole hub. I having trouble removing my tie rod end nut. The threaded part has a hex opening, the nut looks like it has clasps around the bottom of it. The clasps look like part of the tie rod when manufactured. What should I do?

[Pelican Parts]

Hello - take a look at the links below to our site's DIY tech articles on the procedures. Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can assist with any future part needs.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm

https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm

[02Pilot]

If you've got it, an impact - air or electric - is going to make your life a lot easier here. And if you actually broke the strut, are you sure nothing else is damaged?

[bmwdirtracer]

"Take off the whole hub"? No, no you don't. Really, this job isn't that hard.....except, I was going to say....if you live in a northern state, where salted roads rust everything to bits. Yeah, this will be difficult for you, because of the rust. When you break the bolt for the clamp holding the bottom part of the strut, dealing with it on the ground, in your driveway is going to be a horrible experience.

But seriously, the Pelican instructions above are just fine -- DO NOT listen to the guys below the main body of text; some of those "hints" are incredibly stupid.

Here's a link to the BMW factory service manuals (and even wiring diagrams) for your car:

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/

Do you have a strut compressor anyway? Doing the swap of spring, etc., without a good strut compressor is dangerous. And of course, you ARE changing both struts, right? And the strut mounts? Not doing both struts, and the mounts/bearings, is very bad.

[Phillipdaddy]

I got it out and in It's all good and torqued. Fixed that, and now a brand new problem