Front Tension Strut Bushings Replacement
I recently replaced the front tension strut bushings on the e83, overall a fairly simple job with a press. Symptoms of worn tension strut bushings can be wobble of steering wheel at speeds from 45 to 65, loose play in steering, increased road noise (similar to a bad wheel bearing), and wandering over bumps.
The job took about 2 hours to accomplish, steering and road noise restored to factory fresh!
Raise Car / Supplement with Jackstands / Remove Tires
Remove front under pan, and front wheel liners / front liner supports. (while under the car, I discovered that its time to replace the oil filter housing gasket)
Remove inboard bolt and ball joint from knuckle. I chose to leave the ball joint attached to the tension strut arm to avoid tearing the ball joint boot during separation. The ball joint attaches to the knuckle by two external torx bolts. Once the arm/ball joint are removed the bushing is pressed into place.
The part needed is: 311 203 0 78 82
31120307882.jpg
Once the vehicle is re-assembled, it is essential to tighten the front cross bolt with the bushing pre-loaded under the vehicle's weight, not with the suspension hanging.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by bdiefAZ; 04-08-2019 at 02:08 AM.
Regards,
Brian
Cave Creek, AZ
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