M235xi Front Suspension Issues

[DrivingPassion]

put a jack under the ball joint and raise the suspension up enough to create a load that will prevent the ball joint from spinning.

I just tried that and the technique certainly works! Thanks!

But, there is another one where the ball is on the top and the nut is at the bottom. How should I handle that one?

[TostitoBandito]

Which joint is that? All the ball joints I know about on the front end have the studs/nuts on the top above the joint. There's the two joints in each front control arm, plus the tie rod ends.

[DrivingPassion]

Which joint is that? All the ball joints I know about on the front end have the studs/nuts on the top above the joint. There's the two joints in each front control arm, plus the tie rod ends.

Not sure what it's called but the pic is looking from bottom up and the one in the center has ball on the top.
This is an F22 M235xi.
All the control arms are mounted onto the Swivel Bearing, including the Strut on the top.

[ScotcH]

Not sure what it's called but the pic is looking from bottom up and the one in the center has ball on the top.
This is an F22 M235xi.
All the control arms are mounted onto the Swivel Bearing, including the Strut on the top.

This is the e36 forum … they don't have those arms

But you can use giant channel locks to squeeze the ball joint and arm together and they tighten … usually works.

[Hova]

Not sure what it's called but the pic is looking from bottom up and the one in the center has ball on the top.
This is an F22 M235xi.
All the control arms are mounted onto the Swivel Bearing, including the Strut on the top.

Stop what you're doing.

This is the E36 forum, we use steel arms and a much different suspension layout.
You do NOT have tapered ball joints.
You also used the wrong style jack as well on the balljoint, and put it in the wrong location. It should be on the outer shell, not in the soft cover in the center. And it looks like you used a bottle jack, not a floor jack. You should have used a piece of wood or something to spread the force. You likely dented the shield of the balljoint there.

If you look at the end of the balljoint, there is a torx bit that should fit inside of it. Just checked my garage, and it's a torx-40 bit, and a 21mm wrench. You can't use a socket wrench here, you have to have a regular wrench, or a ratcheting wrench. Lots of places sell them, homedepot near me has 21mm ratcheting wrenches for $14. Use the torx-40 bit to hold the balljoint still, and use the 21mm wrench to tighten it down. You should ALWAYS use high strength loctite on these bolts. BMW also recommends you change these nuts out, but many don't.

I can't stress how vital it is that procedures in this area are followed perfectly.

Read this:

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=788761

You will need to pre-load the suspension before you tighten the bushings as well. You're okay to tighten the balljoints now, but the bushing end (if you removed these bolts) should not be tightened. You should raise the car on that side to the normal ride height (measure center of wheel to fender, mine is 13.7" for a sport package). You can do this tons of ways. The parts you're working with have specific yeild specs because of being aluminum and NOT steel. Make sure to use a torque wrench.

[MauiM3Mania]

Moved from the E36 M3 sub-forum to the appropriate sub.