Wife's 325i. The driver side control arm was shut - there's around 2" of play in the wheel when off the ground. Ordered a replacement: pair of control arms , 2 lollipops, all pressed in. $155 delivered from ebay.
Had my handy 1/2 Earthquake HF impact, HF air hammer + ball breaking fork.
This Sat, I jack it up, get under there. Removed the triangle-shaped gizmo, got sway bar out the way. Spayed some anti-seize. Easy stuff. Everything but the bolt in the middle of the control arm. What a nightmare. First of all, even when you get a wrench on it, you have may be 10 degrees of turning you can do - so it takes close to 20 moves to turn a complete turn! And then, darn bolt starts spinning.
Long story short, I had to saw through control arm so that I could move it out of the way and to be able to get at the bolt with a cutoff wheel in me 4" grinder. Ended up with may be 3/16" stub sticking out of the bottom and of course, the bolt being wider at the bottom, it still wouldn't come out .
Ended up tack welding the bolt's stub at the bottom and only then the nut came off.
The replacement arm took may be 10 minutes to get installed. Pass side control arm seemed to be OK so I decided I had nuff fun for Sat.
Test drove her, she aint pulling and drives straight nuff.
Had my handy 1/2 Earthquake HF impact, HF air hammer + ball breaking fork.
This Sat, I jack it up, get under there. Removed the triangle-shaped gizmo, got sway bar out the way. Spayed some anti-seize. Easy stuff. Everything but the bolt in the middle of the control arm. What a nightmare. First of all, even when you get a wrench on it, you have may be 10 degrees of turning you can do - so it takes close to 20 moves to turn a complete turn! And then, darn bolt starts spinning.
Long story short, I had to saw through control arm so that I could move it out of the way and to be able to get at the bolt with a cutoff wheel in me 4" grinder. Ended up with may be 3/16" stub sticking out of the bottom and of course, the bolt being wider at the bottom, it still wouldn't come out .
Ended up tack welding the bolt's stub at the bottom and only then the nut came off.
The replacement arm took may be 10 minutes to get installed. Pass side control arm seemed to be OK so I decided I had nuff fun for Sat.
Test drove her, she aint pulling and drives straight nuff.