E30 Zone

Im seriously staggered! I had an hour free today so thought i would get a local garage to press my old balljoint out and new one in for some beer money, 4 garages didnt have a press and one (i still dont think had a press but some big hammers) wanted £40!!!!!!!!!!

female repoductive organs!

I have a press in my own little garage, bigger garages come round and borrow it! Lol

Im lucky to be able to use a local garages one thats sitting gathering dust.
Replacing ball joints on wishbones?

to be exact im replacing the outside balljoint and the lollipop bush on the existing wishbone.

when i worked for MG-Rover (ha ha i know) i even chucked the press in the back of a van to take to an elderly guys house to get a bearing pressed out of his old bristol and that was in my lunch break getting paid two cuban cigars

Had the same problem a few months ago. Left by wishbones with some Russians, who took two weeks to find someone with a press big enough to get the old ball joints out. They told me their 20-tonne press couldn't cope

Fitterz don't need presses!

If its for an e30 just buy the whole complete arm,much easier

Andyboy wrote:Fitterz don't need presses!

Thank god Barry isn't here to retort.

We used to have two at my old work!

I will say with newer cars however, not much seems to be a press fit anymore. Front bearings simply bolt on or off, rear bearings are integral to the brake disc, bushes don't come on their own etc etc.

Exactly, there's no proper 'mechanicing' any more, it's all bolt off bolt on complete ( expensive ) assemblies.

I like older cars where you can just replace the bits that need fixing. Unfortunately the manufacturers realised they weren't making enough money when their cars lasted and were easy to fix fairly cheaply so now have a much more controlled engineered in lifespan.

so mechanics are now just fitters? maybe thats why halfords autocenter looks very busy.

I called a "BMW" specialist in the area and they said i needed to buy yhe whole wishbone too, i dont want to buy yhe whole wishbone because im cheap and need to save every extra penny


So just to repeat what ive found out about todays garages in the last two weeks,


They dont know the difference between a vacume pipe and a coolent pipe
They dont have tourque wrenches
They dont have a press

I havent worked in a garage for 4 years so please someone tell me what else they dont know or have?

To be honest it started to get a bit like this before i left like a broken bent con rod warrenting a new engine???

It's times like this I'm glad I know "Blokes" Blokes with proper old school workshops, sub zero temperatures, no health and safety and all proper manly dangerous looking tools to hand

Jesus325iTouring wrote:It's times like this I'm glad I know "Blokes" Blokes with proper old school workshops, sub zero temperatures, no health and safety and all proper manly dangerous looking tools to hand

Visited my work then.

Go to an MB main dealer workshop. Spotless, you could perform heart surgery in there. I don't know if they actually get their hands dirty or not. The only tool they probably buy is a code reader.

The guy I use has one.
He pretty much has everything including a Cryprton tuner and some funky 80's diagnostic equipment, he does invest into new exqupment and tools as and when required (certain tooling to lock cams in place) and has also fabricated other tools took make some jobs easier. Other jobs he uses old skool techniques rather buy tools which save him no time.

So when the smallest garages charge £40 per hour plus vat, you think it's unreasonable to be asked for £40 to fit your balljoints?

Every garage I've ever worked in has had a press, but gone are the days of doing stuff for a drink.

I bet you wanted them done for £10 - 20? It'll take an hour to batter them out and press the new ones on(a pair).

capnmchl wrote:We used to have two at my old work!

I will say with newer cars however, not much seems to be a press fit anymore. Front bearings simply bolt on or off, rear bearings are integral to the brake disc, bushes don't come on their own etc etc.

You haven't come across the generation 2 bearings then, where you need a special kit of £300 to do the job right?

And that's £300 for each different Manufacturers kit!

Smellit, try your local Bus garage/depot.

rhubarb wrote:So when the smallest garages charge £40 per hour plus vat, you think it's unreasonable to be asked for £40 to fit your balljoints?

Every garage I've ever worked in has had a press, but gone are the days of doing stuff for a drink.

I bet you wanted them done for £10 - 20? It'll take an hour to batter them out and press the new ones on(a pair).

An hour? Give me a good press with all the right tooling and it will take me 10 mins max,

thats exactly why i stopped working for garages, they mark up the times and con the carp out of people.

When i first met the wife she had an mg zr, she said to me she had it booked in at her local garage for brake pads that was going to cost her £200+parts!!!!!
Well i told her buy the pads and ill show you how to fit them which on them cars is one bolt needs taking off each side so realistically with cleaning and gresing ect should take no longer than an hour tops

I still have family and friends asking me to look at their cars as they dont trust garages and 9 times out of 10 the garages are on the blag.


The bus depot idea is a good call never even crossed my mind, i even have a friend who works there who blagged it so i could use their alloy welder a few years back.

rhubarb wrote:

capnmchl wrote:We used to have two at my old work!

I will say with newer cars however, not much seems to be a press fit anymore. Front bearings simply bolt on or off, rear bearings are integral to the brake disc, bushes don't come on their own etc etc.

You haven't come across the generation 2 bearings then, where you need a special kit of £300 to do the job right?

And that's £300 for each different Manufacturers kit!

Nope. We tended to work at the lower end of the market anyway and I left a year ago. Divulge?

if you lived closer to me. you could have used mine

For £99, it's easier just to get a pair of Lemforder arms with new ball joints already fitted, that's what I did

diable wrote:

faze30 wrote:if you lived closer to me. you could have used mine

He'll send Tonto around on his horse to pick it up

Tonto is busy fighting all the cowboys in overals round here


i wont buy new wishbones and shouldent have too

Smellit wrote:i wont buy new wishbones and shouldent have too

I just think by the time you've bought new ball joints, took the time and paid someone to press them in and out, you may as well buy new arms that come with new inner and outer ball joints.

2x Inner ball Joints - £30
2x outer ball joints - £23.28
Total with discount code - £48.28 plus time and labour rates to have them fitted.

2x Control arms with with inner and outer ball joints already fitted - £99 with discount code.

You can do it even cheaper but that's all with Lemforder OEM parts

Chris_B86 wrote:

Smellit wrote:i wont buy new wishbones and shouldent have too

I just think by the time you've bought new ball joints, took the time and paid someone to press them in and out, you may as well buy new arms that come with new inner and outer ball joints.

2x Inner ball Joints - £30
2x outer ball joints - £23.28
Total with discount code - £48.28 plus time and labour rates to have them fitted.

2x Control arms with with inner and outer ball joints already fitted - £99 with discount code.

You can do it even cheaper but that's all with Lemforder OEM parts

A very valid point

but i alredy had the new balljoint and lollipop laying around from a previous e30 that i had that got written off before i could change them

On a plus point i have found an italian car specialist in my area who have said feel free to come down and use ours if you give it a good clean in the process , there are still some old school values around

so, what sort or press will suit most diy needs?

spurred on by this thread i've had a nose around and it looks like you can get a 20ton press for pretty reasonable money, is that likely to be enough for most bushes and bearings? or a waste of money?

harry_p wrote:so, what sort or press will suit most diy needs?

spurred on by this thread i've had a nose around and it looks like you can get a 20ton press for pretty reasonable money, is that likely to be enough for most bushes and bearings? or a waste of money?

Yes i would have thought so thats the most ive used before with maybe a bit of heat, i was looking too and your right they are very cheap second hand.

The problem with the cheaper ones is they tend to have a small frame, so you start to struggle doing large objects. Imagine trying to press a trailing arm bush out with a press which only has a small frame.

The other thing to consider is not the press itself, but what you have around to press stuff out with. Garages end up collecting all sorts of old bearing races and bush shells and old sockets that can be used, but without them it can get difficult to press stuff out.

Smellit wrote:

rhubarb wrote:So when the smallest garages charge £40 per hour plus vat, you think it's unreasonable to be asked for £40 to fit your balljoints?

Every garage I've ever worked in has had a press, but gone are the days of doing stuff for a drink.

I bet you wanted them done for £10 - 20? It'll take an hour to batter them out and press the new ones on(a pair).

An hour? Give me a good press with all the right tooling and it will take me 10 mins max,

thats exactly why i stopped working for garages, they mark up the times and con the carp out of people.

When i first met the wife she had an mg zr, she said to me she had it booked in at her local garage for brake pads that was going to cost her £200+parts!!!!!
Well i told her buy the pads and ill show you how to fit them which on them cars is one bolt needs taking off each side so realistically with cleaning and gresing ect should take no longer than an hour tops

I still have family and friends asking me to look at their cars as they dont trust garages and 9 times out of 10 the garages are on the blag.


The bus depot idea is a good call never even crossed my mind, i even have a friend who works there who blagged it so i could use their alloy welder a few years back.

I did some E36 ones approx 3 months back, hit out with a hammer, and refit new with my press...It must have taken me best part of an hour..No heat on hand.

capnmchl wrote:

rhubarb wrote:

capnmchl wrote:We used to have two at my old work!

I will say with newer cars however, not much seems to be a press fit anymore. Front bearings simply bolt on or off, rear bearings are integral to the brake disc, bushes don't come on their own etc etc.

You haven't come across the generation 2 bearings then, where you need a special kit of £300 to do the job right?

And that's £300 for each different Manufacturers kit!

Nope. We tended to work at the lower end of the market anyway and I left a year ago. Divulge?

Here you go, this is how things are going..It'll stop people fiddling themselves

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sykes-Pickava ... 0767750666

It depends how much your time is worth really.
My mate has a press so used it to fit some bushes and ball joints on my old van.
After a couple of hours fornicating about with the press I wished I'd splashed out the extra 25 quid to make it a quick bolt on/bolt off job.

The gen 3 total bolt on set ups make perfect sense to me but the gen 2 is just a shit idea. Modern cars really are expensive crap.

Edit - correction, gen 2 is not really a problem, as gen 2 by definition is like an e30 front hub, its the gen 2 shite with integral locking rings and other crap like abs trigger seals.

Good lads at the Italian garage, they let me used it after i had cleaned it and refilled it with fluid, took me 25 mins to do the ball joint and lolly pop bush, however when i got home the lolly pop had worked its way off 2 mm so got inventive with a jack and a landrover

Thats everything done and car ready for mot

Got a couple of presses in our work. Also head skimmers lathes etc. My boss is proper old skool and likes to make what he can in house. He once tried to make a spindle for a turbo out of a screw driver no matter how many times we told him they're balanced at like 20000rpm thankfully he gave up before fitting it