E30 Zone

Hi all,

It's been a while since i last posted here, having gone down the route of other various BMW's over the years.

Now, i find myself with an e36 318iS 4 door on a '98 plate.

I have changed all of the suspension on this car myself (front & rear shocks & spring kit), new M3 rear control arm bushes, new bottom arms & various other drop links etc.

After taking the car to a local BMW specialist he has advised me that one the rear trailing arm bushes has gone (this appears to be of the original design). The n/s/r wheel appears to be pointing in towards the front of the car.

Ever since i have changed the suspension the car has not handled right & im almost at my witts end with it!.

I have had the car's front wheel alignment tracked up twice & still the steering wheel sits well of centre & the whole car just feels WRONG!

I believe i need a special tool to allow me to remove the rear trailing arm bushes in situ, these are too expensive for me unfortunately considering it would get used once & then sit on the shelf.

I have a haynes manual, but its not so clear (well, atleats not so clear to me anyways) on the proceedure to remove the rear trailing arm bushes.

The specialist has advised me it apears that one bush (the knackered one) is of the old style design & the other side is of the revised slotted design.

Im thinking about changing them both at the same time for piece of mind, but unsure whats required.

Is it worth whole changing these bushes to some uprated ones, something like polyurethane, or does this just cause complications?

Regards,

Pete.

E36 trailing arm bushes are a piece of p1ss. You need the ones from Euro Car Prats with a split in the outer steel sleeve. What you do it jack it up and take the wheel off, grovel underneath and mark the position of the trailing arm bracket to the floor. If it has original bushes the witness marks mean it goes back the way it came off. The trailing arm drops down with three 18mm bolts and the old bushes are removed by drilling into the rubber until the centre pulls out and using a hacksaw to cut through the outer sleeve before knocking it out with a hammer and chisel. The new bushes with the split sleeve are just hammered in. I'm down to 40 mins per side!

Hi AndyBoy, thanks.

Just a quick pic below to clarify that the bush im talking about is shown as number 3.

Good luck.

I managed to get boht the rear bushes changed, but...

It took me 1 & a half days!

I started on the passenger side rear & that was the one that caused me all of the hassle.

First problem i had was trying to undo the bolt that goes through the bracket that connects the centre of the bush to the underbody of the car.

I tried to hacksaw the end of the bolt off to weaken it, so i could mash the end in & then be able to withdraw the bolt, no success. I also tried to drill the bolt out from the other end, no success. Next up was to try & drill through the side of the nut i had had half hack sawed off, no success.

In the end, after all of this buggering about, i managed to undo the remians of the nut!

While trying to remove the bush, i tried to drill all of the rubber out & generally made a massive smelly molten mess, lol

After speaking with a friend who had taken apart & rfepaired more BMW's than most, suggested that the outter of the metal of the bush is made from aluminium, so just belt a screwdriver inbetween the metal of the trailing arm & the outer aluminum part of the bush. This will then mash up the bush. Do this enough times & it will eventually drop out with a little gentl persuasion, which it did!

The other side was as they say 'a piece of pi$$'.

So, job done & i have learned something along the way, so i have the feel good factor of saving money by paying someone to do it for me.

Incidentally, my friend whose garage i was doing the work in let me borrow his e60 M5 to go home in

This M5 is in one word 'awesome' !

It's a bitch to drive around town, but if you just want to play, then it is an amazing piece of engineering.

Regards,
Pete.