Replacing all bushes

[Gert_8]

Hi Guys,

Can you advise on the above please for my cabby?

What i'd like to know is how many are involved, and where these are located, along with the cost of the bushes.

I have read OEM are the best.

If you can give me a list or what is needed, I will find the part numbers.

What do you think the labour charge would be for this work?

TIA

[Brianmoooore]

So what car are you talking about? If it's an E30, you've posted in the wrong forum.

[Gert_8]

Sorry Brian, could you move to the right forum, please - my mistake, it is an E30.

Thank you!

[milescook]

For my bushes (all rear and lollipops front), I sourced all my info from the wiki - it's pretty comprehensive on the bushes.

[Grrrmachine]

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Bushes

[Gert_8]

oh, okay - that's pretty cool. Where it refers to M3 items (inc E34) I presume they are not M3 specific, but the preferred option to use.

Thanks.

Who has done this work and can advise on the time it took, please?

[milescook]

I did the work, but I'm no mechanic and it took fooking ages to do the rear Had some help for one day and the rear took probably 3 days in total with snapped bolts, snafus etc. Like I said though, I'm no mechanic

Fronts are much easier, I only did the lollipops and that was a day, but I hit trouble with powerflex bushes (track car) and needed to use more force to get the lollipops bracket in line with the holes.

[Gert_8]

My tool box consists of a few screw drivers, and pliers...

[G-Bear]

There are plenty of methods on here for pressing the various bushes onto their places. But it's handy having access to a press. I've only replaced drop links, track rods and lollypops bushes. Got so far pushing them (lolly pop bushes) in with a vice, but in the end popped up the road to a local mechanic where he pressed them in in a matter of minutes.

Cost in parts of everything on the list in the "Bushes" wiki pages at a rough guess would around £200 all lemforder bar the M3 lollypop bushes. Then its up to you with labour. Spend a bit of time doing it yourself along with the self satisfaction. Or spend a bit on labor and have someone else do it. Either way you'll be happy with the result.

[Gert_8]

£200, G-Bear? I calculated over £600, adding all the bits up. The work is beyond my capabilities, especially when it comes to removing and fitting the old bushes as described in the wiki (what a pain in the arse!)

[milescook]

When you're not in my back passage, where are you based? Someone local may be able to help for some beer or run a garage.

[Gert_8]

Hahah! North Wales Buddy.

[G-Bear]

Hahah! North Wales Buddy.

Maggspower is your man? In South Wales.

£600? Is that for parts and labour? sounds like dealership prices. You can get all bushes made by Lemforder (OEM quality) from carpartsforless..

[G-Bear]

I think it's just the M3 lollypop bushes that you have to BMW I bought a set for about £40 the other month.

[Brianmoooore]

Note that the BMW part number for the offset M3 bushes is for a pair. Order two, and you will end up with four bushes.

[Gert_8]

I just looked at the link Grrr kindly posted and added up the cost of parts stated - this came to over £600. I noted the pairs, Brian.

[BenHar]

I just looked at the link Grrr kindly posted and added up the cost of parts stated - this came to over £600. I noted the pairs, Brian.

Those look like dealer prices. It's a lot less from CP4Less.

You don't need these:
Pair of E30 M3 eccentric top strut mounts (31331139484) - £94.41 each

Studs x6 (31331092886) - £3.56 for 6
Nuts x6 (31331092887) - £0.95 for 6

You can get a pair of standard top mounts fot £75.

Ben

[Gert_8]

That's the sort of info I was looking for..

[BenHar]

I did the whole front end of mine for about £400 including new Bilstein B4s.

Ben

[pacerpete]

Here are the eccentric bushes . C3 are another aftermarket parts supplier . They are usually dearer than Euros etc but tend to stock the better brands. Meyle are premium. I would rate their parts better than Lemforder etc. They will stock all the bits you need . E46 M3 rear shock top mounts are the ones to use , Meyle again would be my weapon of choice as they are now knocking on £30 EACH from BMW !
The front wishbone bushes, top shock mounts and rear sub mounts are the more usual things to be worn or have been replaced with poor quality parts. Rear trailing arm bushes are seldom sh4gged enough to be worth the aggro to change.

The best plan is to get the car to somebody knowledgeable and fair (Byron aka maggspower is a top bloke and fellow sheep worrier so he would get my vote !) get an autopsy done FIRST and then start ordering bits.

Being a bruvved up cab , it is bound to need loads of stuff like gearbox mounts/prop doughnut /gear linkage etc etc so it is pointless just ordering bits and changing them for the sake of it. Spend the money on what needs changing or what will improve the car.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E36-M3-3- ... 0413557%26

Sorry about the big link, I'm thick and do not know how to / if it can be abbreviated.

[DanThe]

FFS Gert youve been on here for over 3 years and dont have a clue about E30 suspension bushes?

What is the state of the beam/trailing arms etc? while they're off is the best time to have it all blasted and powdercoated

How north into north wales are you? I do frequent the border quite regularly if you need an expert opinion

[pacerpete]

He's a boyo bruv Dan, it's all about the 'brows and the gape !

[Gert_8]

Oi you fookers.

Firstly thanks for the very good advice, as usual. My cab doesn't need any of the above doing, if I'm honest, but it's running on Burger King 17" at the moment (don't even say it Pete!) and it's going back on 15's. I wanted the improved ride quality.

I was only thinking about what would be involved in getting the bushes done, as I've often read replacing them is a positive improvement. It's had new B4's all round and eibachs.



Ps. You should also know, I'm not one for getting my manicured fingernails chipped or dirty.

[G-Bear]

Just reading through the latest posts. There's some heavy weights in the arena now, so this renders most of my input a bit useless in comparison. But prior to this I costed up the following, partly as I still need some of the bits listed.

Take from it what you may.

From Car parts 4 less

Front
x2 Lemforder Top mounts £44.40
x2 Lemforder Mondeo rear droplinks £37.20 (the E30 ones are probably cheaper)
x2 Lemforder ARB bushes £9.12
x2 Lemforder Conrol arms complete £114
x2 Lemforder track rod full assemblies £64.68 (Use this part number as recommended by Meatballs 605110105)

Rear
x2 Lemforder rear beam bushes £25.20

Total £294.60 you could buy these in two goes and use the £15 off £100 and save £30. Or bump up the price to £300 to save bit bit more


From BMW

x 2 E30 M3 eccentric lollipop bushes £39
x2 E46 M3 Cab top shock mounts £33.30
x2 Trailing arm bushes (because I could find them on CP4L, sure someone has the part number on here) £25.76

Total £98.06

Grand total of (with £30 saving) £362.66 Sorry my plucked sum of £200 was a bit tight.

[Gert_8]

Half the price I got to. Thanks G-bear

[Brianmoooore]

From Car parts 4 less

x2 Lemforder Mondeo rear droplinks £37.20 (the E30 ones are probably cheaper)

About the same price the last time I bought some.

x2 Lemforder Conrol arms complete £114
x2 Lemforder track rod full assemblies £64.68 (Use this part number as recommended by Meatballs 605110105)

These would only be replaced if they needed to be. New rubber boots on the control arm ball joints, and a bit of fresh grease added will give ones in good condition a whole new lease of life.
Track rods rarely need changing, and rod ends only occasionally. The new boot and grease works on them as well.

x2 Trailing arm bushes (because I could find them on CP4L, sure someone has the part number on here) £25.76

Again, very rarely need replacing. The 'muffin tops' that stick out at each end might have the odd bit of surface cracking, but the rubber where it matters is usually as good as new.

[Gert_8]

Thank you very much, Guys. That's superb information, but Brian your comments on what actually needs replacing is the best. my obliged to you all.