replacing rear subframe bushes

[sadham]

Hi all,

I am looking to replace the rear subframe bushes with stock rubber ones. I will be using the wiki to guide me. Any tips or help will be much appreciated.

I've only ever changed the rear diff mount and that was with a poly one so easy to do. Never done any under car work apart from fitting the exhaust.

From what I've gathered I need to:
1)put the car on a ramp (I've got the small 2 piece ramp)
1a) put jack stands on the jacking spots on the sides.
2)remove Allen key bolts on the sides 2 on each side
2a) remove 22mm bolt under the sub frame bushes
2b) remove rear seat base and place cloth on bolt and punch/hammer it out from underneath
3) lower subframe supporting it with a jack
4) slightly heat bush and use socket to push it through and out.
5) make a bush installation tool using a threaded rod and large washers and nuts
6) use the tool to insert the bushing and put it all back together in reverse.

[Topblag]

i've just done this job and opted to remove the entire beam. I was able to press out one side, the other required to be pressed and burnt out. Much bigger job when removing the beam as driveshafts, brake lines and handbrake cables need to be removed.

[sadham]

How long did that take you?
I'm not removing the entire beam as I don't have the time or strength for it lol.
I'm hoping mine are completely shot so it can be removed easier.
Hitting it with a heat gun should get them loose yh?

[Topblag]

How long did that take you?
I'm not removing the entire beam as I don't have the time or strength for it lol.
I'm hoping mine are completely shot so it can be removed easier.
Hitting it with a heat gun should get them loose yh?

Half a day all in. If they are completely shot they wouldn't have gone through an MOT. The older they are, the harder to remove in my experience.

Good luck doing them in situ.

[KW355]

I have just done mine although I removed the whole axle assembly to refurb it.
I borrowed the proper removal tool and it was really easy, heating them up with a hot air gun helped.

[sadham]

Where did you borrow the removal tool from?

[KW355]

Where did you borrow the removal tool from?

I borrowed it off my mate, unfortunately he won't hire it out.
Try posting up to see if someone will hire / lend you one from this site.

[sadham]

No worries, will try that. Otherwise off to wicked to try make my own.

[Topblag]

take the beam off and take it to a local garage, ask them to press out the bushes. It's a 5 min job with a press and easier than making your own tool.

[bmw9818]

It varies, your better off just redo-ing the whole rear end tbf, the bushes wont come out easy, my ones were seized in the mounting and it wont drop straight off, could use a hammer and see if it free's up if it does youll be lucky,

i removed the arms etc and left the diff on and used it as leverage just bounced it up and down till it freed up the frame, took a few minutes, one side came out clean other side broke off so had to chisel/ tap that out, then once its out a press at a garage or if you have a big enough vice use that, a blowtorch and a hammer got mine out in about 10mins or so either side,

[sadham]

I attempted to start this job today. It stopped before I could even get started :/.
I had both my sills replaced and it looks like there isn't any access to the Allen bolts on the sides. (See pics)




any suggestions on what I'd need to do now? Tempted to just take it to a garage (although I'm not very fond of them).

[KW355]

Could you drill the Allen bolts out through the replacement sills? If you ruin the threads you could use an ordinary nut and bolt to refix the brackets

[Topblag]

I attempted to start this job today. It stopped before I could even get started :/.
I had both my sills replaced and it looks like there isn't any access to the Allen bolts on the sides. (See pics)




any suggestions on what I'd need to do now? Tempted to just take it to a garage (although I'm not very fond of them).

Whatever you do, don't take it to the clown who created the problem. That's not good.

[bss325i]

Nice repair to the sills NOT!

And more to the point, WTF is going on with that exhaust?!

[Topblag]

Looking again, I'm sure that's not an e30 sill

[sadham]

Damaged the exhaust going over a speed bump too quick with the car full. Used some paste I had to hold it together in the meantime. Booked in for repair next week.

I'll try drilling them out. Hopefully all goes well.

The car has been a bit of bad luck to me tbh so this botched job is like the icing on the cake. But hey still hasn't put me off it lol.

[Topblag]

Damaged the exhaust going over a speed bump too quick with the car full. Used some paste I had to hold it together in the meantime. Booked in for repair next week.

I'll try drilling them out. Hopefully all goes well.

The car has been a bit of bad luck to me tbh so this botched job is like the icing on the cake. But hey still hasn't put me off it lol.

Issue is not the joint as much as its sitting far too low, it should hug the floor. You'll damage it again if you don't get it done properly.

[sadham]

thanks for pointing that out I didn't realise (Well I knew it was low but I figured as its got 2 brackets on it, it's just how it was supposed to be) Just had a good luck underneath the car. Seems to be missing the side bracket and rubber.

[Brianmoooore]

Should be four brackets supporting the exhaust, including one from the crossmember itself. The space between the flattened section of the pipe and the crossmember should be minimal.

[sadham]

Where are the brackets meant to be?


I've just put on the middle bracket (the one that looks new in the pic) but can't get the round hanger to get near enough to hook onto the bracket.

[bmw9818]

your meant to have a rubber mounting at those points, its different to mine, the first one is a bodge, its meant to clamp around the box and i cant see a sort of H shaped piece on the hangars where the rubber mount sits in then its meant to fix on to the points on the underside... Cant seem to see those either well how there meant to be,

Regardless if you raise the box the centre pipe seems to just be too low, looks an aftermarket cheap exhaust tbh,

is there a clamp holding it on off the gearbox?

[sadham]

I don't suppose you could show a picture of how it should be? So I can try and get it to that. Front pipe was off a breaker, centre and back box from gsf and euro car parts so not really sure of quality.

Will have a look when I get home, I'll take a few more pics of centre pipe so you have more visibility of where brackets may be missing etc. Thanks for all the information by the way guys.

[Brianmoooore]

http://2009.bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/ ... _catalyst/

This shows how the bracket should be orientated. 7 is the rubber ring that does between the bracket on the silencer and the similar one on the body.
Only two brackets in total on a M10 - on the silencer and off of the gearbox. Other E30s have four.

[sadham]

That's the bracket for the front pipe, sorry not very clear. I'm thinking it may just be low because of the rotation of the back box may not have been correct. Will be putting it back on tomorrow so will experiment with it then.