Changing Front Wishbones .... DIY?

[CaesarBob]

Car's failed the MOT on the worn wishbone ball joints.

I've had a look at it and reckon i can cope with undoing a few nuts and splitting the ball joints and i have found someone to press in the new rubber mounts.

So ... should i try this as a DIY job or pay Ԛ£150 and get someone else to do it for me?

[Turbo-Brown]

Piece of piss

Only problem I had was getting the bolty thing out of the cross-member.

[hoshy]

yeah I did this myself. easy mate. biggest trouble I had was getting the old one off the donor car, in the snow!

[CaesarBob]

I had a look and reckoned the easiest way to the nut on the cross member was thro the engine bay with a universal joint and a few feet of extensions.

I'd definitely rather do this myself than get someone else to do it.

Anyone else?

Cheers.

[Martinaston]

You will need a ball joint splitter fork with a 35mm jaw or wider to get the old arm off.

[Turbo-Brown]

I'd spray it with a shed load of WD40 well before hand though.

The problem I had was that once I'd loosened the nuts, the bolty thing started to turn so I ended up cutting the nuts off with a hack saw, which might only be possible without the engine in the car

[karlp]

It is easy but beware of the following.

If a ball joint nut starts to spin - put a jack under the joint and support the car on it (this will force the ball joint back into the socket ( support the rest of the car to prevent it falling over).

On the ball joint attacjed to the cross member use a forked ball separator.

On the ball joints on the steering use the type with the screw thread ( this wil at least lessen the chance of splitting the steering ball joint rubber).

The cross member nuts can be accessed via the top of the engine using extension bars.

Karl

[iKst]

Its easy. Just do what karlp said, if ball joint nut starts to spin.

And you can get new wishbones very cheap. I recommend E36 wishbones, as they will go straight on and ball joints are alot stronger. Here the price is around 50 euro for a piece of E36 wishbones with ball joints and everything. Not original BMW part, but it works just as good.

[jibbers]

Just did the ones on my 320 , cost me 29.99+VAT per side @GSF
Piece o pice mate , dont pay the Ԛ£150 , unless your lazy as fook !

Jibbers

[Templ8e30]

Bob, I went to GSF and got the Febi Bilstein wishbones complete with balljoints, they are the dearer ones. Ԛ£39.99 each IIRC and get a pair of wishbone bushes too.

The hardest bit is pressing the old bushes out and new ones in.

To remove the bush from the old control arm I used a junior hacksaw and cut through the 2 rubber 'lumps' joining the inner part to the outer ring. Use a little paraffin on the wishbone to help knock the new bush on.

Also make a note of which way round the bushes are pressed into the lollipops, genuine ones have an arrow pointing to a casting mark on the lollipop.

Otherwise an easyish job mate.

Cheers,

Iain T

[CaesarBob]

Thanks for the advice.

Got the parts and had the tca bushes pressed into the lollipops already. Got a guy in the service dept at local $tealer to do it for a backhander. So it's on for tomoro.

As long as the ball joints split easy enough can't see any probs looming.

[CaesarBob]

Just thought i'd say cheers for the advice.

Must have been the easiest job i've done on the old girl. All done in about 2.5hrs and it has made a noticeable difference.

[hoshy]

rock on dude.

[jibbers]

So then ceaserbob , how much did the job cost you alltogether ?

Jibbers

[TRICKYTREV]

ceaserbob, don't forget to get
the track checked mate. It will more than likely be out.