Rear Subframe bushes? can anybody help :)

[Jay_AK]

Hi everyone ,
I've just bought myself a 318i on a F plate this weekend (my first ever BMW , rear wheel drive heaven) which i'm chuft with but upon visiting the MOT station it was failed on numerous thing's, one of which was the rear subframe bushes.
all of the other failing's are minor in my eye's but for these bushes.
You see, the thing is, as i am clueless as regard's to these kind of thing's, is this a major job to undertake and what sort of price are you expected to pay to have them replaced?
i know the bushes are about £12 (on ebay) but it's the labour charges that are concerning me, the guy in the garage seem's to be very reluctant to undertake this repair as he has had my car since monday and hasn't touched it at all (which i'm pretty angry about because i've sold my other car now and had my insurance transfered to this BM in the hope that the work would have been completed by now).
he gave me a rough estimate of the cost to the figure of between £400 to £500 just to replace the bushes (after 4 day's of thinking). i know there is a substancial ammount of work involved, but surely this figure isn't right (isn't it £35 per hour in labour charges at most garages???)
Can any of you good folk guide me in the right direction? i was really looking forward to having a drive (i'd booked this coming week off work to go on holiday for a couple of day's doing a little touring) but they've put a stop to that now so i'm far from happy atm...

Any help is greatly appreciated

Thank's guy's

Jay

[316eyes]

Depends where you are in the country mate. Prices down south seem to be higher than oop north.

The guy has probably done one before and doesn't want to do it again, hence the silly price. As it involves dropping the rear end and undoing 17 year old bolts and nuts it's not an easy DIY job, but not impossible.

Had the bushes on a 316i done 18 months ago for £150 inc. parts, but that was from a mate who does all the work I can't do myself.

No doubt others on here will be able to recommend somewhere more reasonable.

[Jay_AK]

Thank's 316eyes,
funnily enough he was quite the opposite as regard's to having done one before, he told me that he'd never done one but after inspecting it he is aware of the job involved which is probably why he gave me the figure he did.
I've spoken to the guy i bought the car from as he's a mechanic (it was his pride and joy but his missus took a dislike to it he even converted it to rear disk's) and he said he would do the job for me for a measly £60, yes that's £60 .
What i'm going to do in the meantime is pay the garage another visit in the morning and see what the verdict is, if he's still quoting me silly prices i'll get them to complete the other work needed and i'll get the bushes replaced elsewhere. what's annoying me the most is the fact that i'm paying £120 a month insurance on the bugger and i haven't even driven it yet which in turn is costing me more and more money by the day.

Both guy's in the garage are adamant that this shouldn't have been failed on the bushes as they believe they're not to bad (which leaves me to ask these question's), the MOT tester pointed the bushes out to me during it's inspection whilst over the pit, as you probably know, i believe the subframe is supposed to sit central on the bushes, but when you look at it there's about 1/2" of the bushing showing below the subframe and about 1 1/2" of the bushing showing above the subframe (you guy's who've done this job before will get what i mean). This surely is a sign the bushes are perished is it not? i just want the job done for peace of mind...

[dazleeds]

wtf

the most you should pay fopr this doing is about £150

most garages here will do em for 40/50quid a side

its not that difficult a job at all
i did mine on the drive very easily so theres no reason at all why a garage cant do these in a couple hours tops

[316eyes]

I'd go for the £60 mate, not worth thinking about a DIY job at that price! He knows the car and as a previous owner he will probably do the job properly.

[Geeman]

Take it to the previous owner dude!

£60 is a bargain, but £400-500 is a bloody rip-off!!!!

Not a job that's easy to do yourself. It's the one job I gave to someone else to do.

Go pick your car up and let the previous owner do it for you.

[Jay_AK]

Thank's so much for the help guy's ,
I'm just on my way round to the garage to see if they have any new joke's for me, hopefully i should be back in an hour or so so i'll keep you guy's informed of any or the lack of progress.

Cheer's dude's

Jay

[JJ26]

Its definatly no more than a days work. I changed both rear bushes, all rear brake pipes and both rear wheel bearings in one day, and thats the first time ive tackled that job on a bmw.

[Jay_AK]

talk about lack of progress,
sorry for not keeping you guy's up to date ;) , this must be about the 4th time i've visited the garage now and they still haven't done f*** all, but this time i've told him enough is enough.
It's been nearly 2 damn week's now and i'm not pleased, they haven't even done zip to the car apart from buy the bushes, yep, 2 week's to buy a pair of bushes!! talk about taking the p*ss.
he's now told me that the car is going back into the MOT station today for a second look, (he told me this on the past 4 visit's mind, he's starting to bore me now) he showed them one of the new bushes and how they sit and upon this has accepted that it shouldn't have failed on them so if the car hasn't been there and back by 4pm today with this failure removed, i'll be collecting it and going elsewhere to get the other repair's done.
I was going to take it to the previous owner as mentioned, but he can be somewhat unreliable as well, even for the sake of £60 (a price which he'd no doubt increase when he realises the extent of the job involved) i'd rather it was done pretty quickly and properly because i've wasted £121 on insurance on it this month and not even driven it yet (apart from taking it to the MOT station that is) so you can imagine how annoyed i am.
I'll try and let you guy's know how it goes later hopefully, i'm a bit busy atm but will try my best...

Thank's guy's

Jay

[Project_E30]

Drive it to Bristol and I'll do it.

I have a beam with new bush which can be fitted straight to your car.

[Jay_AK]

Drive it to Bristol and I'll do it.

I have a beam with new bush which can be fitted straight to your car.

Thank's Project_E30, your offer is really appreciated , i might just take you up on that buddy, it's a bit of a hike getting down to your neck of the wood's (a good 3 to 4 hour drive, i worked in Swindon for a while which is up the road) but i imagine it'd be worth it in the end....
I've just got back from the garage and collected the car so i'm gonna get all the other work done on it this coming week hopefully. The welding alone has been priced around the £150 mark, need's a new ball joint (offside lower suspension arm), the centre exhaust section require's a weld and the n/s rear brake caliper has stopped working so this will need to be replaced as well and while i'm at it i'll have new brake pad's fitted. Once these job's are done i know the other garage i go to (not as local though) will get a pass and give me the 12 month ticket. Once i've done this i can tax it so i can at least drive it legally and then hopefully i could come down to you to have the subframe bushes sorted . I'll keep you posted on this as it could take another couple of week's before it's on the road at least.
It's just cost me another £90 today, i had to buy a new Battery of the heavy-duty variety as the old battery was knackered and also had to pay for the new bushes (£45 just for them ggrrr, but hey, i guess i won't have to pay for another set for a while).
Will keep you guy's posted in the meantime...

Thank's Project_E30, speak soon my friend....

Jay

PS: a big thank's to the rest of you guy's for your help as well, This Website is the best site i've visited in a long while, the ammount of information and help found here is fantastic, keep up the good work

[Jay_AK]

Hi Guy's,
I've been doing alot of thinking about this 318i (F reg, 2 door, no sunroof so ideal as a trackday car, clean seat's with no rip's and has what look's like a M tec kit, M3 wheel etc) i've bought and it seem's i may be taking abit too much onboard , i did have every intention of getting this car sorted as my everyday transport but as i need a car now (for getting to work etc) it's with great sadness that i may have to abandon this project. As much as i love this car, i feel it's more of an enthusiast's motor and although i am an enthusiast to a certain extent i have no mechanical knowledge or skill's to carry out the maintainance on it not to mention the cost's involved in keeping one .
Atm, I'm waiting on a phonecall from my dad's mate (my other local garage) to get the car to them and have an valuation of the labour costs involved in MOTing it, but as it's easter weekend i won't hear nothing till next week unfortunately. Hopefully if all goes well the work will go ahead (this is what i'm really hoping for tbh) but if not i may put this up for sale in the for sale section of the zone (if it's ok with the mod's that is ) .
If any of you guy's are interested or if you know of anybody who'd be interested just give me a PM and i'll fill you in on the detail's.

Cheer's dude's

Jay

[Brianmoooore]

have no mechanical knowledge or skill's to carry out the maintainance on it not to mention the cost's involved in keeping one .


Jay

Once the years of neglect have been sorted, then you won't find a car that's more reliable or cheaper to run than an E30, insurance and fuel costs excepted.
Regarding subframe bushes and MOTs - I got an advisory a couple of years ago on the bushes - which were about six months old at the time.
Been straight through two more MOTs since without any mention.

If you really want to sell the car, feel free to usw the E30s for sale section. That's what it's for.

[dazleeds]

jay

if you decide decide to sell
how much would you be after???

may well be interested mate

Daz

[Jay_AK]

Thank's Brian

daz,
you have PM dude

[Project_E30]

What have you decided?

[Jay_AK]

hehe!! the car is being MOT'd as we speak, so i should know what's happening in a couple of hour's...

Will keep you posted


Jay

[Jay_AK]

just an update guy's,
The car now has a 12 month ticket on it and is now taxed till the end of Sept, which is great .
So, after purchasing the car tax and slotting the disk in the windscreen holder, i thought "here goes"as i park my butt down in the driver's seat and fire it up, with a cheezy grin and thinking to myself "i can't believe this, i'm gonna be driving a BMW (E30's my fave ) for the first time", "this is gonna be good".
Then, as i push the clutch in to engage first gear, "nnnooooo", would you believe it lol, there's no clutch!!!
so i get my butt out of the car and look underneath the car and low and behold, a nice pool of clutch fluid all over my brother's driveway .
This was the start to another bad day, I'm thinking to myself "why me? "Ah bollock's to it, only one thing for it".
So it's a trip back home to get me tool's, trolley jack and axle stand's and on the way back to the car pick up me mate cos this was to be a two man job (me getting dirty while he pushes the pedal) hehe..
Up the car goes and i get underneath it and find that the fluid's escaped from the slave cylinder. I then got a rag to the area and cleaned it up to see where it was actually escaping from and from what i can tell it's leaking from the actual facia if you know what i mean, probably the seal between the slave cylinder and gearbox. i tightened the slave cylinder a little more to see if that would do anything but the clutch fluid continued to escape. so it seem's i've gotta go get a new slave cylinder....
That's as far as i've got with it so far, i'm gonna go and try (try being the big word here lol) and get the new slave cylinder today. I've come this far with it now that i don't want to give up lol so hopefully i'll be cruisin later in me BM lol


BTW, can anybody tell me how much is one of these slave cylinder's gonna cost?

Cheer's

Jay

[bigun]

i went to the stealers yesterday for some bits and just off hand i asked how much it would be to change the rear subframe he quoted me a price of £150 yes £150 it was rydale bmw in birmingham

[charlE30]

BTW, can anybody tell me how much is one of these slave cylinder's gonna cost?

ECP sell the slave cylinder made bt ATE for £20.55 + VAT still worth checking dealer prices aswell

www.eurocarparts.com

[DanThe]

Like Charl says, Euro do a good cylinder, ive used them before and cant fault em.
Make sure you clamp the flexi hose aswell mate
Hope your up and runnung soon