Can't Get Control Arm Off

[Killacortes]

Damn man that sounds like a mess. If you didn't have time to get the ball joInt separator this is what I did. I rented a pickle fork from autozone and wedged it in between the ball joint and the arm. Instead of pushing down on it to separate it. I put a jack underneath it and jacked it up. It popped off pretty easily.

[nrubenstein]

Get thee a balljoint separator.

[bimmerboy8912]

Ha...ha...haaa....yeah I had this problem and I knocked the crap out of the bolt with a hammer, stripped the bolt, and had to get a new ball joint.

First of all...to fix those three bolts on the top of the strut, you're gonna need 3 of each of these (just get them from BavAuto.com):
BMW Part #: 31336765744
BMW Part #: 07119904295

^^M8 pins and self-locking nuts

Put your strut back in place and constantly hitting the top of that bolt with a hammer should do the trick. May take a lot of constant whacking.You're going to want to use a die to get the thread back into shape because chances are you'll probably damage the thread with all that hammer action.

As a last ditch effort, get a torch and heat it up. You'll ruin the rubber on the control arm ball joint, but hey, replacing the ball joint or even the control arm is about $700 less than replacing the strut housing.

And no, you don't have to lower the subframe to remove the control arm, but you are going to need a mallet to knock the crap out of the subframe bolt one you take the nut off. It WILL NOT come out easily.

___________________________

The BMW Bible: http://www.realoem.com

[OBryan562]

jack up the whole thing and just knock it with a hammer.

[KenC]

No. Just look under there and you'll see. Undo the inner ball joint. Though that ones prob seized as well.

[Simontibbett]

take a sledge hammer or large ball pin and hammer on the edge of the control arm just below where the ball joint sits. that should release it from the strut.

Btw, first put the strut back up into wheel well and put the 3 nuts back on. You need something to secure the strut from dropping. Then take the hammer to it.

if I understand what you are saying here; you can't mount the strut bearing back in because the studs broke? I would suggest dropping the entire control arm with the strut and work on it - off the car.

That's correct, can't put the strut back up the three bolts broke off, the only way I can sort of get the strut assembly higher is by jacking it up and resting something under it.

I thought about taking the whole control arm off, do I have to drop the cross member?

[Ceeker]

take a sledge hammer or large ball pin and hammer on the edge of the control arm just below where the ball joint sits. that should release it from the strut.

Btw, first put the strut back up into wheel well and put the 3 nuts back on. You need something to secure the strut from dropping. Then take the hammer to it.

if I understand what you are saying here; you can't mount the strut bearing back in because the studs broke? I would suggest dropping the entire control arm with the strut and work on it - off the car.

[KenC]

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-forged-ball-point-joint-separator-99849.html

[Simontibbett]

HELP...

Putting springs on my car and on the passenger side I removed the control arm where it connects to the ball joint or whatever. I did this along with the tie rod and sway bar mount, then everything just falls.

Well I CANNOT get it out. Nut is off, I've used a fork and stood on it, jumped on it, everything I can think of, it's soaking on PB Blaster right now.

Anymore ideas? Simple things ALWAYS go wrong, the three top bolts on my top mount whatever it's called snapped off in the engine bay too so...:hitler::hitler::banghead: