318IS Control Arm Replacement

[Killacortes]

How hard were the tie rods to do?

[VANOS714]

they were easy theyre held in by a locking clip, all you gotta do is bend the clip the opposite way and get some channellocks and unscrew them.

[davy87nj]

air or electric impact should pull them off, a socket wrench will just spin the joint.

[Mr. Tasty]

I don't know, its such a tight space. Don't think I could get an impact wrench in there. Its the drivers side

[VANOS714]

if you mean to remove from the strut assembly, i used a swivel socket and works perfectly with air tool. just make sure if you dont use a pickle fork, screw the nut by hand and hammer it and it should come off.

[Mr. Tasty]

nope, subframe

[matt0300]

Just did both control arms today. My tool of choice is the torch Haha just torch the Shit out of anything and it comes off like butter.

[VANOS714]

Just did both control arms today. My tool of choice is the torch Haha just torch the Shit out of anything and it comes off like butter.

lol I was really close on using a torch as well.

[GOT8SPD]

So i got a 22mm socket and a flex head wrench, but i can't get it to fit over the nut on the driver side! Any tips?

[GOT8SPD]

http://www.lowes.com/pd_337621-25428...7C1&facetInfo=

So i ended up going to Lowe's and picking up a 7/8s combo wrench...7/8s is pretty much 22mm....couldn't have done it without this tool.

I had to remove the sway bar...I'm not sure but the passenger side was 10x harder than the driver side....

[Colby.325e]

I did both sides yesterday. Passenger side was harder, but I was able to get it done with a standard 22mm wrench I snagged from NAPA. It was a very tedious process, I had to turn it slightly, rotate wrench, and repeat about a million times. I did most of the loosening above through the engine bay, and found a hole above the sway bar to fit my hand and tighten it from underneath. I guess I got lucky.. Only issue I had was that I broke one of the sway link brackets, but luckily there's a guy about an hour away parting and e30 who hooked me up.

Front end feels way better.

For clarity, I did not remove the sway bar. I did remove the heat shield.

[Cletonius]

I ended up using an angle grinder and cutting the ball joint stud from underneath. I was able to get it most of the way out and then the nut got stuck. There's a bunch of shit there on a 325 so I didn't want to torch.

After the stud was cut I grabbed the end with vise grips and put a wrench on the nut to finish it off.

For the right side, I cut a 7/8" gear wrench in half and used that in there. Was way easier than fighting a regular wrench or crowfoot.