Strut assembly issues. need second opinion.

[Unearth078]

,ljnw

that's pretty bad , I wouldn't expect a hammer and chisel to do anything to those but peel off the metal. I did a set on my old eta a couple weeks ago put on a used set from a '87 325, which wasn't even as bad as yours and it took a 3 foot pipe wrench and a torch before one would budge.

btw 88 325's and 84 eta's have a smaller strut housing than the rest of the e30's, iirc this doesn't matter if you are replacing with oem hydraulic shocks but if you go to bilstein sport gas shocks they won't fit into the narrower housings at least that's my understanding.

comparing the 87 and 88s they are the same diameter the only real differences i found there the dust shield . i think im good

[Mossman]

yeah that 88 is bad info, it's 318i's and early ETA's that have the small housing I believe.

Hammer the back of the rotor, it'll pop the head off the rotor retaining screw and with no stress on the head it'll come out by hand or with vice grips for sure. Anti seize on the new one, and use an impact driver next time.