Doing the rear suspension soon. have some questions.

[Vicarious]

Hey guys, i have a 318is, love it. Bought Bilstein and H&R sports and some sways. i did the front a few months back, havent had the time to do the rears. The rear has fairly new Boge shox from the previous owner. So now i finally have time and space to do the rear.

My question is this. Do I absolutely have to drop the rear end a tad to get at the springs? I rear somewhere that its best. Could i just use some spring compressors and not screw with the subframe/diff. I really dont want to do this.

Also how hard is it to change out the subrame bushings and the trailing arm bushings? I hear its hard.

[tonytony]

just use a spring compressor, that's how most people do it.

[var1ant]

drop the shock and disconnect the swaybar, that'll give you more than enough room to pull the spring out.

[ddavidv]

I did not have to drop the rear control arms or subframe to remove my stock springs. Can't remember if I used spring compressors or not, but if I did it wasn't a big deal.

[Vicarious]

sounds good, eexactly what i wanted to hear.

[gedupsound]

i had difficulty removing the springs from the rear by only disconnecting end links and shocks. I tried prying down and standing on the LCAs, and pulling at the springs, no good. just removing the bolt on the rear diff bushing and letting it sag down did the trick, it was only one extra bolt and everything went fine.

[e34john]

when we did mine, i stood on the arm and my dad used a prybar to get it out. just unhooked the shock mount and sway bar

[gedupsound]

with a second set of hands im sure its much easier. word.

[LivingLegend06]

I just disconnected the shocks and the sway bar end links and then the spring pulled right out with just my hands.

[Turf1600]

I had to drop the diff. It was not hard.

[eyagel]

rears took like 3 seconds, undid shock and the spring just kinda fell out..

[One21Two]

Rears should be real easy. If anything u might have trouble with the front shocks but those were easy too. GL.