My new aluminium lower arms!

[E34-520iSE]

Well I hope these ebay bargains last a while. They seem to be good quality, with nice tight bushes etc, oh and are as light as a feather too. Not bad for £50 uk ;).

Cheers,

Shaun M

http://www.geocities.com/stereowizard2004/e34lowerarms.JPG

[CharlesAFerg]

Well I hope these ebay bargains last a while. They seem to be good quality, with nice tight bushes etc, oh and are as light as a feather too. Not bad for £50 uk ;).

Cheers,

Shaun M

http://www.geocities.com/stereowizard2004/e34lowerarms.JPG

Cool! I've got a whole sachs kit and the 16 piece meyle kit sitting in my feaking car right now waiting tog et put in! :(
oh the angst lollol

[E34-520iSE]

Buy a pair of these too and get the whole install done in one go! Here's a link to a similar auction on ebay, from the same seller that I bought them from:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E34-B-New-Front-Lower-Track-Control-Arms_W0QQitemZ120180371776QQihZ002QQcategoryZ10374 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers,

Shaun M

[John 535is (Sydney)]

You should be able to fit these in about 1 hour per side. You need to undo the 3 strut bolts to get to the top of the joint. They are in real tight so find an extension bar to attach to your breaker bar. You will also need some thread goo when you put them back in. The bentley manual has the correct product.


i just fitted a set from BMA. i can't say if they improved the handling much as a changed the upper and lower arms, steering arms, idler arm, drag link, sway bar links, springs (from HIOP to Zender) and new Bilstien sport stut inserts. Then some new Dunlop 235*17's the next day during the wheel alignment.

In one day work it transformed the car.

john

[Scott C]

Good luck - please report back on their life....

[E34-520iSE]

lol, I will do!

Cheers,

Shaun M

[leicesterboy15]

I bought these same arms off ebay! So far so good, I still have a wobble (suspect wheel balancing) but the clunking over bumps has gone, they seemed fine and yes they are really light!

Before you start this job as mentioned make sure you have good quality sockets and a breaker bar for the steering plate nuts AND MOST IMPORTANTLY (and I can't stress this enough as I found out to my cost and frustration!) a good ball joint separator. I read up well on this and I heard all sorts of ways of getting these off but none of them worked for me. I had a ball joint separator:

http://uk.three.ebid.net/perl/auction.cgi?auction=1163870399-2312-0&mo=auction&from=froogle

it kept slipping off the nut - the trick here is to leave the nut on by a few threads and feed the separator bolt into it so it can't slip off. I got one off like this but the other wouldn't budge as I had already made a mess of the nut on the arm. i then had to get one of these:

http://www.abbeypowertools.co.uk/car-service-tools/steering-suspension-tools/showitem-7568-13914.aspx

Known as a scissor type ball joint separator (got it off ebay - just do a search) and that finally got it off.

If you've got the separator and you're down there you may as well replace tie tie rods and tie rod ends, they are cheap from GSF (i think around £20 pair) and they are Lemfodder (however you spell it) but you need to get the car tracked after if you do these as well.

Good Luck

[E34-520iSE]

Thanks for the helpful advice Leicesterboy. I'll fit mine on Tuesday morning and report back with my experiences ( hopefully with 8 fingers and 2 thumbs). This is my ball joint separator:-

http://www.geocities.com/stereowizard2004/Balljointkiller.jpg
Cheers,

Shaun M

[Sam-Son]

just got some polyurethane control arm bushings in and it got rid of that 50-60 shudder...but of course I can't say if they made any other changes because my end links are shot and the car clunks all the time. I think I'll put in an RD sway bar whill I'm up there.

How much lighter are the aluminum CA's then the stock ones?

[Scott C]

Well I hope these ebay bargains last a while. They seem to be good quality, with nice tight bushes etc, oh and are as light as a feather too. Not bad for £50 uk ;).

Cheers,

Shaun M

http://www.geocities.com/stereowizard2004/e34lowerarms.JPG

Double check the quality of the rubber boots. The main reason my Meyle failed was the boot basically decomposed within 1 1/2 years. I think they would have lasted if that had not occurred. I know some sites sell the poly boots, might be worth checking.
Scott

[leicesterboy15]

Any updates on this job Shaun? I had a fork separator but it didn't work for me even though I managed to jam it in and ruin the rubber boots, I guess mine were truly stuck.

[E34-520iSE]

Any updates on this job Shaun? I had a fork separator but it didn't work for me even though I managed to jam it in and ruin the rubber boots, I guess mine were truly stuck.
Hi Leicesterboy!
Well I only had enough spare time to do the driver's side arm the other day. Instead of taking the car round the garage where all the heavy tools were I thought I would do it on my driveway, as it's an easy job. WRONG! I had no gas bottles so I ended up shearing off two of the three bolts that attach the strut to the steering plate. I ended up having to remove the strut and taking it round the garage to heat up & remove the snapped studs, went back home and refitted the strut at the top mount.
Anyway with the strut removed I took the old lower arm off - what a state it was in lol! It came off easy enough, and I never needed the fork, I just used the heaviest knocking stick I had to knock the ball joint out from above!! I got onto the dealer and ordered six new bolts and also two lower arm mount inner nuts and bolts for peace of mind. Next day, after a quick rummage through my spare bolt box I found some bolts so I could bolt up the bottom of the strut. A quick re-assemble and now it's back on the road. Oh, and I lowered the car down before I tightened the inner arm bush, to avoid damage.
I get my new bolts on Tuesday so I'll simply pop the old bolts out and put the new ones in, then proceed to the other side, only this time I'll heat the bottom strut bolts up FIRST!

Cheers,

Shaun M