What did you do for your ZHP/ BMW / MINI today? #2

[Vas]

Did my control arms and bushings today. Went with Lemförder ZHP arms and the Z4M control arm bushings.

What a pain in the ass though. The nut on the inner ball joint on the driver side was very rusted, and after a point was just causing the shaft to spin with it. Tried all sorts of things like jacking under the ball joint, grabbing onto the shaft with locking pliers, and using an air hammer to shove a pickle fork between the control arm and nut. Nothing worked. Ended up having to drop the whole front subframe to just cut off the nut.

Yeah rust is the worst.

When I did a set, it was simple. But then the car never saw snow

[slater]

He'll get it aligned after I swap my KW's to his car.

Sent from an S6 Edge

oh yeah? what's replacing the KWs?

[danewilson77]

oh yeah? what's replacing the KWs?

Not sure as of yet. I may just go with Koni's. If I don't, I'll end up maybe trying out Bilsteins, or another coilover setup.

Sent from an S6 Edge

[terraphantm]

Yeah rust is the worst.

When I did a set, it was simple. But then the car never saw snow

Yeah, it wasn't terrible when I did it on the M3 either. On this car I don't think the arms were ever touched in 12 years / 165k miles. Once I resigned myself to pulling the subframe it actually wasn't so bad. But I spent hours trying to loosen that nut before that.

[slater]

Not sure as of yet. I may just go with Koni's. If I don't, I'll end up maybe trying out Bilsteins, or another coilover setup.

Sent from an S6 Edge

what about those new ones from MFactory/YCW?

you can't go wrong with konis. i'm very happy with my bilsteins (PSS/B14 coilovers).

[das boots]

Did my control arms and bushings today. Went with Lemförder ZHP arms and the Z4M control arm bushings.

What a pain in the ass though. The nut on the inner ball joint on the driver side was very rusted, and after a point was just causing the shaft to spin with it. Tried all sorts of things like jacking under the ball joint, grabbing onto the shaft with locking pliers, and using an air hammer to shove a pickle fork between the control arm and nut. Nothing worked. Ended up having to drop the whole front subframe to just cut off the nut.

Would you have the link and P/Ns on placing your order for the control arms?

[terraphantm]

Would you have the link and P/Ns on placing your order for the control arms?

I bought the arms from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Lemfoerder-W01...ilpage_o00_s00 and http://www.amazon.com/Lemfoerder-W01...ilpage_o00_s00

Came in Lemforder bags and the part numbers on the sticker were 31122282121 and 31122282122

Bushings I bought from ECS. I bought the ones that were prepressed in new brackets. Part numbers are 31107836862 and 31107836863. https://www.ecstuning.com/ES48905/ https://www.ecstuning.com/ES48906/

You could also buy the bushings by themselves and have them pressed into your original lollipops. A good bit cheaper, but I don't have access to a shop press and didn't want to deal with getting the old brackets off the old arms. https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...38575/ES48907/


Also an easy way to tell the ZHP and non-ZHP arms apart is to look at the outer ball joint. The bottom of the ZHP arms is much flatter

ZHP:


vs

non-ZHP:



Couple tips for the job: Get the bushings installed on the control arms before getting them on the car. A good method I found was to stick the control arms in the freezer for a few hours (I put them in overnight), lube up the bushing with some dish soap (and just dish soap; no water), and push the control arm through. Slides in like butter.

Also in hindsight, if you have something to support the engine with, it very well might be easier to just skip straight to removing the subframe when dealing with the inner ball joints. Once you get the outer ball joints free of the steering knuckle and the control arm bushings unbolted, remove the two nuts/bolts holding the steering rack in, push it out of the way, and suspend it with some bungie cords. Then remove the nuts securing the engine mounts, remove the 4 bolts for the subframe, and it should just drop down. Not very heavy. That way you have much better access to the ball joints, and you can actually torque them.

[das boots]

Bushings are for Z4Ms, right? Thanks for the link and tips.

[terraphantm]

Bushings are for Z4Ms, right? Thanks for the link and tips.

Yeah, I installed them as an "oem plus" mod. Gives the car a little more caster and tightens up the steering. The bushing itself is also solid rubber instead of fluid filled, and is considerably stiffer because of that.

[fw_fw]

Awesome post Terraphantm!