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Forum LockedE60 (545i) DIY Front Strut Removal

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Andrew Rolland View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05-February-2014 at 18:50
E60 (545i) Front Strut Removal.

When driving the car recently I had noticed a shimmy thru the steering wheel and it just didn’t quite feel so planted. On maneuvering into my driveway I could hear a soft clunk and then driving it later the same day I could hear louder clonks when off the power and coasting. On removing the front wheel (after hammering off the alloy which had stuck!) sure enough I could move the hub assembly on the worn control arm ball joint.

In order to replace the offside control arm, I decided this time it would be easier to remove the whole strut from the car rather than to attempt to split the strut from the hub carrier. As you will later see trying to remove the suspension arms from the hub carrier while the hub carrier is on the car is difficult so the suspension arms were removed from the car at the subframe end and left attached to the hub.

When I previously replaced the control arm, the tension arm and the wheel bearing on the nearside I left the strut attached to the car and split the strut from the hub carrier whilst it was on the car. This involved much sweating and hitting with hammers whilst levering the hub carrier apart which is not good

This write up initially follows how I carried out the work on the nearside when I replaced the wheel bearing and both the traction and control arms, so for the sharper eyed reader you will notice the photos suddenly change sides of car.

The E60 front suspension is a fairly standard set up. It uses two lower wishbones, the front one, the tension arm and the rear arm, the control arm. These are fixed to the front subframe via rubber mounts/bushes pressed into the arms. The other end of the arms are fixed to the hub carrier by means of ball joints (which had failed on the control arm). The hub carrier supports the separately mounted wheel bearing assembly. This bolts to the hub carrier. The top of the hub carrier is fixed to the bottom of the suspension strut by means of a clamp. The strut consists of a centrically mounted shock absorber with a coil spring fitted around the top of the shock absorber. The anti roll bar is connected to the strut via a link rod and a bracket bolted to the hub carrier. The steering system is standard stuff with a track rod end bolted to the front of the hub carrier by means of another ball joint.

Tools you will need

Trolley jack
Two axle stands and blocks of wood to protect jack points
Large flat blade screwdriver
Small flat blade screwdriver
No.2 Pozidrive screwdriver for underbelly screws
5mm Allen key for ABS sensor retaining screw
6mm Allen key for disc retaining screw
7mm Allen key for calliper retaining bolts
T40 Torx bit for counter holding the ball joints
8mm socket for underbelly bolts
10mm socket for brake disc splasher shield bolts
13mm socket for strut to chassis bolts
16mm socket for anti roll bar bracket to hub carrier bolts
17mm socket for wheel bolts
18mm socket for brake calliper cradle bolts
21mm socket for the ball joint nuts
18mm combination spanner
21mm combination spanner
½” Drive Breaker bar (flexible handle) as long as possible!
Torque wrench capable of measuring up to 165Nm
Universal multi bolt/nut removal tool (more on this later)

…and my dad to help again who then fell asleep on the garage floor whilst I was refitting the underbellies, but he is over 65!.

Jack up and support the car. As you are disconnecting the anti roll bar you need to lift both wheels off the ground to prevent the anti roll bar fighting against you. Remove the relevant front wheel, you need to be able to get under to virtually half way along the car to remove the rearmost underbelly bolts and screws. Remove the rear underbelly (loads of bolts and two screws) and the front underbelly, its screws only need one turn to slacken and they are captive on the underbelly. You will also need to remove the small piece of plastic wheel arch liner that covers the control arm to subframe bolt and the steering rack gaiter.



Photo 1 The underbellies removed and the steering rack gaiter wheel arch liner part.

This now exposed the various parts.



Photo 2 Control arm to subframe bolt



Photo 3 Tension arm to subframe bolt



Photo 4 Strut to hub carrier pinch bolt along with the calliper cradle retaining bolts, wheel bearing bolts and ABS sensor wiring.



Photo 5 The suspension arms from right to left, track rod end, tension arm and control arm and ABS sensor bolt. You can also see the bottom of the strut in relation to the tension arm ball joint.

I pulled out the ABS sensor wire, the brake pad warning sensor wire and the brake fluid hose line out of all their bracket holding supports. I left all electrical connections intact to avoid any issues.

Remove the ABS sensor, single 5mm Allen key bolt and tuck it up on the coil spring.



Photo 6 ABS sensor removed.

Follow my earlier post for removing the brake calliper, calliper cradle and the brake disc. I supported the calliper complete with brake pads via a cable tie from the coil spring.



Photo 7 Brakes removed.

I took the decision to remove the brake splasher shield to allow easier access to the ball joint bolts. 4 No. 10 mm bolts and it was off.



Photo 8 all ancillary stripping down complete.

Slacken the three ball joint bolts on the hub carrier. 21mm socket on the end of my 750mm long breaker bar got them loose. After a couple of turns of the nuts the ball joints then began to turn in their tapers, good stuff this means I won’t struggle to release the tapers as due to the design of the ball joint you cannot get a conventional ball joint removal tool in place.



Photo 9 Counter holding tension arm ball joint after initial loosening.

Now this is where I deviated from Haynes. I left the anti-roll bar link attached at both ends but just simply undid the bolt (socket on bolt head) that holds the anti-roll bar link bracket to the hub carrier. This meant that I didn’t have to replace more nuts and undo something I could work round. I also removed the strut to hub carrier pinch bolt at this time. This releases the bracket that supports the brake fluid hose and the sensor wiring harnesses.



Photo 10 Anti roll bar link bracket to hub carrier bolt.



Photo 11 Counter holding track rod end ball joint after initial loosening.

After removing the track rod end ball joint nut, I replaced this upside down on the ball joint to allow me to safely tap out the ball joint with damaging the threads.



Photo 12 Track rod end ball joint nut on upside down.

…a few light taps with the hammer and it was out.



Photo 13 Track rod end ball joint out of the hub carrier. You can see the domed head above the rubber gaiter which fits into a corresponding socket in the hub carrier. This prevents the use of a ball joint separator.

I decided to leave the tension arm and control arm ball joints (albeit slackened now) on the hub and remove them on the workbench.

Undo and remove the suspension arm to subframe bolts. The arms should now drop out with a little bit of wiggling.

This is where two men comes in handy. I undid and removed the strut to chassis nuts 13mm socket while my dad held the strut in position taking the weight of the strut.




Photo 14 Strut to chassis nuts, note the locating pin next to one of the bolts. This is on the inboard side of the mount in the wing. This allows you to correctly reposition the strut.



Photo 15 Carefully remove the strut from below the wing and you will not be looking at this on the garage floor



Photo 16 This leaves not a lot under the wing!

You now need to separate the strut from the hub carrier. To do this we carefully drove a wedge between the two side of the hub carrier at the location where the strut to hub carrier pinch bolt is located. Once the hub carrier was wedged open the strut simply drew out of the hub carrier to leave the strut and spring assembly intact.



Photo 17 Strut assembly, no further work done on this assembly at this time. The strut needs to be separated from the hub carrier to allow the tension arm to be withdrawn from the hub.

Counter hold the balljoints with a T40 insert bit and unscrew the balljoint nuts. As before the rotten nyloc nuts locked solid on the suspension arm balljoints so I employed the universal multi nut/bolt removal tool, I simply hacksawed thru the balljoint threaded shank!

This allowed me to replace the arms into the hub carrier and once complete refit the strut to the hub carrier after again wedging open the bracket at the location of the pinch bolt.

Wedge open the pinch bolt bracket on the hub carrier with a screwdriver and insert the strut ensuring the notch on the strut aligns with the gap in the hub carrier pinch bracket.

I loosely fitted the suspension arms to the hub carried whilst it was on the bench. I counter held the ball joints with a T40 ‘Allen’ key this time whilst using a 21mm ring spanner to do up the new nuts. Once the ball joints are tight by hand, the tapers now grip and you can apply full torque without having the counter hold the ball joint.

My advice would be to torque up the balljoint nuts on the bench with the arm gently gripped in a vice as torqueing them on the car is tricky as the hub swivels when you apply 165Nm of torque to these nuts!



Photo 18 Hub reassembled ready to go back on the car.

Using a trolley jack to support the complete hub carrier/strut/suspension arm assembly raise the strut into position under the wing ensuring the strut to chassis mount is located in the correct position via the locating pin in Photo 14 and tighten the new nuts to 34Nm.



Photo 19 hub carrier installed spanner on pinch bolt on anti-roll bar link bracket.

Install the suspension arms into their brackets on the subframe and insert their bolts. Tension arm bolt inserts from front, control arm bolt inserts from rear. Do not torque up these bolts until the weight of the car is on its wheels. Also reinsert the track rod end ball joint into the hub carrier. Torque to 165Nm



Photo 20 Track rod end ball joint refitted.



Photo 21 new suspension arm ball joints now torqued up to 165Nm.

Refit brake disc splasher shield.

Refit brake disc, calliper cradle and calliper. Refer to earlier link for this.



Photo 22 Brakes now fitted except the brake pad retaining clip (just before someone points that out!)

Refit road wheel and lower car to ground. I then drove it back up onto ramps to allow me to torque up the suspension arm to subframe bolts with the weight of the car on its wheels. Torque each bolt to 100Nm then further tighten thru 90deg.



Photo 23 Refit underbellies

All nuts and bolts were replaced on refitting and were lubricated on reassembly with copperslip grease including the underbelly screws.

On test drive the car was noticeably more planted and the clonking was gone. No warning lights on the dash from ABS or brake system after disturbing components.

I used Lemforder arms bought from Eurocar Parts. These are the OEM parts.

Result.



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