krn530

Okay so today was the big day. My friend who is a mechanic agreed to help me install lowering springs for my car. I took it to the dealership that he works at and we began around 9:30 to 10:00 AM. We began by removing the screws holding the rear struts at the top (which were located in the trunk area). We then lifted up the car and and removed the wheels. We then unscrewed the large bolt that held the bottom of the strut, replaced the springs, and then stuck the struts back into place. We quickly finished the rears by 12:30 and headed out to lunch. We got back from lunch around 2:00 pm and continued our work. Now we got to the hard part. Removing the front sturts were not a simple as just removing bolts and pulling out the whole unit. We came to realize that the bottom of the strut was held by a clamp and bolt. Even though we removed the large bolt that tightens the clamp, the strut would not come out. When my friend referred to his computer (has every make/model and possible repairs/maintences), we realized that we needed a special tool that would pry the clamp open as we removed the strut. Seeing that we were not at a BMW dealership, there was no such tool. We both sat there for at least 30 minutes to an hour trying to yank, twist, jerk out the strut from the clamp, but to no avail. I had both rear lowering springs in and i couldnt get the front struts off to install the lowering springs. For a second there I thought, "oh god... im gonna be driving this car for a day or two with the rear dropped 2 inches and the front at regular height." Eventually we find a crowbar lying next to my friend's toolbox. I had my friend stick the crowbar in between the clam and try to pry it open as I twisted and yanked the strut. For a good 10 minutes we did this and it finally came out. Both of us we sweating like mad at this point and it was pretty much our workout for the day. The other side seemed to come out a little bit quicker, but it was still almost as difficult. In the end, the install took about 4 to 5 hours because my friend has never installed springs for a BMW and he wanted to take his time to make sure he didnt mess anything up. I'd say that it was fairly difficult to install the springs because 1. We did not know what we were really doing and was learning as we went along 2. We did not have the proper tool to efficiently removed the front struts 3. It required quite a bit of strength (my friend and I are pretty big guys and we had alot of difficulty removing certain parts)

Here is the end result:

acuteperformance

nice! next time get a large flat head screw driver and wd-40. comes right out.

jgt

Same shit happened to me. I did my rears myself no problem but couldn't get the fronts out. I chalked it up to all the road salt and sand we get around here from the winter so I was like fuck it and took it to guy up the street. He did them for $120. He told me it took him a while...

kane1111

good deals bro...