I have just had to replace the rear trailing arm bushes on my 2001 E46 320d. After finding excellent advice on here and some very useful videos on YouTube I decided to try to do the job myself and save myself some money.
This is not a 'how to' as there is enough information available already on here describing how to actually do the job; however, I learnt the hard way that there were a couple of very useful bits of advice missing! If you have never replaced these bushes before you should know that they are not impossible to do at home but you do need to study in advance what you are going to face and make sure you have all the right tools and bushes.
First off buy yourself the RTAB removal tool to remove and install the bushes. There are loads on ebay but if you are confused I am happy to send you the link to the one I bought.
Secondly get yourself a 1/2" breaker bar and decent 6 sided sockets to fit the tool and the bush securing bolts. Even though the outer metal surface of the bush is aluminium they will be well and truly corroded in place and will take a lot of force to break free.
Next get yourself a spray can of white grease or copper ease.
Finally, and this is the most important part, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY THE MEYLE (or any other make) RUBBER BUSHES - BUY THE POLY BUSHES! Sorry for the capital letters but it really is important. I chose to use the Meyle bushes because they were the upgraded recommended replacement and I did not want a harsh ride. Poly bushes were also ruled out because they were so much more expensive.
Not choosing poly bushes was a HUGE mistake! The reason being that the Meyle type bushes (I will call them Meyle type bushes from now on to save typing but this is not aimied at Meyle, it is all of these types of bushes) ) simply will not go back into the trailing arm without a massive amount of effort. If you are considering doing this job take a look at the Meyle type bushes and you will see that there are two gaps/grooves in the metal casing opposite each other. No matter how good the RTAB tool is it will not push the bushes into place as they are supplied. The bushes need to be compressed until their are no gaps - effectively you need to squash the bushes until the gaps close up. To do this you will need a strong G clamp, it is not too difficult to do but using the clamp makes it really hard to position the bush prior to fitting and as the bush compresses the bushes metal surfaces can go out of alignment adding to the problem. Even if you are able to compress the bush correctly the bush will still not go into the trailing arm as there is no leading edge to the aperture in the trailing arm or on the bush. The only way I could get the bushes in was to file away the leading edges to make them 'conical', clamp them tightly, spray the inner of the trailing arm with the white grease, and then use all the force I could with the breaker bar to draw them in. Attempts without the grease failed as the fitting was VERY tight! The tool was incredibly strong, I used a 1m breaker bar on it so I am speaking from experience and I cannot praise it enough. During the process I even crushed one of the steel washers used in the tool so much that it clamped onto the threaded bar!
Owing to the difficulty fitting the new bushes it took me about 2.5 hours each side to do. Had I chosen polybushes I reckon an hour a side would be easily achievable.
Hope that is helpful to someone. :thumbsup
.
This is not a 'how to' as there is enough information available already on here describing how to actually do the job; however, I learnt the hard way that there were a couple of very useful bits of advice missing! If you have never replaced these bushes before you should know that they are not impossible to do at home but you do need to study in advance what you are going to face and make sure you have all the right tools and bushes.
First off buy yourself the RTAB removal tool to remove and install the bushes. There are loads on ebay but if you are confused I am happy to send you the link to the one I bought.
Secondly get yourself a 1/2" breaker bar and decent 6 sided sockets to fit the tool and the bush securing bolts. Even though the outer metal surface of the bush is aluminium they will be well and truly corroded in place and will take a lot of force to break free.
Next get yourself a spray can of white grease or copper ease.
Finally, and this is the most important part, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY THE MEYLE (or any other make) RUBBER BUSHES - BUY THE POLY BUSHES! Sorry for the capital letters but it really is important. I chose to use the Meyle bushes because they were the upgraded recommended replacement and I did not want a harsh ride. Poly bushes were also ruled out because they were so much more expensive.
Not choosing poly bushes was a HUGE mistake! The reason being that the Meyle type bushes (I will call them Meyle type bushes from now on to save typing but this is not aimied at Meyle, it is all of these types of bushes) ) simply will not go back into the trailing arm without a massive amount of effort. If you are considering doing this job take a look at the Meyle type bushes and you will see that there are two gaps/grooves in the metal casing opposite each other. No matter how good the RTAB tool is it will not push the bushes into place as they are supplied. The bushes need to be compressed until their are no gaps - effectively you need to squash the bushes until the gaps close up. To do this you will need a strong G clamp, it is not too difficult to do but using the clamp makes it really hard to position the bush prior to fitting and as the bush compresses the bushes metal surfaces can go out of alignment adding to the problem. Even if you are able to compress the bush correctly the bush will still not go into the trailing arm as there is no leading edge to the aperture in the trailing arm or on the bush. The only way I could get the bushes in was to file away the leading edges to make them 'conical', clamp them tightly, spray the inner of the trailing arm with the white grease, and then use all the force I could with the breaker bar to draw them in. Attempts without the grease failed as the fitting was VERY tight! The tool was incredibly strong, I used a 1m breaker bar on it so I am speaking from experience and I cannot praise it enough. During the process I even crushed one of the steel washers used in the tool so much that it clamped onto the threaded bar!
Owing to the difficulty fitting the new bushes it took me about 2.5 hours each side to do. Had I chosen polybushes I reckon an hour a side would be easily achievable.
Hope that is helpful to someone. :thumbsup
.
