I replaced mine a few months ago. I found a super clean southern owned one on eBay for about $600. The one on the car had spent time in the bottom of the ocean.

I took all the suspension off and just the floor jack on each side of the bare subframe it came down really easy. The stupid thing I did was I had a full tank of fuel when I decided to start the job. If I had thought a little further ahead, empty tank, drop the fuel tank too and do the fuel pump. I'll have to do that again later.

The worst part was probably getting the parking brake cable to come out of the hub. They had welded themselves in there. The swingarm bushings were also hard to press in and out.

I went with the problem solver poly bushings. It is a great time to do the rear brake pipes. New wheel bearings, swing arm bushings, wishbones, guiding links, ball joints, integral links, Bilstein shocks, lowering springs, brakes, parking brake, driveshaft center bearing, eisenmann exhaust. Painted and resealed the diff. I ended up over $1k on OEM bolts... Ouch

I also took the battery tray all out and cleaned and did some minor rust removal under there. It was on the stands for almost 4 months. Second small test drive and it kicked the serpentine belt off and the number one rod bearing had been spun. Someday I'll drive it again

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'05 E53 3.0 6mt
'17 F30 340ix 6mt
'96 E36 328is, in progress