What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by Joshdub

Installed my UUC ssk today.

And my carrier bushings are worn out. So I'll need to order those and go back in and replace them. I knew I should I have ordered them anyway.

Just be glad you could get your carrier out of the car. Mine is rusted to the top of the trans, couldn't get the pin out for the life of me (my 4 night trial and error is documented in an older thread).

Someday if I'm doing some work where I have to drop the driveshaft etc I have a new set of bushings and pin that I would do it then, but for now it works fine. How do you like your UUC SSK? See Riggodeaux's thread about it, I have some pics of my non-M ZHP shift knob installed with the UUC, makes for an awesome shifting experience!


sandbagger, god damn that is a lot of work! Did you DIY it all? My front end is new, I'm starting to tackle the rear (subframe bushings done already), any tips are appreciated for the wishbones/ball joints.

[sandbagger]

ALL DIY but then again everything I do is

That was everything but the subframe bushings and the rear lower arms to the frame( dont even think those are replaceable?)

Not shown is the old rear sway bar ends as I thought they came in the box with the new rear bar I put on but didnt

The rear is no harder than the front, except for the rear ball joint. The arm is not machined all the way around the ball joint so the sleeve to push it into will not set flat. needs about 1" of the arc cut away and wasnt going to do that to my buddys ball joint press I just pushed the center out and then cut/split and hammered it out. You can push the new one in no problem.

I really wished someone made a master bushing tool kit as I would buy it. If I ever do this again I will just buy the dang tool for the ball joint and the tension strut. But having all the tools for my E53 and E36 I could buy another car!

[Ricky Bobby]

Awesome thanks for the tips, and you mean the lower control arm bushings on the frame? Those are replaceable and about $60 for a set of 4, available on ECS and made by Lemforder.

If you need the subframe tool in the future let me know, replacing my 11 year old bushings with Meyle HD definitely solidified the rear a bit, now to work on the arms and ball joints. I plan on renting the special rear ball joint tool when I tackle those, to make the job easier.

[srmmmm]

Originally Posted by sandbagger

ALL DIY but then again everything I do is


I really wished someone made a master bushing tool kit as I would buy it. If I ever do this again I will just buy the dang tool for the ball joint and the tension strut. But having all the tools for my E53 and E36 I could buy another car!

Check Summit Racing - the have several bushing installation tool kits that can be helpful, especially the sleeve compression style for those rear swing arm bushings.

2002 X5 3.0 263,500 miles
2004 325i 116,000 miles

[Joshdub]

You have to love fresh suspension. The PO of my X5 replaced the controls arms and such with febi units about 20k ago. They still look good so I don't have much reason to tear into it. I might do subframe bushings if I decide to do coilovers.


I have heard from a lot of people that their pin was frozen so they couldn't get the carrier out. I assumed it would be, but I was able to pop it up and out with just my thumb. So lucky and it was so much easier than my E30s where you have basically zero room and cannot see it. I havent actually driven it yet. I am not expecting perfection as the carrier it's self is pretty sloppy.

It looks like the E39 has a similar carrier where it connects to the trans. Does anyone known of their oval derlin bushings will work? I also need to figure out what to do about that upper bushings for the carrier.

[Ricky Bobby]

The oval Delrin bushings will work but it won't make much difference in my speaking with Rob @ UUC. I replaced the rear carrier mount (the one that bolts to the floor by the shifter) for $18 as the rubber on the mount seemed loose on mine when I did the shifter.

Your pre-facelift should be like mine where you have 2 oval bushings but one long pin.

[Joshdub]

Sweet. It looked like it would work but I wasn't sure. I am sure they don't make much difference over a good condition stock bushing, but mine is starting to oval with the left bushing being worse than the right. I am not sure why. Perhaps I need to do the trans/tcase mount.

Ill get just a the rubber one like you did for the rear. I looked when ordering new pieces and didn't find it quickly. I assumed it wasn't as readily available because it wasn't as prone to wearing out like the others. I did a new selector joint and got new little yellow washers. The new selector join was nice because it is a wider piece and doesn't use the washer. That and the old one didn't even have the little yellow bushing in it anymore so it was super floppy.


EDIT:

So I took it out for a spin. Shifter is nice. I hear the nice metal on metal click when shifting like my E30. The throw is short and I have the shifter at it's highest setting. I do wish it had the DSSR though because it alone does make a big difference. I also still need to replace those carrier bushings. I am pretty sure thats what makes it so much more likely to shift into 5th when going from 2nd to 3rd.

Also, is everyone else this far back? I thought maybe I installed it backwards at first but it does not work when pointing the other direction. I am starting to think it was designed this way as my arm doesn't need to move much from the armrest now.

Neutral



4th

[thrillcat]

Had my rotors machined and wheels balanced yesterday. Hoping this took care of the shimmy, but I'm not 100% confident it will. I still think there's a caliper pin sticking. But we will see.

I had asked the mech to also look at the caliper pins, but he's pretty confident that these two fixes will take care of the problem, so he didn't take apart the calipers yet. I guess I can't complain, because he didn't charge me anything for the work he did.

[Ricky Bobby]

Josh check pics of mine installed in Riggodeaux's thread from the summer, it looks similar. Definitely places neutral more "set back" in the gate. Yours looks fine. You didn't opt for the $8 non-M insert?

(one of my peeves personally, I don't place M emblems on non-M cars)

[jgold47]

Baring anything unforseen, caliper pins are pretty easy to r&r yourself. Get a #7 Allen socket, an adapter to let you use a box wrench on a socket and go to town. Don't lube, just use some light steel wool to clean off. You can replace them all for pretty cheap too.