Rear coil spring change

[Clavurion]

Has someone renewed rear coil springs? One spring on mine just snapped with a loud bang while the car was parked. (Yes coil spring, not air spring.) Looking at BMW instructions there is a special internal spring compressor tool available. I would think it would need heavy parts removal to do this job without some sort of spring compressor to get the hub to correct position to slide the spring in place. Any thoughts?

[80stech]

There is very little space to get a spring compressor in there so I think about the only tool that might work (with extra pieces) would be the Schwaben one that works from the outside. I ended up using plumbing strapping to hold the spring compressed, either using the weight of the vehicle to compress the spring or if the spring is out, using a conventional spring compressor or strut compressor to compress the spring and then strapping it with 3 or 4 straps of the plumber's strap. Not as sketchy really as it sounds but not totally safe either.

Now that I think of it the Schwaben one might not work anyway because there might not be enough of the spring exposed.

[andrewwynn]

BMW "special tool" 335100.

I wonder if auto part store has a rental option for this.

Wide ratchet strap can hold over 1000# each not sure whatb plumbing strap is but I'm guessing similar.

https://a.co/d/6vdBlvC

This looks promising but I'm not sure about clearance issues.

I can't upload the tis PDF file but if you PM your email I'll email it.


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone

[Clavurion]

Thanks Andrew. I was referring to TIS instructions and that special internal spring compressor you linked a picture about. Not sure if there are any other similar tools available to that BMW one. It would need specific plate measures for it to work correctly but would make the job like walking in the park compared to other options. I remember doing a full part renewal on my E53 and everything was apart and it was still some work to slide the spring over the lower pad. In this case E70 is a bit easier as the center of the lower pad is separate where as E53 is one rubber piece.

[80stech]

There are similar tools but I think it has to be pretty much exact so I think you are stuck trying to get the BMW one or go the strapping route.

[Henn28]

When I swapped my daughters 2015 Grand Cherokee from air suspension to springs on all 4 corners I used this autozone rental to do the rears:
https://www.autozone.com/p/oemtools-...RoCY2gQAvD_BwE

It took a lot of messing with the alignment of the tool on the springs, but eventually it worked. It’s rare for me to think this, but halfway thru the job I wished I had taken it to my Indy.

[Clavurion]

Regarding any rentals the unfortunate case has to be concerned that I live in Oulu, Finland.

[80stech]

Do you have plumber's strapping in Finland?

Actually I just noticed this in the E70 forum and I was thinking E53 but I think pretty much the same situation.