BMW E30

Replacing the rear subframe bushings 

By: David Boyd

Page 1 of 5

Well. it was time to replace the subframe bushings on my eta. I could tell because I would often get a loud clunk when starting off, and when cornering hard I could feel the rear wheels change position. This would cause the back end to swing out. I decided to take the long route (remove the entire subframe) since I had some other work to do and I have a beater to drive so I could take as long as I wanted. Since the procedure was long, I've split it out to make it a little easier to follow each step.

One note, when putting it back together, don't forget to bleed the brakes and torque the axle nut once the car is on the ground.

A few torque values
M10 Subframe bolts	42 Nm	30 ft-lb
M12 Subframe bolts	77 Nm	56 ft-lb
Shock to trailing arm	72-87 Nm	52-63 ft-lb
Sway bar link to trailing arm	22-24 Nm	16-17 ft-lb
Brake line unions	10-15 Nm	7-11 ft-lb
Rear pad carrier to trailing arm	60-67 Nm	44-49 ft-lb
Rear caliper to carrier	30-35 Nm	22-25
Upper differential mounting bolts	110-123 Nm	81-91 ft-lb
Rear differential mounting bolt	80-87 Nm	59-64 ft-lb
Driveshaft to differential	72 Nm	53 ft-lb
Output flange to drive axle	58-63 Nm	42-46 ft-lb
Muffler bracket	14 Nm	10 ft-lb
Front exhaust pipe to rear pipe	22-24 Nm	16-17 ft-lb
Axle nut	195-210 Nm	144-155 ft-lb
Lug nuts	100 Nm	74 ft-lb

 

Parts list
2 Subframe mounts	46.00
2 Subframe locking nuts	4.52
4 Control Arm bushings	60.00
1 Exhaust gasket	3.50
2 Sets of Pagid Brake pads	43.00
2 Rear rotors	56.00
2 Rotor set screws	3.80
2 Rear sway bar links	35.50
2 Axle lockplates	2.40
1 can ATE brake fluid	11.95
2 Differential output flange seals	28.84
1 Differential rear cover gasket	2.57
1 Speedo sender O-ring	0.67
2 Crush washers	1.50
2 quarts Redline 75W90	19.54
Various self locking nuts	7.00
Total	326.79

Loosening the drive axle nut

Before starting anything, the Bentley recommends to loosen the drive axle nut with the car on the ground, so you don't topple it off your jack stands. However, this is where I hit snag number 1.  Whoever worked on the rear end last (not me -- honest) didn't have a lockplate for the driver's side nut, so they decided that they were going to take out all their aggressions torqueing that nut down. The sucker wouldn't budge.  The other problem was that with the wheel on, the nut was too deep causing the breaker bar to be at an angle such that when I was loosening the nut, the socket kept wanting to slip off.  An extension would cause the same problem and this was NOT a nut I wanted to strip! 

Note bad angle of breaker bar

Then I simply jacked a block of wood up to the muffler to keep it from falling on my face while loosening the lower bracket. Once the bracket was disconnected, I just removed the whole muffler assembly from the rubber hanger and it droped right out. Getting it off the hanger was causing me a little grief, so I just bent the metal tab on the muffler foward so it would slip right out.

Jack handle being used as cheater bar.

The passenger's side was easier as it had a lockplate and the nut wasn't nearly as tight.   The lockplate was rusted in pretty good, but some prying with a small standard screwdriver and some pulling with needle nosed pliers did the trick.