tibbs.james

Short of Replacing the seatbelt ( which i have already done once ) My mate borrowed my car, tried to put the seatbelt on and it just locked up completly. i was thinking i could unbolt the top mount by the drivers headrest and let it recoil a bit to see if it unlocks.... does anybody have any tips This seatbelt was perfect untill now so its a bit frustrating .

CHCH bmw want $866 + GST each side Which seems totally insane. I had a mate who works at a CV/Clutch shop ring around his suppliers and he can't get anything. What can i do ? I'm going to see Pete @ Eurorec to get his opionion & Maybe see if he has some Mint 2nd hand ones. But if i can't get decent 2nd hand ones is there a way of rebuilding them?

I don't exactly have traction or alignment problems, Rear camber is minimal even with the lowering, Uneven tire wear isn't really an issue when the current tires have lasted over 12 months and are only just showing tiny signs of uneven wear on the inside edge. It would have been worthwhile if i had bad traction/tire wear problems. I might need to do it once i do a 2.5 swap or if i had gone any lower. But money is better put towards some nice Bilsteins at the moment ED1TRY what do you drive and have you done the mod and or noticed much difference ?

I have mine all out and apart now - has taken me like 5 hours all up to get this far. Yeah i was taking it easy & lastnights effort was frustrating with next to no light in the garage. I have done a Write up of all the steps i took incase somebody wants me to post that up. T o fully remove and dismantle a subframe assembly in 10-15 mins seems impossible to me ! Its all gone well just have to bolt it back up once i get the urethane pressed in. Cheers for the help Its great having some guideance from other members who have done similar.

Thanks David, didn't realise it would be so simple. on every other set of rear brake shoes I have ever seen you can unclip the inner cable and just push it & the outer away from the wheel hub area and bobs your uncle, Only I guess bmw had to make it difficult thanks for that, sounds easy enough.

Help !!!! How in the heck do i remove this handbrake cable so i can remove the subframe ? I removed the rear brake shoes & undone the 2 bolts that hold the bracket for where the handbrake cable enters into the wheel hub area. But after looking at the lever arm there is no way to remove the arm to push the cable back out the other end so it wont catch when i drop the subframe . So im frustration i unbolted exhaust headsheild to reveal the driveshaft thinking i could undo it a bit futher back but i can't see a way to do that either ! again im totally lost here so advice is well appreciated.

I'm Just about to start, have car up on stands ect, have spayed CRC Penetrate everywhere. I'm at the remove shocks and springs stage- how do i get to the shock mounts as i have no idea how the rear parcel tray comes apart. I have broken far too many pieces of trim on other cars removeing stuff that i really don't want to bugger it up.

Go and have a drool over the engine parts section of the Ireland Engineering website. Cams,Headers, Chips Inlet manifolds and all the goodies. I have to try my best not to put that turbo kit on the credit card !

Yeah - I have access to an engineering shop with a Gas axe and a hydraulic press Same guy that did my front ball joints.

Thanks heaps Ollie I think you just saved me a whole weekend worth of swearing and frustration.

Once Again Im at the suspension renewal thing... I have Rear shock mounts & Subframe bushings & Control Arm Bushings to istall. The shock Mounts wont be that tough. Control arms will be cake once the subframe is out of the car. But I have numerous questions about the subframe removal/refitting 1. How do i have the car on stands ? ( I normally put axle stands under the crossmember ) 2. Does the diff need to be removed or can it stay on there while the subframe is lowered down ? 3.Should i remove the control arms before or after i lower the subframe off the car ? 4. I can see to remove the subframe there will be some brake lines/fitting that need to be undone along the way, how do you keep these plugged up/not leaking all over the place while they are apart ? If you have done this please comment on ways how you did it and what worked for you i am keen to hear as i would like to do the whole job in one weekend as i need my car to get to CPIT on Mon/Tue/Weds I have acess to all tools / stands / nice big jack & decent garage. But if you feel like helping out for a box of your favourite beer that would be cool too. Any help appreciated. Regards James

I paid $150 for ball joints on both sides from a friend who owns a Euro parts business. I asked him to order me 2 x complete arms as he had arms for everything else But instead he just pulled some ball joints off the shelf so that was good enough for me.

do they even allow a cert for a 4 stud to 5 stud adapter ?

I would have told that guy "Save an M5 go and buy a holden" But yeah i guess he did something diffierent.

On the Nissan Z31 forum all the USA guys go on about using PB Blaster saying its great so i guess they both do the job.

Speaking of swaybars hows the other one coming along Riley ? and we have a winner Note the CRC PENETR8 Thanks guys Now off to my engineering who has the press ( I'm going to let him press in the ball joints as i don't trust myslef )

support area as in from underneath the car ? If so i will give it a shot. Ball joints ( both on each side ) are being replaced with brand new out of the box units. So i only need to get everything off so they can be pressed out. I would never hit a ball joint with a hammer if i planned to use it ever again.

The other day while fitting a 325 Swaybar & some urethane i noticed the rubber boots and covers on all my front ball joints were split. So i have 4 replacment ball joints i can press in once i get the old ones pressed out. only i can't seem to get the inner ball joints out of the crossmember. ive tried giving the drivers side a bash but its pretty well stuck & that still dosn't help me with the passenger side one as thats impossible to get to withot removing a whole bunch of stuff. The outer ball joints needed a really good bash too but they are easy to get at. Help really appreciated as i need to get these off before friday night.

is the exchange for knackerd bilsteins to good ones for $500 or is it knackerd oem shocks for good bilsteins for $500 ? if its the second one send me a pm

get the gear boot cover new from bmwits like $70 for a vinal one ( what i did ) and just get a Gear Knob off TM. It was the only way i could get one that wasn't ripped

After Some Research and finding out that rear shock mounts are a common problem on E30 cars Ive placed an order for the IE sub frame bushing's ( Street ) the IE Trailing arm bushing kit & the Billet Alloy rear shock mount kit. The idea being there are no more clonks or shudders from my car. Only After a good inspection of my front control arms the rubber on the main ball joint is split so they will need replacing too. ( oh it never ends.should i go Genuine BMW on these or are aftermarket replacment arms fine here ?) I couldn't bring myself to buy a set of bilsteins from Ireland Engineering without shopping around first & finding out what they ride like.

5th gear guy used to do top gear for a little while then went and did his own show because jeremy came back to top gear ? Something like that anyway

IF you pay for shipping you can have mine ( set of 4 from FL 320i ) Only im in chch i imagine it would be about $15. Just want them gone.

Check PM's Drifty I need the camber and toe kit too only i need them for a Z31, not an E30 Your car has some crazy camber when i recently seen it at the exhaust shop, mine is fine rear tires are wearing fairly even over last 10,000 kms.

thats a good point, done them up bloody tight(nut cracker spanner) when fitting the diff but I never put loctite on them. Edit: Been and checked all diff mounting bolts done up nice and solid any comments on the Ireland Engineering urethane parts ? they look well priced . Drifty do you want to sell your old rear swaybar ? while looking at my diff bolts i remembed i don't have one.