01 740iL - Control arms, VCGs?

Hey all,

I have a 2001 740iL - a sweet ride to say the least!!
I just left the tire shop thinking I was going to do a simple alignment & balance. NOT! They showed me that my two upper front control arms are shot. I am mechanically inclined & not afraid of much. Are there any surprises I should know about while I wait for my parts to ship to me?

I also discovered that my valve cover gaskets seem to have developed a leak I guess with 165K on the car thats not so bad. Any thoughts on level of difficulty / time involved to replace?

Thx 4 any help / advice

Dre'

Here's a link to a great VCG write up with pics & text. Magnum does his stuff the right way. Take a look!

http://www.magnum1.com/BMW-740/740_P...skets-740.html

I've never replaced control arms myself, so I can't help you there. But, take a look at e38.org - they'll have a couple of different write ups (& probably more VCG writeups, also).

I replaced the Control Arms in my e38. It is definitely a diy job, but if you have a friend to help it's much simpler. Use the writeup on e38.org (it may be combined with another suspension writeup...can't recall) for help. If you have thorough set of metric tools you can do both jobs yourself.

We sell a ton of control arms for the e38, Make sure you torque the arms with the cars weight on the suspension or the parts will fail early.

Max

Thank You all for your posts. I have checked into the e38.org halp and that is exactly what I was looking for. I look forward to being involved in this site more.

Dre'

Max has some great kits, all diy work, invest in the right tools and very easy but dirty job.... Just say no to The the fork! Oh and a air wrench helps