In the middle of a Z3 control arm replacement.
I was going to replace the control arm bushings with some powerflex ones, but after getting it up on jackstands, the wheel movement turned out to be due to a bad outer ball joint on the drivers side and I also noticed a cracked boot on the inner bushing on the passenger side, so I ordered a new set of Meyle arms through Pellican along with a new hardware and set of sway bar end links, as the boots on them were looking suspect.
The tie rods ends are only 10,000 miles old and look good and seem fine. I'm not sure how old the shocks are and I thought of replacing them while I was at it, but I think I'll just put it all back together, once the brown truck arrives, and see how it drives. (any opinions out there on front struts?)
I've only had the car a few months, so it's not been totally right since I bought it, but I suspected problems from the way it handles rain grooves or bumpy pavement, and sort of mushy steering response. Once I've got it back together, I'll have a better idea of how it should feel.
Since I didn't need to preserve the ball joints, I just bashed away on a pickle fork. The inner ones popped fairly easily (after I managed to get the nuts off) but I ended up using the Harbor Freight joint separator to get the outer ones to pop. Sort of flimsy looking and feeling, but it worked at least two times. The threads on it look a little worse for wear, (yes, I greased them) b ut for $20 bucks, I cant complain.
I was going to replace the control arm bushings with some powerflex ones, but after getting it up on jackstands, the wheel movement turned out to be due to a bad outer ball joint on the drivers side and I also noticed a cracked boot on the inner bushing on the passenger side, so I ordered a new set of Meyle arms through Pellican along with a new hardware and set of sway bar end links, as the boots on them were looking suspect.
The tie rods ends are only 10,000 miles old and look good and seem fine. I'm not sure how old the shocks are and I thought of replacing them while I was at it, but I think I'll just put it all back together, once the brown truck arrives, and see how it drives. (any opinions out there on front struts?)
I've only had the car a few months, so it's not been totally right since I bought it, but I suspected problems from the way it handles rain grooves or bumpy pavement, and sort of mushy steering response. Once I've got it back together, I'll have a better idea of how it should feel.
Since I didn't need to preserve the ball joints, I just bashed away on a pickle fork. The inner ones popped fairly easily (after I managed to get the nuts off) but I ended up using the Harbor Freight joint separator to get the outer ones to pop. Sort of flimsy looking and feeling, but it worked at least two times. The threads on it look a little worse for wear, (yes, I greased them) b ut for $20 bucks, I cant complain.