A year ago, I took my car to a NC inspection station. It was the place I usually go to that invariably passed my cars (I had eight at the time; I'm now down to 7). Anyway, he pointed at a part on my 2000 528i. I promptly purchased the part, put it on and went back to have the car re-inspected. The guy, mind you, was not the regular guy I usually went to but some young guy who I suspect had been sent by the state to see why this guy passed so many cars. He said I had replaced the wrong part!!! What an idiot! I'm sick of these guys! The car ran fine. It's solid as a rock and I had to beat on the car for a solid week to get this part off to replace it (was he really worried it was going to break on me on the freeway?). Anyway, here's my problem that this inspection guy prompted:
Please correct me if I call the part by the wrong name, but I think it's the passenger side, front rear-facing control rod. It has a bolt that faces up through the steering knuckle, and was nearly impossible to get out. I finally got it out by first cutting off the rod and grinding the round head into four flat areas that I could eventually get out with a huge crescent wrench. My problem? All the replacement arms have a smaller end (about 5/8" in diameter) than the one that came out (which was about an inch in diameter). I'm including photos of the ends of my replacement and the ground off remnant. I also found one on eBay that's located in Germany used, but I really don't want to put a used one in that's really unlikely to be any better than the one I removed.
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