I dropped my subframe on my R53 2005 MCS to install Powerflex control arm bushings, some aftermarket (Moog) ball joints, and OEM front sway bar bushings about two weeks ago now and I love it all. I’m glad I went with the pre-pressed bushings as I didn’t have to worry about getting the old ones out or worry about putting the new ones in although maybe it wouldn’t have been too big a deal for me. It’s been said before on here and I’ll say it again, ball joints should be a no brainer if you’re in there especially if you’ve got 100k on the car. If you were really looking for somewhere to cut back on, I could have gotten away without changing the sway bar bushings but at around $40 for the set from your local MINI dealer it’s totally your call. At least check them for cracking and dry rotting while you’re in there if you decide not to change them.

Although the Bentley manual was nice to have around, I ended up relying on the Pelican Parts website for step-by-step how to and the photos which are really helpful too. Another really helpful post was one that was on this site from khuevo on how to upgrade your front sway bar as that job is mostly all over overlap on how to do the control arm bushings. However that post is missing the photos that were so helpful and crucial to the post. Thankfully someone else has posted the a PDF version online from the original post that I was able to find.

In the end, everything went great however I did run into some troubles (probably having something to do with living on the NE coast). I hope this serves a guide for those who are running into some sticking points either before their install or during.


Problem 1: Popping the control arm from the outer/upper ball joint (in the steering knuckle).

Although I never tried leaving the control arm attached to this ball joint and hitting it with a big hammer to release the joint from the knuckle as I was worried about damaging the control arm, I would probably start with this if I had to do it again and then deal with the ball joint with the control arm off of the car in a vice. However, that said, I had a HELL of a time getting the ball joint separated from the knuckle though so it likely wouldn't have worked for me (see problem 2).

To pop the control arm from the ball joint I had originally tried using the separator and it would not budge. If I was doing this again, I would try something similar style puller to the tie rod puller which is what I have seen some other write up recommend. I did not have this and ended up borrowing two pickle forks from a friend (as I knew I was replacing the joints anyways, so didn't care about damaging them and believe me, they got damaged). The 15/16" one did the trick. I don't recommend trying to use a smaller one -- it didn't work at all.




Problem 2: Separating the ball joint from the steering knuckle once I had popped the control arm off of it.
No amount of hammering by hand was able to free it up. Even just making the tiniest bit of space between the joint and the knuckle was difficult. In the end it took an old wood chisel that I was willing to sacrifice and a trip to harbor freight for an air hammer. I used the wood chisel to make a tiny space to fit the air hammer's chisel on the "ear" of the ball joint as Way calls it. I then used the air hammer with the standard straight chisel attachment (it usually comes with this) to really work the ear away from the knuckle mainly concentrating on the side closest to the front end of the car as I felt like there was more room to work there. Be careful not to hit the threads that (2) 13mm bolts which hold the ball joint to the steering knuckle with the chisel (particularly if you decide to use the pointed chisel here) or you will have to tap them to clean them up like I did. Once there was a sufficient amount of separation I used the straight pointed chisel on the small amount of metal on the ball joint that will be visible from the top back of the steering knuckle looking downwards. There is a spot on both sides of the knuckle to fit this chisel and let the air hammer really do the work and you’ll be able to work the joint more evenly out of the knuckle. You’ll bet when I installed the new ones, I cleaned up the inside of the knuckles with some sand paper and anti-seized the hell out of the knuckle on the bottom and inside of the hole that the joint goes through.

If you’re going the air hammer route, and particularly the harbor freight route, I would recommend item #69866 for about $14 as it’s the larger of the two air hammers they currently sell and although it has less blows per minute, I figured this would translate into harder blows which was what I needed here. Grab item #68276 which is the 3 piece long air chisel set for about $8 and also pick up item #66621 for about $5 which is the quick release chisel holder. You’ll thank me later about the quick release, especially if you’re changing between the regular long chisel and the straight pointed chisel often like I was. Don’t forget the quick connect air adapter for your air hose if you don’t have an extra one.


Problem 3: Removing the eccentric bolt that holds the steering column to the steering rack.

The who to the what? Although it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, I have to admit, I’m a total car noob. The most work on my car I had ever done before this was change out my passenger front wheel hub because of bad bearings and up until that point, I had only ever done an oil change. Although it’s physically easy to do, knowing what I was looking at in the very few pictures I had seen of it and where that was on the car was the biggest hang up for me here.

It’s pretty straightforward however. If you look through the wheel arch on the driver side of the vehicle where you would imagine the steering column to come through there is a joint not very far from the metal firewall and there is one bolt that holds this u-joint in place – that’s what you must remove. Once removed, it sort of folds out of the way so it doesn’t get hung up when dropping the subframe. If you need to access the bolt better, feel free to turn the steering wheel as much as necessary. If it’s easier, you can also access this bolt from underneath the car but like I said, locating it was the only real trouble I had with it.

Problem 4: Removing the bolts from the lower/inner ball joints from the subframe.

Holy torque spec batman! These suckers were on there GOOD. My Ingersoll-Rand 231C wouldn’t budge only but 1 of the 4 of them. The other 3 took a breaker bar and a 4 foot piece of pipe and there was still some pushing to do to get them off. Once I got them loose the control arm was free to take to a vice and use the ball joint separator I had tried to use earlier. Loosen but leave the bottom nut on the joint to stop the joint from flying once you pop it. This separator worked perfectly on this ball joint! However once I reinstalled the new joints and went to tighten the bolts into the subframe, I realized one of them was stripped or cross threaded or something and not going to make it back in. I’m not sure how this happened as I started it by hand. I wasn’t too surprised however given how hard it was to take out. I’m thinking it was either caused by built up rust or prior work that was done by the dealership for the previous owner. Either way, the bolt was pretty messed up and I ended up buying http://www.harborfreight.com/45-piece-titanium-nitride-coated-alloy-steel-metric-tap-die-set-61410.html, a 45 piece metric tap and die set from harbor freight currently selling for $80. I’d really prefer the GearWrench set but I don’t know how much use it will actually see and the HF one has quite a lot of larger taps and dies that will probably be better for me than the <10mm stuff in other sets. The more popular, $40 set on HF comes with a set of pitch gauges but doesn’t come with the correct sized tap and die for this application (in this case, the bolt was 12x1.5). I also cleaned up the threads in the subframe using an old fashioned hand cranked drill that has a square chuck to receive the square-shaft tap. Without this I would have had to tap it from the bottom of the subframe which wouldn’t have been too big of a deal but saved me from having to work upside down and on an angle with the subframe propped up on something. Remember when using a tap and die, work slow -- 1/2 turn forward, 1/4 turn back -- and use plenty of oil.

Those were pretty much all of my sticking points, tips, tricks and notes. Hopefully this information helps you if you run into any of these problems. Let me know if it did or if you found/know of a better way.

Nick