Can any of you fellow MINI lovers help with replacing my bushings!!??? I'm in central Delaware and a local shop wants $450 because I couldn't get the control arm to drop. If you could lend some time I'll gladly give you some cash and a nice, cold beverage or two.

 

..... Or even if someone could give me a detailed write up on how to pull it off that would be lovely. Pelican parts simply says to be careful and pull down and most youtube videos just skip that part! I'm really in some deep $!#@ as i just purchased $523 worth of M7 parts and would love to save the cash for the extreme scoop or an air diverter.

 

I'm not clear on what you mean by "control arm to drop" here. Do you mean getting the lower ball join out of the steering knuckle? If so, I have seen the Pelican article and they show it coming out easily. NOT! I popped the the lower arm loose with a ball joint separator then put the bolt back on it and took a long steel bar and put it down on the cast part of the lower arm - not the sheet metal part.

Then I took a sledge hammer and beat on the bar until the lower joint came out of the knuckle. It was rust-welded in there pretty tight.

I'm thinking this is the step you are talking about:



I can tell you it DOES NOT come out this easy. You can see the casting part of the lower arm. On top there is a recess that you can put the end of a rod in and can beat the crap out of it. I used a 30" long 1/2" ratchet extension that I've used for pounding on before and is no longer any good for a ratchet.