I am a Mini Newb but have learned many great things from this site over the last month. I have fixed many issues on the new to me Mini but have many other issues to deal with. While fixing the front brakes I noticed the control arm bushings were shot so I decided to buy the bushings pre pressed in and tackle the project.

Reading where most people had problems getting the bushings off or on I found a simple fix with a pulley puller. Once the bushings were on is where my problems started. After pressing the bushings all the way on I noticed I still needed another inch or so to line the holes up.


image shows how much farther the bushings need to go.

So I immediately thought something was in a bind and removed the control arm all the way and bolted the bushing to the subframe and now the front ball joint did not match up.



The replacement parts match the original so I am baffeled as they why they are so far off. I have been fooling with this for hours and cannot figure this out so any help would be extremely appreciated.

 

I'm a bit confused by your post - you say you bought the bushings pre-pressed - but you had success getting them removed with a pulley puller? Maybe you mean you had luck removing the ball joints with a pulley puller?

Did you drop the subframe in order to get the pre-pressed LCA bushings in (assuming is what are talking about)?

Did you replace the LCA bushings with Powerflex bushings or stock LCA bushings?

It looks like you may have attempted to post some photos but they did not post correctly.

 

Sorry if the post didn't make since I think my thoughts were shot after dealing with this for so long. I believe I actually figured it out last night after having some time thinking about it. This is one of those times where I just had to stop what I was doing and re-group.

I did buy pre-pressed stock bushings I was talking about getting the old bushings off the control arm and getting the new ones on. I did not have luck with many of the suggestions I read but did have success with a pulley puller.

Not sure why my photos are not showing up correctly will look at that later I think what I have done is put the left on the right etc. At first glance I thought the hole that mounts to the firewall could only go one way but I was not seeing clearly and it will actually fit if the bushing is upside down. Hopefully this is what I did but will not have time to mess with it tonight.

 

Linky is broken, so no pics, but I think you got it: you probably tried putting them on upside down. the shape of the bracket bosses is a little counter-intuitive.

 

I'm curious how you got the old ones off with a pulley puller - are you talking one of those 3 prong type pulley pullers?

Not sure if this will help your situation, but for comparison the attached photo is looking at the passenger side. Powerflex bushing is in (control arm out). I'm in the middle of this job.

 

That picture would have really helped 2 days ago but yep that was it! After sitting and thinking about it I finally got it. Had them on upside down with the subframe suspended they lined up with the firewall when they were upside down.

Yes on the pulley puller I used one of the really large 3 prong versions with one of the prongs removed. grabbed the busing or what was left of it with the teeth and just backed it out. This is also how I got the bushing back on the arm.

After all that I now have a leak in the cooling system so going to tackle that now.