Ive removed the two 13mm bolts at the top and the 18mm bolt at the bottom however the shock/spring isn't coming out. Its not budging? What am I missing here?

 

I lightly hit it with hammer and it came out. Now I can't fit the new one back in. See picture.

 

I misunderstood the pinned post. Forgive me for posting in the wrong forum. Just having some repair problems with my r56. I've reposted in stock problems and issues.

 

Scratching my head about this one - having dropped the stock shocks to install my RSB, then having swapped them for Ohlins, I didn't have any issues. When the shock is disconnected from the trailing arm, the trailing arm will sag all the way down unless it is supported.

What are you removing - stock shocks? What are you replacing them with? Have you compared the length between the two? From the center of the bottom mount to the top of the top mount.

Be very careful threading the bottom bolt into the trailing arm as the bolt is self tapping, it is easy to strip out the threads in the trailing arm. Best to do that first, then raise the top into position and insert the top bolts. Again you should have to support the trailing arm to get the top of the shock into place - something is holding it up.

 

I have not done this on a mini and excuse me if I am asking an obvious question, have you used spring compression tools?

 

It has been a while since I have done these but I seem to remember having a slight misalignment problem with one of the sets of shocks I installed.

At this point I would use a roll-around floor jack to push up on the bottom of the shock. Put a small 2x4 block of wood between the jack and the shock bottom. Make sure that the cone section of the shock bottom hangs out enough to fully fit into the socket in the control arm. Have the floor jack aligned so you can wheel the shock bottom into place.

What Squawskibum said is very, very important. You need to make sure the bottom of the shock is aligned with the threaded hole in the control arm before you start to thread in the bolt. I would add a little never-seize to the end of the bolt and make sure to hand thread the bolt into place. Make sure to not cross thread the bolt. The bolt is self tapping and is easily cross in the control arm.

Lastly the BMW torque spec is very high for this bolt. Some discussions suggest that this torque may lead to thread damage and may be part of the cause of the bolt stripping out. It is suggested that, with replacement of shocks, this torque should be lower because you are not cutting new threads as you would be if you were to be installing shocks on a brand new control arm. The wheel bolt are the same size and they are only torqued to 90 - 100 ft-lbs. Your decision, though.

Hope this helps.

 

You should be able to bend the trailing arm down and line it up.

If you have the wheel on the other side on the ground jack up that side of the car so it is off the ground. When it's on the ground the sway bar will cause the suspension on this side to fight you.

Also make sure the top isn't turned around backwards as the shock should slightly angle towards the outside of the car. If it's backwards it will angle toward the center of the car.

 

Yes, is the opposite side on the ground or jacked up?

 

so I thought I could do one side at a time. The other side was not jacked up. You can kinda see this in picture. So with all the weight on the other side it was raising the control arm. With a little help I was able to push the control arm down and fit the bolt.
Today I did the other side but this time I jacked up the whole back end. Got the job done without issues very quick. Super easy. All torqued didn't spec! Thanks for All the input guys!
Now I just need to do the front. I understand that to be a little harder. We will see what happens.

 

Thanks for the info. Problem solved I am going with billstein sports. Man my old ones were totally shot!

 

Thank you Way Motor Works and everyone that replied. I've done a fair amount of work and will keep an eye on the threads and offer my advice. I do need a lower splash shield to protect the belts. The old one is gone! Also need a new hose system for the wiper washer. All minor stuff. Easy.

 

A hard part with the front is to get the shock out of the steering knuckle and putting it back in. The method I use utilizes a piece of 2x2, about 18” long, taped to the side of the shock so it hangs out below the bottom of the shock and pushes up on the underside of the spring perch. Now you can use a floor jack to push up on the spring and compress it about the inch you need to remove the steering knuckle from the shock. To put the new shock in, do the same thing to compress the spring, then lift the steering knuckle up and slid it into place. You should be able to slid the pinch bolt into place and then you can lower it and remove the jack. Then tighten everything down.

The best thing I did was to put in the Bilstein Sports. You are really going to like them.