[Austin LeNomad]

I must have just had the worst luck. 2006 E90 325i. 110,000 miles on it, first time replacing tie rods and control arms. The tie rods came off at the knuckle, but then needed to be cut off in order to get the boot off (seized tie rods). Then every bolt at the knuckle of the control arms, upper and lower, required cutting off with a sawall and a cutoff wheel. broken about 6 t-40 bits trying to unscrew them loose. C-clamps didn't work to hold it in place. I'm guessing it was just so worn it was going to spin in the socket no matter what. probably others have suggest it, but do the tie rods and the control arms together, you will want the space to make it easier. And removing the wheel interior fender plastic and the lower plastics made it easier to move around, much easier. Another thing that seemed pretty simple but overlooked was that the new control arms (OEM) did not come with replacement nuts, so you have to get them. Tie rods (OEM) did. Took a ridiculous amount of time to do, at least 20 hours of breaking bits, discovering that my big tools were not big enough, and getting enough torque to break something free or tighten it up. For the giant nut on the tie rod, I needed a 15 inch adjustable to get it. My 12 inch went to 1 1/2" and still was about 1mm short. I'm glad I had a compressor, a sawall, and a cutoff tool along with everything else. I put anti-seize on everything, so hopefully the next time (60 thousand miles of life?) it will be easier.