[ENINTY]

Originally Posted by djsolution

Good advice from ENINTY. Just to add a couple of things: you can actually "borrow" spring compressors from Napa and AutoZone, no need to buy. Air tools are golden for suspension jobs. The pain in the ass procedure described above for separating the strut assembly is made super easy with air tools. You can literally hold the shock body in your hand and get the lock nut off with a blast from an impact wrench. Avoid pickle forks at all cost for separating pivot joints with grease boots (like tie rod ends). They tend to mangle the boot.

100% agree w/ air tool comment; it's why I love my IR-2131 with 1000 ft/lb reverse torque. The first time you split a ball joint with a air hammer it's almost orgasmic...

[3X3=5]

I don't find the trunk liner to be that difficult, at least not on my E90. I assume everyone is removing it for the purpose of accessing the top of the rear shock? If you have fold-down seats, that can easily be accomplished without removing the trunk liner:

Fold both seats forward. Working from the back seat, remove the black trim pins at the top of the liner. You only need to remove the two forward-most pins. Unscrew the Torx bit holding the spare tire net rings in place. With those pieces removed, you can fold the liner back enough to access the top of the shock. It's easier if you have a second person hold the lining back while you loosen/tighten the nut on the shock, otherwise the liner will be kind of in your face. This may be possible if you don't have fold-down seats, but I think it'd be just as much of a pain as pulling the liner completely out.

[Hoog_23]

I was thinking about cutting some round holes and installing marine access ports. I think I read where one of the bilstein coilover kits come with something like this (linky).

[import36]

$200 is cheap my friend....couple of buddies got a quote from a shop in our area....$500+ just for a spring install. RIDICULOUS.

[MassBimmer]

$200 is mad cheap...most shops will quote 4-5 hours of labor