[PhaseP]

Continuing from previous post.

I will write my assembly steps here, though I may have forgetten or miss some of them.

- After oil pan was fully tightened, I locked the tab that coolant line going infront of the engine oil pan. Then put back the torx screw that holds down the other plastic bracket that secures that same coolant line on the front side of the engine on drivers side. This was hard to reach, I either used a stubby screw driver with correct torx bit, or universal joint with my 72 tooth, flex head ratched, don’t remember exactly. I had noticed a similar plastic bracket towards the back of the engine on the continuation of that coolant line somewhere under power steering fluid reservoir had also opened up, closed that one too.
- Put the engine mounts in their places and started the nuts on top of them from engine brackets. The orientation of the engine mounts was made to match the locating pin on the engine mount to match a corresponding whole on the subframe. Right and left engine mounts are same and replaceable.
- Bolted down the “pedestal” on passenger side of the oil pan with its new o-ring. Made sure tube along the oil pan was free of any debris. Torque specs for these four bolts are: 26.5 Nm (19.6 ft lbs)
- Lifted up the differential with its new o-ring, placed into the oil pan on bolted it on. Torque spec: 65 Nm (48 ft lbs)
- Torqued down the drain plug of the differential: 60 Nm (44 ft lbs), left the fill plug in there but not tightened down yet.
- Attached the front drive shaft to the front differential input flange, by aligning the marks put before disassembly. Placed the bolts but didn’t tighten yet, because this requires the CV axles and rotors and calipers to be in place so that the front axles can be locked for torqueing down.
- Placed that black protection plate on the driver side frame under the car and bolted it in its place. This is the fuel line protection plate that was removed to be able to access the oil return pipe.
- Using a block of wood and another small jack lifted up the rear section of the subframe into position. The other jack was already on the center lift position on front of the subframe.
- Slowly started lifting up the subframe with these two jacks, watching any coolant or steering lines are getting pinched or stretched or not. Watch out for the steering wheel shaft that was disconnected, it has tendency to slide to the side of the engine mount and if left there it binds the subframe going up. Needs to be placed somewhere on top of the engine mount while the subframe is being lifted into position.
- As lifting subframe up placed that black plastic coolant pipe in its place in front of the subframe but didn’t screw it down yet.
- As subframe got close to the engine mounts, aligned the engine mounts with their locating pin to the corresponding whole on the subframe and placed the engine mount bolts and started threading them but not tighten.
- Also as the subframe was being lifted up slowly, I started threading in the subframe bolts.
- Finally as subframe and everything else was in place, especially the engine mounts not pinched or bound, started tightening the subframe bolts. The tightening order is to first tighten the two front bolts then rear bolts, going criss cross in between. The torque spec for the subframe bolts are:
E90 M12 bolts 108 Nm (80 ft lbs)
E92 M10 bolts 56 Nm then 90 degrees additional turn (41 ft lbs then 90 degree turn)
E92 using yield to torque means replacing with new bolts
- Placed the power steering line into its own plastic bracket that I had removed from that is somewhere near that black rubber mount thingy for the engine air filter box.
- Removed the engine oil pan drain plug bolt. Replaced its copper seal washer with the new seal that came with the oil filter kit. Placed and tightened the oil pan drain bolt, torque spec: 25 Nm (18.4 ft lb)
- Tightened the engine mount bolts from below into the subframe. Torque specs: 28 Nm (20.6 ft lbs), source rmeuropean.com DIY.
- At this point engine was supported back on the subframe through engine mounts. Removed the engine support bracket on top of engine, removed the tow hook from the engine block.
- Tightened the engine mount nuts from top of engine using 24 inch extension with sockets. Torque spec if M10 10.9 grade 56 Nm (41 ft lbs). If E92 and M10 38 Nm (28 ft lbs) says my notes, I think I took this E92 info from workshop-manuals.com, but not very sure of it.
- Positioned and screwed down on three places that black coolant tube to the front of the subframe.
- Positioned and bolted (screwed for broken ones) the power steering loop to the rubber mounts on its bracket behind the radiator.
- Now came the difficult part, placing the CV axles with the steering knuckles. It actually wasn’t difficult once I figured out exactly how to do it, but this took some! trial and error to arrive at. What finally I found out was the best and probably correct way of doing this goes like this: First removed completely but temporarily that red plastic seal protection thingy from the axle seals that came with the new seals. Oiled the inner lips of the axles seals with diff oil, and put back the red plastic protection thingies on to them. But opened the inner ring part of these red thingies. The axle will go through outer red ring, which has two notches along it. The inner ring of this protective thing will be used to pull it out. The pull of the inner ring sometimes is enough for the notches of the outer ring to break and whole thing come off. If not one the notches can be cut off by a knife and taken out this way. The purpose of this red protective rings is to protected the inner lip of the new seal to be scored and damaged by the end splines or the c-ring of the axle while it is being pushed through it during assembly. So after the spline section of the axle is pushed over it, they are taken out as described, otherwise of course they will prevent the axle to go in completely.
- Started with the passenger side axle, since it has a very long section and so makes it more difficult, and it was better to attack the more difficult one first when more fresh energy.
- I made sure the axle spline end is clean, and oiled with diff oil to aid in placing it in the corresponding splines on the differential.
- Placed the knuckle on a block of wood supported by a small jack under the ball joint of the wishbone. Then aligned the axle on the axle seal hole and by moving the whole axle plus knuckle assembly forward and upward started feeding the axle into the differential from the axle seal hole. After the spline part made through the seal hole, I pulled out the outer ring by pulling on the inner ring standing free of that red plastic seal protective piece. Then cut the notch all the way to get it off. Then continued with pushing and lifting up the knuckle and axle assembly, knuckle being still supported by jack on a block of wood.
- The axle as being pushed in came across some hurdles along their ways.But until axles were more or less 1/2 inch away from being flush with the pedestal (or the differential on drivers side) they were able to be forced in by hand to move forward. Once they were ½ inch away from their final position, they were at the point such that their splines were being aligning with the splines of the gear on the differential. But not going any further because of the c-ring on it. Whether or not the splines had reached the start of the splines on the differential side gears could be verified by turning the axles and observing the other axle (or the gear through the hole, if the other axle was not in place yet) turning or not, usually other direction being an open differential.
- Once the axle is in that position ready to be pushed for its c-ring pop into its place in the differential, I positioned the strut/shock tube to its place on the knuckle, and placed the wishbone on its corresponding position on the subframe and placed its bolt, but not its nut, because the wishbone was placed temporarily there at this time.
- Next aligned the strut/shock tube on its two spot welded nuts to the channel on the knuckle and started lifting up the knuckle with the jack underneath it, watching out not to bind the strut in its hole and keeping the alignment and making sure no wires like brake pad sensor or abs sensor is being pinched. Especially the bracket that holds the brake line tends was getting bound if not positioned correctly.
- Lifted the knuckle up until the taper on the strut tube at the bottom section lined up with the taper on the knuckle at that place and the two “dots” are in the correct place. The alignment marks placed during disassembly helped here. I verified its alignment by using an inspection mirror at the behind. Once it was all aligned correctly placed the pinch bolt on the knuckle with brake line bracket in line and started tightening its nut. All the front suspension bolts go from front of the car towards rear, Bentley manual says to use the same direction as the bolts were originally placed for the suspension.
- So I tightened up the pinch bolt for the strut/shock assembly. Torque spec:
M12 81 Nm (60 ft lbs)
M10 45 Nm (34 ft lbs)
If I remember correctly my bolt was M12 so I used 60 ft lbs, but not positive. If going by the book these are supposed to be replaced too.
- This was final tightening for that bolt for reassembly, not temporary.
- At this point, I removed the jack with the block of wood from under the knuckle and also removed the bolt attaching the wishbone to the subframe and let the wish bone hang down freely. Now I had the steering knuckle hanging from the strut tower. I verified the end of the axle was sitting correctly on the spline of the differential gear one more time. Then I swung the knuckle along with the axle towards differential (or pedestial) in a sudden force, which on passenger side immediately popped the axle in place, and on driver side pushed it inititally half way and two more swing pushes popped that in place two. I verified that axles had popped in places or not by pushing them in all the way and seeing that they were flush as they were before disassembly. They still had that 1/8 inch or less play when pushed out, which again was same as I had checked before disassembly.
- Next I put the wishbone back in its place with its bolt on the subframe. Then attached the “compression strut” (thrust arm) into the ball joint on the knuckle. Also attached the tie-rod to its ball joint. And then tightened them all, with the following specs, taken from workshop-manuals.com, some of the specs are not in agreement with my version of Bentley manual. But I used these ones because workshop-manuals.com was differentiating AWD (x-drive) vs RWD, where as Bentley wasn’t while giving these specs, and differences between them were on these. So the specs I used personally for my X-drive were:

Wish bone (control arm) to subframe: M12 8.8 68 Nm (50 ft lbs) then 90 degrees
M12 10.9 100 Nm (74 ft lbs) then 90 degrees.
Mine were 10.9 grade bolts, bought new, so went with the later spec.
Tie rod to steering knuckle (AWD) 80 Nm (59 ft lbs) (RWD is given as 165 Nm 122 ft lbs), use new nut
Compression strut (AWD) (thrust arm) to steering knuckle ball joint 80 Nm (59 ft lbs) (RWD says tension strut and 122 ft lbs), use new nut
Compression strut (AWD) (thrust arm) to subframe bolt 68 Nm (50 ft lbs) first, then 90 degrees additional, use new bolt and nut.

- I didn’t have to remove the bolt on the subframe compression strut (thrust arm), but listing the spec here as reference for that bolt and nut too:
 68 Nm (50 ft ls) first, then 90 degrees additional. New bolt and nut. This could be for 8.8 grade bolt, since it uses for same bolt and nut as the wishbone uses there. And wishbone is speced for 8.8 and 10.9 grade differently. If 10.9 grade is used, then wishbone 10.9 grade spec more appropriate. Again new bolt and nut is needed.
- Any torque to yield, i.e. 2nd stage angle turn torque specs are for new bolts. Reusing bolt should be careful not to overtighten to break the bolts, nor under tighten to let them come free.
- Also if I had to remove and then assembly the thrust arm (compression strut) bolt on subframe, not to twist the bushing rubber I would had to lift the steering knuckle with jack until its hub center to wheel fender arch came to the measured one when car was on its wheels on flat surface and then tighten.
- I did use new nuts for all the ball joints, and the compression strut to subframe bolt and nut. All these nuts, including the subframe bolt nut are self locking, with threads cut progressively tighter.
- Next I routed and attached the ABS sensors on the steering knuckles. I covered this sensor with a thin coating of silicone grease I had for brake work before placing it in and tightening down its hold down bolt.
- Then I placed the dust shields on the steering knuckles and screwed them down with the 4 screws.
- Next I cleaned the hub surface, placed some antiseize around the hub center and placed the break rotor back on, and tightened the brake rotor hold down screw. Used some antiseize on that screw too. Cleaned the surfaces of the rotors with brake cleaner.
- Then lowered brake calipers down one at a time, pushed pads apart just a bit more for easier placement with a woodworkers quick clamp which I found a good tool to use for this. Placed the calipers and tightened from behind with the two bolts. Torque spec 110 Nm (81 ft lbs)
- Routed and placed the brake sensor on driver side back on the brake caliper.
- Next step since the differential was sealed once again was to fill it. Ideally it should be filled when car is level, because it is filled up to the rim of the fill hole, which is indicated by oil coming out of the fill hole, and incline would change the amount of oil that fills up the hole. I filled it at this point though. The oil capacity of the front differential is 600ml, so I pumped in at least this much oil and closed the fill plug quickly so that it wasn’t getting less than 600ml in it. Not ideal but that was what I could do. I used the fluid pump that screws into oil bottle mentioned in the tools list in first post. Finally closed and tightened the fill plug on the differential, torque spec 60 Nm (44 ft lbs).
- At this point since the brakes were back functional, I continued with tightening the front drive shaft bolts. Book says to use new bolts, which is what I did. I first get inside the car and pumped the brake pad two times all the way down. This was needed because to seat the brake pads in position which were pushed apart by me with clamp during assembly. Then I positioned that tool again between the front of the driver seat and brake pedal and pushed the seat forward until brake pedal was depressed. Then tightened one bolt, then released the brake pedal, turned the shaft to get the next bolt, press the brake pedal tightened bolt and so on until all four were tightened. The torque specs: 15 ft lbs initial, then 45 degrees additional. Moving driver seat back and forth could drain the battery, using a battery charger could be a good idea while doing this, or before and after doing this.
- Next step was to reattach the steering column shaft. For this by eye, I positioned the wheels straight by pushing and pulling on the tie rods. Then made sure the steering wheel was also still at straight position. Then from top of the engine aligned the marks I had put on the streering column shaft and the universal joint on the steering rack and pushed the steering column shaft back into the joint. I used a new pinch bolt for this, which is again recommended by the book. If reusing the bolt, blue Loctite would be applied, so it doesn’t work its way out and left without steering, which would be scary. New bolt comes with the Loctite kind of paste on its threads. They call it something like micro capsules , which my understanding upon pressure during tightening the threads, these capsules break up and release the locking compound that are inside. Torque spec: 21 Nm (15.5 ft lbs) The new bolt wasn’t initially threading in correctly due to left over loctite, so I had to clean the threads by using the old bolt then use the new bolt.
- Replaced the oil filter with new, replaced the two o-rings that come with the filter kit on the oil filter housing cap. Put some oil on the o-rings before placing them, especially the bigger black one. Paid attention to where exactly this black one ended up. In the past I had done a mistake one time which had caused it to ride up just under the edge of the cap and had caused oil leak. Cleaned as much as possible the oil filter housing inside from oil. Placed the oil filter cap with the new filter pushed and snugly fit inside it over its housing and screwed it down by hand. Made sure the black o-ring didn’t ride up during this and stayed completely inside the housing. I don’t remember the exact torque for this, but I just tighten by hand. I think it is written on top the cap, but this would require the correct wrench to be used to be able to attach a torque wrench. There used to be a green mark to align that was placed from the factory but along the years this mark washed away.
- I had already replaced copper crush washer seal and torqued the engine oil drain plug in one of the previous steps.
- Filled the engine with 7 qts of proper engine oil and closed the fill cap.
- Placed the engine vanity cover and screwed it down.
- Made sure the MAF sensor wire was not tangled positioned where it needed to be.
- Placed the short air intake pipe, which has alignment point on it on the engine intake manifold side, tightened the clamp.
- Placed the air filter box, fit it into the air pipe by pushing and rotating. This I believe also has an alignment point. Placed and tightened two bolts of the air filter box to the fender side. Tightened the clamp on the air pipe it goes into. Plugged in the MAF sensor wire. Then connected the front air duct to the air filter box by pushing it in. Then positioned and placed this air duct on its place above the radiator support, and tightened it down via those two torx screws.
- Placed the lower cabin air filter cover its place, making sure the two wires on each side were not going to be below it and making sure the hanging computer cover on the passenger side is not getting in its way. This requires always some patience and finesse with its pronges underneath it and the two hold down thingies coming from those rubber sheets on the sides and the need to come with a perfect angle from top and pushing down and forward at the same time. Once this was in, bolted it in place on its two front sides with the 10 mm bolts. Then placed the upper cabin air filter cover and screwed it down with six screws. Paid attention not to tighten these too much to cause stripping off the threads which is easy to do being screwed into plastic and removed and tightened a lot. I used the technique of starting with counter clock turning until hearing and feeling a click that indicates the two threads are at their starting point aligned especially on these.
- Then placed the brake fluid reservoir cover it in place, and the computer cover as well. Routed the hood alarm switch wire and pushed down the barbed tie down in place and plugged it in. Routed outside air quality sensor wire same way and plugged it in as well.
- At this point engine could be started to test if there was any leak.
- Put the stick shift in neutral, started the engine. Had to make sure car was in neutral and wheels wouldn't turn, since the front tires were still off of the car and car was on jack stands. Checked under verified no oil leaks from engine or differential seals and plugs. Turned off the engine.
- Pushed the wire harness bridge over the engine that goes below the cabin air filter lower cover into its tracks until they clicked secure. Then pushed the other wire harness bridge to its tracks there until they also clicked secure.
- Removed the locking pliers whose teeth were covered with gas line pieces from the engine hood piston, closed the hood.
- Placed the reinforcement plate under the car, with its 6 bolts. These are also torque to yield bolts and going by the book need to be replaced, but I didn’t. In the past I had sometimes and sometimes not. The torque spec for using new bolts is as following, reusing bolts I just go by feel: 56 Nm (41 ft lbs) initial then 90 degrees
- Placed and screwed the side triangular looking plastic cover pieces under the car, then the other two plastic cover pieces. The triangular small pieces use a plastic nut each along with the screws.
- Put the tires on the wheels, tightened bolts by hand, lifted the car more, removed jack stands, then lowered the car down. Tightened the wheel bolts in criss cross manner when tires were on ground, torque spec 120 Nm (88.8 ft lbs)
- Removed the wheel chokes from rear tires.

And it was done!!! THE END!