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      03-16-2017, 12:46 PM   #12
rothwem
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Drives: 2009 BMW 328i Wagon
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Asheville, NC

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2009 BMW 328i  [0.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greyfox View Post
Well, I'm getting ready (buying the last few pieces) to put B6's on all four corners and finish up replacing all the bushings in the rear end... I'll post picks when I do.
Good deal. Make sure to buy some strut mounts, your OEM ones are almost definitely dead if they're the originals from 2007. The amount of play in the strut bearings blew my mind when I pulled my shocks off.

BTW, the xDrive struts are a pain in the ass to change, since the spring has so few coils. I had to put the spring compressors on the top spring seat to get the spring compressed enough. This adds a step though, since you'll want to replace the rubber isolators that sit on the spring seats, so you have to loosen the spring compressors to get the spring seat off, then compress them again to get them back on the new strut.

Also, the Bilstein top nut is a 7/8" or 22mm, while the OEM is a 21mm or 13/16" nut. A thin-wall O2 sensor wrench works well to get the top nut back on the Bilsteins, but I just used a cheap 7/8" deep socket and some massive 1 foot long channel locks (should have used a pipe wrench in hindsight) to torque the top nut on. I scarred the crap out of the socket, but I wasn't too worried about it, and I was able to get a surprising amount of torque on it.
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