....is worth doing the bush!
Typicaly as I start thinking about selling the E32 it develops a nasty vibration through the steering at about 50mph, So I get it up on the ramp at work and have a good look and find that the bushes are worn in the lower front locating arms, a quick look on Ebay throws up some Noltec "softride" uprated bushes for £50.00 a pair, the next weekend I take the old arms off and press out the old bushes
Old and New Bushes
New bush pressed in with stainless insert
Arms refitted with nice new bushes
A quick roadtest and the steerng vibration is 90% better but I can still feel a vibration through the body, over the next week I start thinking about replacing the other front bushes as they now feel weak in comparison to the new ones. The company supplying them needs to know if the arms are steel or alloy so I go and double check (just to be on the safe side) and as I'm looking at the arms I notice that one of the outer dust covers is split So do I now replace one arm and fit uprated bushes to both sides or replace both arms and keep with new standard bushes? either way it works out about £100.00ish so I go for two new arms, these only take about 20 min's a side to fit and as I'm inspecting the old arms I find that the one with the split boot is starting to stick a little. Now with the new arms and the uprated bushes the steering feel is 200% better and the steering has got much smoother.
But now I'm obsessed, I'm not going to let this other vibration get the better of me and I already know that the rear axle bushes are worn but I've been putting it to the back of my mind because they look like a real pain in the ****.
Back on the ramp and I have another look at the rear axle bushes and I can't belive how shot they've become in the last few months, they're so bad that I take the exhaust and heat shield off and inspect the prop' shaft to make sure that the bearings and joints haven't been killed as well, fortunatly the prop looks good so I order some power flex rear axle bushes(£50.00), rear gearbox mounts(£10.00 a pair from BMW) and some new exhaust mounts, bolts and gaskets.
This takes us up to last Saturday and I'm really not looking forward to it but I get to work for 8.00am and by 9.00 the axle is on the floor, result!
Axle dropped after removing ABS wires,brake hoses and lossening handbrake cables.
I then spend about another hour making a bush removal tool from a large bolt and several VW specialist tools that I modify for my own evil gain, then after a bit of hard graft and sweat I manage to pull the old bushes from the axle
Very Very perished old bush (should be one piece) and Very yellow new bush
The good thing about powerflex bushes is that they don't requires pressing into the axle to fit them so after a good greasing (the bushes not me) the bushes are in place
Supprisingly the axle went back together even easier than it had come off so I then replaced the rear gear box mounts while I was there.
You can see how much the gearbox mounts have squashed and distorted over the years.
And the verdict is.......I don't want to sell it!, cars this big shouldn't corner this well, it feels like an Audi S8 through the corners, It's still got that big car feel but it just feels so well planted on the road.
All this has been done at weekends over the last couple of months and I've hopefully only got a couple of leaking front struts to replace (£140.00)and a full geometry allignment to carry out before I can stop messing around under it....Fat chance ;D
Typicaly as I start thinking about selling the E32 it develops a nasty vibration through the steering at about 50mph, So I get it up on the ramp at work and have a good look and find that the bushes are worn in the lower front locating arms, a quick look on Ebay throws up some Noltec "softride" uprated bushes for £50.00 a pair, the next weekend I take the old arms off and press out the old bushes
Old and New Bushes
New bush pressed in with stainless insert
Arms refitted with nice new bushes
A quick roadtest and the steerng vibration is 90% better but I can still feel a vibration through the body, over the next week I start thinking about replacing the other front bushes as they now feel weak in comparison to the new ones. The company supplying them needs to know if the arms are steel or alloy so I go and double check (just to be on the safe side) and as I'm looking at the arms I notice that one of the outer dust covers is split So do I now replace one arm and fit uprated bushes to both sides or replace both arms and keep with new standard bushes? either way it works out about £100.00ish so I go for two new arms, these only take about 20 min's a side to fit and as I'm inspecting the old arms I find that the one with the split boot is starting to stick a little. Now with the new arms and the uprated bushes the steering feel is 200% better and the steering has got much smoother.
But now I'm obsessed, I'm not going to let this other vibration get the better of me and I already know that the rear axle bushes are worn but I've been putting it to the back of my mind because they look like a real pain in the ****.
Back on the ramp and I have another look at the rear axle bushes and I can't belive how shot they've become in the last few months, they're so bad that I take the exhaust and heat shield off and inspect the prop' shaft to make sure that the bearings and joints haven't been killed as well, fortunatly the prop looks good so I order some power flex rear axle bushes(£50.00), rear gearbox mounts(£10.00 a pair from BMW) and some new exhaust mounts, bolts and gaskets.
This takes us up to last Saturday and I'm really not looking forward to it but I get to work for 8.00am and by 9.00 the axle is on the floor, result!
Axle dropped after removing ABS wires,brake hoses and lossening handbrake cables.
I then spend about another hour making a bush removal tool from a large bolt and several VW specialist tools that I modify for my own evil gain, then after a bit of hard graft and sweat I manage to pull the old bushes from the axle
Very Very perished old bush (should be one piece) and Very yellow new bush
The good thing about powerflex bushes is that they don't requires pressing into the axle to fit them so after a good greasing (the bushes not me) the bushes are in place
Supprisingly the axle went back together even easier than it had come off so I then replaced the rear gear box mounts while I was there.
You can see how much the gearbox mounts have squashed and distorted over the years.
And the verdict is.......I don't want to sell it!, cars this big shouldn't corner this well, it feels like an Audi S8 through the corners, It's still got that big car feel but it just feels so well planted on the road.
All this has been done at weekends over the last couple of months and I've hopefully only got a couple of leaking front struts to replace (£140.00)and a full geometry allignment to carry out before I can stop messing around under it....Fat chance ;D