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Well, it was actually 3 days, but I thought I'd share some of what I learned in the last 3 days of DIY mania. I just came back home from school, so I thought I'd take advantage of having a garage to work in.
First, I needed new tires and all the maintainance you see in the title, so I lifted all four corners onto jack stands. I made a set of ramps to get my car high enough to fit my jack under the center jack point (next to the oil pan). After lifting the front end onto jack stands, I lifted the rear onto jack stands using the rear differential carrier (not the differential itself). It'd be a good idea to loosen all your lug nuts before you lift the car, because you won't be able to loosen them with the car lifted.
Using Tim's DIY, installing the Bimmerworld Powerflex control arm bushings was easy. I actually had a shop press the new pushings into the carrier. They charged 1.5 hours of labor ($108 total). If I knew they were going to charge that much, I might have tried Tim's method. They took care of the only hard part of the install, and the car was bolted back together easily.
Using a Motive Power Bleeder, I was able to bleed my brakes for this weekend's Evolution AutoX school. I had ATE Super Blue in the system, so I replaced it all with ATE Super Gold, which made it easy to tell when the fluid was replaced. If you're interested how a Power Bleeder makes this an easy one-man job, check this out.
And well, the oil change was easy too. Here's a good DIY if you've never done it yourself.
I had read several posts of people who experienced new vibration problems after installing the Powerflex bushings. Some of these were attributed to ball joint failure in addition to the bushing failure. My experience was exactly what I wanted: it completely removed the intense vibration I felt at 75+mph and under braking. I highly recommend this modification if you're suffering any of these problems. Once again, my thanks go out to Tim for making such a great DIY!
First, I needed new tires and all the maintainance you see in the title, so I lifted all four corners onto jack stands. I made a set of ramps to get my car high enough to fit my jack under the center jack point (next to the oil pan). After lifting the front end onto jack stands, I lifted the rear onto jack stands using the rear differential carrier (not the differential itself). It'd be a good idea to loosen all your lug nuts before you lift the car, because you won't be able to loosen them with the car lifted.
Using Tim's DIY, installing the Bimmerworld Powerflex control arm bushings was easy. I actually had a shop press the new pushings into the carrier. They charged 1.5 hours of labor ($108 total). If I knew they were going to charge that much, I might have tried Tim's method. They took care of the only hard part of the install, and the car was bolted back together easily.
Using a Motive Power Bleeder, I was able to bleed my brakes for this weekend's Evolution AutoX school. I had ATE Super Blue in the system, so I replaced it all with ATE Super Gold, which made it easy to tell when the fluid was replaced. If you're interested how a Power Bleeder makes this an easy one-man job, check this out.
And well, the oil change was easy too. Here's a good DIY if you've never done it yourself.
I had read several posts of people who experienced new vibration problems after installing the Powerflex bushings. Some of these were attributed to ball joint failure in addition to the bushing failure. My experience was exactly what I wanted: it completely removed the intense vibration I felt at 75+mph and under braking. I highly recommend this modification if you're suffering any of these problems. Once again, my thanks go out to Tim for making such a great DIY!
