That's one of those "it depends" questions. You can get an idea on parts prices, look your car up on realoem.com (ideally you'll want the month & year of production off your door sticker) and drill down to front suspension parts. Note their parts prices, then look them up on Bavauto.com, pelicanparts.com and autohausaz.com, and you'll have some comparison prices for front end bits. I think you can copy & past the BMW part numbers on those sites, as well as drill down through their menus & links. I think I've read stuff about folks pressing ball joints in & out of E36 control arms, so I can't say offhand if that's what a shop or the dealer might do & whether that's a good way to go or not. I'd guess as a matter of time efficiency, a dealer would just replace the whole control arm. Without knowing what all's up w/ your front suspension, I can't guess whether you might be just fine with control arms or c-a bushings only, or what other front parts you might need - relatively speaking, for 3 series cars, I think on the whole there are only so many parts - tie rods & tie rod ends, control arm assemblies, the control arm bushings, and then possibly items like front sway bar links and bushings. I would tend to think it would take about a half-day billable labor hours to do front control arms & bushings, so I'm guessing a dealer charge might be around a thousand, hopefully not much more, and at least over $500. Brake work would be a different matter, but you won't know if you have any issue there until after the other front-end stuff is done. If the steering wheel shakes only under braking, that would likely indicate warped rotors - but, your rolling and braking shakes more likely indicate your front-suspension issues. A steering wheel shake under braking isn't going to feel noticeably different from bad front-end parts or warped rotors, so fix what you know it needs before going further with the brakes. Brake fluid needs to be flushed every two years though, so if you have it in for something else & it's already up on a lift, easy enough to take care of that basic maintenance item.
Ouch !! I'm hoping it's not going to be a thousand ! If it ends up being that much I will get the parts myself and take it to an Indy. But at least the dealer will tell me what they found for issues. I'm traveling to from MA to NY Tuesday and would like to at least have a better/reliable ride back and fourth there. I agree that the suspension issues need to be addressed first then worry about the brakes since it's not a horrible shaking situation. After I see them tomorrow I will post the results to ya!
So results are in ! ………….. $680.00 Replaced two front bushings. The shaking on the steering was coming from not only 2 bent rims but 4! Drivers side was the worst, tech used my spare rim and balanced so now its driving much better. Also I need front exhaust bracket that has rotted out, other than that the car is fine but I gotta tell you it feels great knowing that a BMW tech the work and the customer service was impeccable.
Without a doubt .. The arms and rotors were fine so I really lucked out there. The oil leak that I thought was there they couldn't find so the tech cleaned up all around the oil housing and told me drive and bring back next week to see if any were it's coming from.
Garrison, I needed some rims and was able to get my hands on a set that came off an e39. The car is at BMW and I got them the hub centric rings so the bore would be ok, the current tires that I got on them is my original ones 205 60/15 and they fit the rim perfectly but will the tire “stick” out too much since the offset will be different ? The tech feels that with the centric rings I should be ok but now even without the rings the wheels stick out a bit although they look pretty cool…. What do you think ? By the way BMW did discover the oil leak …. Oil filter housing gasket
Although I'm sure there's some sort of recommended range of wheel offset for your car, can't say whether what you have might fall into that or not. However, sticking out "too much" is kinda relative - if you get no rubbing that causes any kind of problem, they'll probably be just fine.
Thanks! With the oil filter housing BMW charged me $450 which was all labor ! but the good thing is that all the work that I’ve put into it thus far was done right. The ball joints he mentioned had just a little bit of play on them and nothing to be concerned about at the moment but will be something that in the future will need. In your opinion what do you think about a better quality sway bar ? I know it’s a sedan but if it could handle better ….. check this one out at Bavauto Bavarian Autosport Sway Bar kit - 27mm Front 23mm Rear
We're covering all varieties of topics far from where we started! As far as starting down the upgrade path, I typically suggest doing it with a purpose, plan, & budget in mind. There are virtually a gazillion things for these cars, all the way down to turning it into a full-blown track beast and possibly costing up to $125k or more (there's a reason it's said to always buy somebody else's race car than build your own). As far as anti-swaybars go, that's a relatively inexpensive option that's fairly easy to install - note that sometimes reinforcement to some of the bar mounting points might be recommended. Besides BavAuto, you can compare info and offerings from others, which can be helpful in learning what's what - check http://www.turnermotorsport.com/ , bimmerworld.com, Ireland Engineering (bmw2002.com), and other Roundel advertisers (nothing against the BavAuto swaybar set, it should work just fine). It also may be helpful to read-up in more detail on anything you're considering, so you can fully understand what does what, why, how it all relates & works together, component relations & interactions, & so on. That kind of self-education can help you make specific desions that might get you the result you want. Looks like there's any number of options here, although some are a bit pricey - but, you can look for used on ebay, Amazon, etc. http://www.bentleypublishers.com/automotive-reference/ Wish I could say I've read in depth to have a recommendation, but, looking 'em over, this one looks quite comprehensive: http://www.bentleypublishers.com/au...rsports/race-car-vehicle-dynamics-textbk.html Of course, there's always the internet!
