@ e500 yea going to do bushes as well as tie rods bellows nuts bolts and also the drop links and lower arms all need doing may as well not going to be much more in labour (I’ll supply the parts ) its the bolts on the sway bar that’s my concern have already started with wd40 will keep doing it till it gets collected on a flatbed ……just add it to the list ….the funny thing is on the day it happened I was going to get some shopping (list from the wife lol) …when she got home and I told her what happened…you know what she asked………..did I do the shopping woman honestly

I'm having my lower arms done too so I'll see if they can renew all the rack bolts while they're in there.

ive managed to move the electric motor back and out the way ish but i think that was only due to the bolts been snapped and missing .....im not sure if the bolts can be replaced with the rack in situ ,but someone may know better than me if not then its a rack out job

right after more inspection I'm not going to use electric motor or rack been open to the elements for long long time ,so have ordered a replacement rack and all tie rods inner and outer and i bucket load more of suspension parts and sway bar bushes ....I've had a look in wsm and it seems that the rack can be taken out through the bottom with sway bar dropped and tie rods disconnected (one good thing no oil leaks i can see back of engine ) ,i have been using wd40 on bolts/nuts that i think need to be done for removal .now im seriously thinking of doing it myself as i would have get it transported to the garage(more costs).so is there anything i don't know that would cause me a headache ? any and all input much appreciated. Cheers guys

Quote:

so is there anything i don't know that would cause me a headache ? any and all input much appreciated. Cheers guys

Don't undo the big bolts with an impact wrench. ( such as the subframe that holds the sway bar ). Use a large breaker bar to get them started, and even then I use a 2 steps forward, 1 step back approach.

i.e. crack it to start, then a slight tighten back up, then a qtr turn, tighten back a fraction, then loose half turn, then tighten a qtr, loosen half, tighten qtr etc ... once it starts going freely then you can just loosen it right out. Stops too much build up on the threads ... particularly in the aluminium castings.

- - - - - - - -

As a related aside ... I had to remove the BMW's steering rack this morning. The steering was creaking on low speed turns, and I traced it down to coming from the motor area of the rack. I had thought it was the preload adjuster, but that didn't make a difference. Closer inspection found a sheared bolt between the main rack casting and the cover casting for the belt section of the motor.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

With the rack removed from the car, managed to get it out with and extractor and some heat.

Click image to enlarge

What I did notice though was where it sheared. It was right on the line between the 2 castings. You can see that there was white powder around the shear point ...

So I removed and checked all the other bolts ( 7 in total for the BMW setup ). All of them showed a section of white corrosion exactly in line with the 2 sections of casting they were joining together.

So to me it's quite clear that the casting join appears to be allowing conditions that promote corrosion of the aluminium bolts. I guess it's possible that moisture could creep between the castings through capillary action ? there is no sealing of the casting join. I'm quite surprised as the BMW's under tray protection is very good at not letting road splash get in ... it's very clean behind the tray, so its not like the bolts are being constantly exposed to water / wet conditions as far as I could tell.

I've ordered steel bolts as replacements and will fire in tef-gel too. Finger crossed that'll solve my issue.

All that said, its very much made me think that once the Beemer is back on the road, I'll be checking / replacing the FFRR's bolts on the motor. V8 or else ...

yea see your point ,just waiting for new bolts and some dry weather fingers crossed all gose well .as you can see from my photos loads on corrosion

Do you know what size the bolts are for the L405 ? V8 or else ...

if you mean the ones for the motor to rack i got the ones from powerfuluk if you mean for rack to subframe not of hand been ordering lots of parts but could check

It was the motor to rack bolts … but having a look at the powerful kit, they say 65mm … I presume M8 thread size given the BMW’s are M8 also. V8 or else ...

yea also going to get some m8 to replace the other aluminium bolts as on my rack one of those bolts had snapped on come out ,may as well future proof it

right manged to get rack replaced ,been in touch with Patrick(gap support) and it turns out that the replacement racks firmware is the same as old one … thats the good news .now the lightness of the steering is back dont need arms like arnie to turn the wheel but i the new rack squeals like a pig when turning the wheel ,the only thing i can think is that i didnt connect the steering column to the rack right or the rack is faulty