E24 DIY Rear shock replacement (WITH PICTURES!)

Post in this forum for topics relating to suspension, steering, and brakes

Moderators: GRNSHRK, ron, bfons

Post Reply
SharkTamer

E24 DIY Rear shock replacement (WITH PICTURES!)

Post by SharkTamer »

I want to preface this with some information on the specific car the pictures are taken of. It is a US market 635csi without self leveling suspension.

Tools you will need: Steel hammer, Rubber mallet, Pry bar, Spring Compressors (preferably with small lips due to the tight coiling on your springs), Torque wrench, Metric/SAE socket set, 13mm box end/combination wrench or SAE equivalent, jack and jack stands. If I am forgetting anything please correct me!

Image

Step 1: BEFORE YOU REMOVE YOUR WHEEL/JACK UP THE CAR!
Take out your trunk carpet interior. You will be getting deep into the trunk to take off your strut tower nuts, and removing the carpet now will save damage and frustration. Go easy with the carpet, it is glued to the body work and should come off fairly easily with some coaxing. The back vertical pannel can be pried away from the ceiling of the trunk compartment, that is where i started removing carpet first. With fineness, time and some thought you can remove it all easily.

Image

Step 2: Once you have removed all the carpet from your trunk, take off your shoes and hop in. You will be removing 3 nuts from the top of each strut tower. in the middle of the 3 nuts you most likely will have a dust boot do not have to remove. Take off the 3 nuts from both driver and passenger sides.

Image

Step 3: Jack up and place your jack stands under the car and take your wheel off. Make sure to use wheel stops and only lift one side of the car at a time to avoid the car rolling.

Step 4: Remove the single bolt holding the strut assembly to the wheel carrier. it is a very large size and some of you may need to use an adjustable wrench to loosen it.

Image

now use a rubber mallet to knock the shock and bushing out of the wheel carriers positioning hole pictured. Be careful as the strut will fall.

Step 5: use your spring compressors to compress the springs and remove the top mount, this part of the DIY is typical operations for changing a shock out in a strut assembly. The only difference is if you get typical spring compressors with a steep lip you will have to hammer them on to the spring and use your pry bar to pry the spring open to remove them as I did.


CAREFUL! -->your shock tower mount will have a pair of dished washers on top and bottom. Make sure you take note of their location and position and place them both back correctly when you assemble your new strut.<--


Step 6: swap the shock and any other parts you decide to replace (spring perch rubber, shock tower mount, bump stop, etc.) onto your spring.

Step 7: Place the strut up into the wheel well hole and hand tighten a few of the nuts on the shock tower in order to allow the strut assembly to hang. if the shock bushing at the bottom of the shock wont match back up with the wheel carrier use some channel locks to twist the shock to face the correct direction. I used my pry bar to gently lower the entire wheel carrier to meet up with the shock by prying on top of the caliper to underneath the cv shaft. Use a combination of your rubber mallet and pry bar to get the shock to meet back with the wheel carrier.

Step 8: Place your shock bolt back in and torque it down before placing your wheel back on and lower the vehicle. Now go back into your trunk and tighten the nuts down.

Step 9: repeat on the other side and enjoy your new ride!
Last edited by SharkTamer on Fri Dec 27, 2013 4:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Hefeweizen
Posts: 2324
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Colorado Springs
Contact:

Post by Hefeweizen »

Maybe next time it will not be so painful. You don't have to remove the carpet since you only remove two of the three nuts from inside the trunk. Remove the rear seats and take the nut out through the hole that is there just for that purpose.
Rainer
03 330Xi (DD)
85 635CSi (RIP 3 May 19)
80 633CSi (Red Euro, Project)

"If you think a good European mechanic is expensive, try a bad one!"
SharkTamer

Post by SharkTamer »

Hefeweizen wrote:Maybe next time it will not be so painful. You don't have to remove the carpet since you only remove two of the three nuts from inside the trunk. Remove the rear seats and take the nut out through the hole that is there just for that purpose.
I did remove my seats, and the access holes are up underneath the rear dash carpet on my car. They are too small to fit my hands through and difficult to reach. I found it much easier to just pull the carpet panels and remove the nuts from the trunk. I could probably take a picture of the access hole before i put my interior back in, it's way too small to fit a ratchet or wrench into.
Area 52

Post by Area 52 »

It appears the bottom spring perch is upside down. Was that intentional?
User avatar
Hefeweizen
Posts: 2324
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Colorado Springs
Contact:

Post by Hefeweizen »

SharkTamer wrote:
Hefeweizen wrote:Maybe next time it will not be so painful. You don't have to remove the carpet since you only remove two of the three nuts from inside the trunk. Remove the rear seats and take the nut out through the hole that is there just for that purpose.
I did remove my seats, and the access holes are up underneath the rear dash carpet on my car. They are too small to fit my hands through and difficult to reach. I found it much easier to just pull the carpet panels and remove the nuts from the trunk. I could probably take a picture of the access hole before i put my interior back in, it's way too small to fit a ratchet or wrench into.
That is odd. Mine is a 85 and I have no problems fitting a ratchet with a socket in there. When you get a chance please do take a pic.
Rainer
03 330Xi (DD)
85 635CSi (RIP 3 May 19)
80 633CSi (Red Euro, Project)

"If you think a good European mechanic is expensive, try a bad one!"
SharkTamer

Post by SharkTamer »

Area 52 wrote:It appears the bottom spring perch is upside down. Was that intentional?
hahaha wow no that was not intentional. ill remove that picture :P.
That is odd. Mine is a 85 and I have no problems fitting a ratchet with a socket in there. When you get a chance please do take a pic.
will do tomorrow morning[/quote]
User avatar
Ralph in Socal
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 2745
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:32 am
Location: High Desert of SoCal

Post by Ralph in Socal »

A couple of suggestions to make life easier.

Use a ratcheting box wrench to remove the rear mount nuts inside the trunk. I can remove all three nuts from outside the car by using a 13mm Gearwrench.

Re-assemble with Anti-Seize on the lower rear mount as they are known to corrode together inside the trailing arm mount.


Ralph
There is a very fine line between "Hobby" and Mental Illness.

85 635csi Zinno Auto
84 528i Euro
83 635 Euro Arktik
81 528i Kastanien 5-speed
88 528e Bronzit (Granpa Car)
86 535i Auto (For Sale)
81 633 csi (retired)
User avatar
Brucey
6 Series Guru
6 Series Guru
Posts: 10077
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:17 am
Location: Cambridge, UK

Post by Brucey »

as others have pointed out the top mount nuts can usually be accessed once the rear parcel shelf trim has been removed. You can use a wobble bar to drive a 3/8" drive socket.

Also, it is nearly always more difficult to remove the lower shock mount when the suspension is fully extended, because the bolt is twisted in the rubber mount. It can work out a fair bit easier to remove the lower bolt if the springs are held separately compressed and the swinging arm is elevated to near normal ride height.

A cunning way of easily holding the springs compressed is to lash them using stout (i.e. enough to take at least ~400lbs) cord before the car is jacked up.

cheers
~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gt40mk2
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:21 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by gt40mk2 »

Two manuals I referenced for this said to use a jack to compress the suspension.
1979 Euro E24
Rondel Fan
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:31 pm
Location: North East

Re: E24 DIY Rear shock replacement (WITH PICTURES!)

Post by Rondel Fan »

Just finished suspension over haul on my 86. The rears were pretty straightforward. I too was able to get the 3 top nuts from the inside the trunk with a ratcheting box wrench. My upper interior panel was failing so I was able to place my hands in there and get to the nuts. As with many wrenching jobs, removal can be a fair bit easier than installation given that all the bits are already held firmly in place. That said I did lose my grip on the two nuts closest to the rear bulk head while trying to remove them. I can't wait for them to start rattling when I drive!

For whatever reason the left side rear nuts were more easily accessed and pretty easy to reinstall, Even the one closest the seat bulk head I could reach with 2 fingers on the furthest nut. On the right side the furthest stud was tougher to reach and I lost yet another nut before I figured to place some duct tape on the nut shaped like a dunce cap so I could lift it into place without losing it a 3rd time and get a turn or two on the stud before ripping off the tape.

I found the lower mount bolts very easy to remove and you can see from the pics the bolts were like brand new internally.
Image
Image
Rondel Fan
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:31 pm
Location: North East

Re: E24 DIY Rear shock replacement (WITH PICTURES!)

Post by Rondel Fan »

True to my prediction, unlike removal, I was unable to get the furthest nut on the pass side back in place from the trunk.
I pulled out the seat and used a very long screwdriver to poke a hole in the asphalt like sound deadening material. From there it was a treat to install the last nut on the strut mount with a 1/4 inch drive and a 13mm socket. If I had done this first I would not have lost a few nuts and had to buy replacements.
On to the clutch in a few weeks.

Image

Image
Post Reply