Hi. I'm new to the Forum and I'm new to minis. I just picked up a a 2008 R56. Before I got it inspected I decided to rebuild the the front suspension so far I've replace the struts in the strut Tower bearings. Now I'm trying to get to the front bushings. I remove the lower control arms and lowered the subframe to get to the rear bolt on the bushing bracket. I used the procedure that I found on this website listed below. The subframe has dropped in the back by about 1 to 2 in. That doesn't seem to be enough to get that last bolt out of the bushing bracket. Does anyone have any hints or helpful suggestions on how to get that last bolt out. Thanks in advance https://www.motoringalliance.com/articles/how-to-replace-the-front-control-arm-bushing-without-removing-the-subframe.59/
How close are to coming out? Are they close enough that you can pry down on the sub frame to fifths getting them out? I have replaced them on my R53 but have not had to do this on ether of our Gen2 Minis. It looks a lot like the same set up as on a BMW 318ti
I left the two front bolts loose in the frame if I take them out can j lower the whole subframe down?
Welcome to M/A! Don't fret...there are a lot of Gen 2 people here but they must be Christmas shopping tonight. That said, help WILL appear...of that I am sure because we have a lot of members here who have done extensive work on their MINIs [unfortunately, though, I am not one of them and besides, I have Gen 1 MINIs]. Good luck and welcome again!
What an epic battle 5 hours wrestling with those Last two bolts, but I finally got them I pressed out the old bushings and pressed in the new poly bushings. All I have to do know is put everything back together But there will be a whole new front end , struts, struts bearings, bushings, ball joints and brakes. Hopefully a long time before I need to get back here
Glad to hear you were able to get them out. Any suggestions for the next person? I.e. how you did it?
What an epic. Took me about 3 hours to lower the subframe another three hours to get the last two hidden bolts out, than about 3 hours to put the whole thing back together again . But it is done, new poly bushing and all new ball joints. I ended up pushing the subframe down as low as I comfortably could, then I could get a box wrench. The box wrench had to have an angled head. The nut seems like it is torqued to about 150 ftlbs so I still needed about 30 inches of pipe to break it loose. Than the arduous task of turning it about 1/8 turn, move the wrench and pipe, repeat. It finally came out Everything went back together again without too much issue