Rear Trailing Arm Bushings (RTAB) Replacement

[Chengy]

Awesome write up and great pictures, would be good to drop in the how-to section for peeps to find later.

Cheers Matty. Is this something the mods would do?

 

[Chengy]

From memory you need a special tool to line up the bush on tightening so it isn't stressed.

Yantekin made a homemade one... see pickie

I also went for both poly RTAB's & RTAL's just in case.

Yeah the pretensioning requirements for OEM replacements worried me as I was new to all this, so went with the polys. No regrets so far, they’ve been great.

 

[smorris_12]

The pretensioning bit is easy: only properly tighten the bolts when the car is sat squarely on its wheels rather than when they're dangling with the car on a trolley jack.

 

[TOMGREEN413]

Great to remember.

 

[Matty_Z4]

Awesome write up and great pictures, would be good to drop in the how-to section for peeps to find later.

Cheers Matty. Is this something the mods would do?

I think you submit your post in this section for a how-to and then the mods move it into the correct how to section.

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=34

 

[Chengy]

Awesome write up and great pictures, would be good to drop in the how-to section for peeps to find later.

Cheers Matty. Is this something the mods would do?

I think you submit your post in this section for a how-to and then the mods move it into the correct how to section.

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=34

Thanks Matty, done.

 

[ryushe]

@chengy, great write up. It’s another one for the “things to do” list
How long approximately did this take you?

 

[Chengy]

@chengy, great write up. It’s another one for the “things to do” list
How long approximately did this take you?

Sorry for the delay and thank you

First go was probably around 4-5 hours including set up time as I didn’t have a step by step guide, so had to figure things and ask people. Second go on the other side was a lot faster, probably 1-2 hours.

Hope this helps, any questions let me know.

 

[jetrep]

The pretensioning bit is easy: only properly tighten the bolts when the car is sat squarely on its wheels rather than when they're dangling with the car on a trolley jack.

Easier said than done considering you cannot access the bolt for this bushing once the bracket is in position and the tire is on the ground

 

[jetrep]

Nice write up! I really disliked performing this job and even had a skilled helper. Having a better tool designed solely for dealing with these bushings would have helped. The tool I bought off amazon is designed for this purpose but also other BMW bushings so it was a bit less specialized for this task. Installing the new OEM style bushings was not easy so going with these poly bushings is probably the way to go. It's a much bigger job but I must admit I'd rather do my oil pan again that deal with these bushings.

 

[smorris_12]

The pretensioning bit is easy: only properly tighten the bolts when the car is sat squarely on its wheels rather than when they're dangling with the car on a trolley jack.

Easier said than done considering you cannot access the bolt for this bushing once the bracket is in position and the tire is on the ground

I said sat squarely. I didn't say on the ground...

Actually, that advice probably serves a whole load of other bushes far better than the RTABs. I think, when I did my E46, sometime in the fifteenth century, I must have marked off how bracket and arm sat in relation to each other and duplicated the angle when tightening up the new ones.

As I say, it was a while ago. Empires have risen and fallen since

 

[jetrep]

The pretensioning bit is easy: only properly tighten the bolts when the car is sat squarely on its wheels rather than when they're dangling with the car on a trolley jack.

Easier said than done considering you cannot access the bolt for this bushing once the bracket is in position and the tire is on the ground

I said sat squarely. I didn't say on the ground...

Actually, that advice probably serves a whole load of other bushes far better than the RTABs. I think, when I did my E46, sometime in the fifteenth century, I must have marked off how bracket and arm sat in relation to each other and duplicated the angle when tightening up the new ones.

As I say, it was a while ago. Empires have risen and fallen since

I did something similar. If I recall correctly the manual specifies using a tool of some sort to establish the correct angle. I did my best to duplicate it. It wasn't my favorite part of the job.

 

[bigwinn]

Also, shout out to [ref]plenty[/ref] for giving me lots of help/advice during the process and selling me the RTAB tool.

If anyone is interested in buying the RTAB removal tool from me please let me know.

Cheers

Great write up

What were the symptoms or did you just inspect and see deterioration?

 

[Chengy]

Also, shout out to [ref]plenty[/ref] for giving me lots of help/advice during the process and selling me the RTAB tool.

If anyone is interested in buying the RTAB removal tool from me please let me know.

Cheers

Great write up

What were the symptoms or did you just inspect and see deterioration?

Thanks!

I had an inspection done by a BMW independent and they reported the bushings needed replacing.

Think the back feels tighter now, although that might just be psychological - classed as preventative work I think in my case.