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Re: E30 control arms

Jon R. Lewis wrote:
> 
> STOP!  Be VERY weary of applying turpentine (or any other
> solvent) to rubber bushings.  IM(not so)HO, this is much too
> strong of a solvent to use.  BMW recommends their "special
> lubricant" for a reason - and its not just to rip the consumer off

Hi Jon,

Thanks for taking the time to reply again, and thanks for the
information.

While I respect your concerns, I'm not too worried about the bushing
popping
off the control arm at this point.  The bushing itself is pressed in to
that
mount (I'm sure you know what I mean since you've changed yours) and it
would
seem physically impossible, with everything bolted together, for the
control
arm to come out of the bushing itself.  Also, I believe that the dealer
(actually
the service guy) recommended turpentine (that's what they use) because
it evaporates
and leaves no residue.  As I understand it, you don't want to actually
lubricate 
that control arm, just make it slippery and a little sticky so the
control arm goes
in, and then "seals" itself to the bush.  I would be more worried about
silicone
sprays that actually leave residue around more than I would turpentine. 
Also, given
the way that darn thing stuck as soon as I stopped pushing it on, I'm
not worried
about it not being sealed.  It took one hell of a lot of effort to get
those bushings
on the arms, then I bolted em up and let the car sit for a couple hours
(the book
says 30 mins, the dealer said 2 hours, I suspect this discrepancy is due
to the 
different "lubes" they use.  Even after a few minutes, the bushes were
impossible
to move on the control arms.  So I'm hoping I got it right.  I'm fairly
certain the 
"special lubricant" to which the Bentley manual refers (BMW part#) is
nothing too
special, else why would the dealer use turpentine.  I suspect it's just
a low residue
oil distallate....lacquer thinner might work just as well.

Drove the car to work this morning and it was very rewarding...the
shocks work
again, even after 135K miles they still work alright (new Bilsteins
would be nice
though) and the clunking is gone.

I'm going to cc the list on this, hope you don't mind, I'm not meaning
to start a
flame war, just want to share these ideas as others replied to me
privately 
recommending silicone spray and I don't have the time to respond to
each.

I will try to post a definitive procedure with the tricks I learned for
this 
service as soon as possible.

Best Regards,
TJ Noto
87 325is (135,000 miles and counting)