330d control arm part q

DanF

DanF

DanF

Soldato
Joined
16 Feb 2004
Posts
4,971
Location
London
Hi,

BMW quoted me £300 for fitting and then a further £316 for 4 wheel alignment to get the control arms replaced on my 330d touring 54 plate. This seems like I'm expected to bend over and whisper a prayer.

Looking on the GSF site they list 2 part numbers for the front control arms:

B42038--CONTROL ARM L/H-BQ--E46--86.50
B42038A--CONTROL ARM L/H--E46 (Inc. Ball Joints)--52.50

The car apparently has the uprated m sport suspension, any idea if one of these parts would be appropriate for my car and what's the difference between them (ie BQ)?

Also the m sport suspension, does that change the control arms or is it just a damper and lower spring kit that they fit from the factory?
 
Exactly, my old local garage let me use the alignment tool for free.

They also said ...

tired starter motor £460 sir
front disks a bit worn £300 odd
rear disks slightly corroded £250 ish
best to replace the pads if your changing the disks ...
whiper blades smearing £46

Going to price up the parts for the control arms and call around some local places, I'm sure the disks are completely fine for now, didn't look too warn to me.
 
I questioned some of the costs, they said the wheel alignment was all labour costs, just over 2 hours to do all 4 wheels which seems pretty crazy. I guess I'll try and find a local specialist that has 4 wheel laser equipment.

Lucero: good to know on the suspension front, pretty sure I'd be able to fit them myself, well I've done it on other slightly less fancy cars...

iaind: the car turns the engine over pretty slowly, almost like the battery is going but they said it was fine and a tired starter motor. It gets a bit worse if trying to start when warm, sounds like it's just turning it over enough to catch instead of nice and quick like you'd expect.
 
rare said:
There is more than just one suspension arm on a E46. The M Sports package II Suspension arm is a different arm to the standard arm.!
Click to expand...

Cool cheers, I'll pop in to the local gsf. I guess bmw should be able to tell me the origional part number I need for it or the specific suspension type when I pick it up tonight.
 
Picked up the car last night, the BMW guy said that it was only the bushes that they wanted to replace with part number 31.12.783.376

Anyone know if i would need both the control arms and bush kit from GSF or just the bush kit?
 
I just called up protyre in Bristol who are going to do the work, they charge about £28 for basic tracking, if it's any more work than that then it goes to £35 per hour and is usually done in 2 hours.

They're quoting 3 hours to fit the parts and if they supply them it's only about £15 more than GSF but with no hassle.

So it should be about £250 less than BMW carrying out the work.
 
Oh I got the prices wrong from BMW, they where wanting to charge £305 to fit the bushes and then £360 for alignment, not £315 :s
 
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