MOT Fail...

Frenzy

Frenzy

Frenzy

Soldato
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So I need a bit of advice as I'm not sure what normal costs are.

I have a BMW e46 330ci, the MOT failed on the ball joints on one side. I've been told that if I'm going to replace one I should replace both. I have been quoted at £400 with after market parts including labour.

Does that price sound reasonable?
 
Sounds about right, a good set of arms and ball joints are about £250 (Meyle HD), if they're using cheap no brand ones, I'd avoid like the plague.
 
You're welcome buddy. I need to get mine replaced in the next few weeks so I've been doing a ton of research. From what I can gather, Meyle HD are ideally the ones to go for, but if money is no object, the Lemforder ones are highly rated but people on forums seem to reckon they're not as strong as Meyle ones, but are closer to OEM quality.

Personally, I'm going for Meyle HD - seems to be the best compromise between comfort and longevity. E46's seem to eat up the front bushes quite quickly.
 
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I've got a Clubsport too :cool:

I don't think the suspension is actually different to a standard Sport. I've had mine next to a standard 330i sport and there's no difference in ride height. The Part Numbers on RealOEM are the same for a CS and a Sport model too so not sure where the differences are.
 
Atari said:
I've got a Clubsport too :cool:

I don't think the suspension is actually different to a standard Sport. I've had mine next to a standard 330i sport and there's no difference in ride height. The Part Numbers on RealOEM are the same for a CS and a Sport model too so not sure where the differences are.
Click to expand...

I thought the clubsport was 15mm lower? Saying that, it probably does use the same wishbone setup.

OP, make sure if your garage is charging £400 which is reasonable enough, that they are using a decent brand wishbone.

I've changed them myself before on an e46 and the upper bolt/mount is a right pig to get at - never again :D

** Clubsport M-tuned sports suspension (15mm lower than standard MSport)
 
I ended up buying the Meyle HD set off ebay for 200, the mechanic is going to do the work for 160 and mot for 40.
Nice guy and I trust him as he is doing a lot of work on my brothers showcar celica :) I don't know him too well myself which why I thought I would query the cost.

I'm pretty sure the clubsport is slightly lower than the standard sport models, I think mine has been lowered even further by the previous owner!
 
How can you tell what suspension you have? I don't *think* mine is sport, but it's pretty damn firm, if you try and rock it pretty much only the tyre sidewalls move.
 
It goes as follows according to the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_3_Series_(E46)

ES had the option of having an M-Sport suspesion for a limited time in 2003.
Sport / M-Sport has a sports suspension.
Club sport has the same suspension as the American ZHP model (Equivalent of the CS but had more performance upgrades over the UK CS)

The page doesn't make it clear as to whether the CS/ZHP sport suspension is different to the Sport/M-Sport/ZSP models.
 
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