I finally got around to replacing the rear struts on my E39 530i. After 136,000 miles, I knew they were worn, if not completely blown. It had been over a year since I replaced the front struts and I was excited to have done all four corners.
To do the rear struts in the E39, you first must remove the rear seats. This process entails removing the bottom seat cushion and the seat back. Underneath my seat was a collection of sticky, under-the-seat paraphernalia including ball point pens and lollipops.
After removing the rear seats, I then removed the interior C-pillar covers. I had to first pry out the interior lights from these pieces in order to access the fasteners.
It was now time to remove the rear parcel shelf, the second most difficult step of the job. To do this, you must first remove 4 pop-rivets that hold the front end of the parcel shelf in place. Then, you remove the three bolts in the middle of the shelf, which I believe are meant for anchoring child car seats. Finally, you crawl into the trunk and undo the three nuts holding the sunshade in place. This was my least favorite step, as the trunk is pretty tight and I am definitely claustrophobic. After undoing these bolts, I was able to remove the parcel shelf (with a bit of finessing).
I then detached the two outer seat belts, which wasn’t really necessary. Next, I unscrewed the two screws holding each of the rear speakers in place. Located under these speakers were the nuts holding the strut mounts in place. At this point, I took a few pictures:
I then jacked up the rear of my car (don’t worry, I chocked the front wheels). I did this by placing my low-profile jack under the rear differential. I had rear mixed reviews of this method and decided to wad-up a microfiber cloth and place it on the jack pad to avoid damaging the diff housing. I found a flat spot on the housing and began lifting. I was able to get the car up and placed my jack stands at the two rear factory jack points. I removed the wheels and was ready to disassemble.
First, I removed the nuts attaching the strut mount to the car. I then removed the long bolts holding each of the struts into the wheel spindle. The struts dropped down and I had planned on removing them from the car at this point.
However, there was not enough clearance between the spring and the fender liner. So, I removed both of the fender liners. The fender liners were very sandy and most of that sand found its way into my hair, where it stayed for a long time. However, I still wasn’t able to get the strut out of the wheel well. On the passenger side, I ended up removing the fuel hose that goes to the filler cap and pulling it out of the way, as it blocked the strut from being removed. On the driver side, I removed the evaporative-tank-charcoal-canister-or-whatever-its-called from the wheel well. This allowed me to remove the second rear strut.
I switched over the springs from the old struts to the new Bilsteins and began the reassembly process, which was the reverse of disassembly. However, when I was reinstalling the rear parcel shelf, I wasn’t able to get the shelf to align fully and it seemed like it was getting stuck on something. That was when I realized that I had not installed the rear speakers correctly and this was preventing the shelf from being able to lay flat. After figuring this out, the rest of the reassembly process went smoothly.
I have been driving on the Bilsteins for a couple weeks now and the car feels much more solid than it did before the strut replacement. Prior to this job, when I hit bumps in the road, I would hear one thunk and the back end would just float along behind. Now, I hear two solid-sounding thunks and the car feels much more stable and feels more composed over these bumps. Living in Maine, there are always plenty of frost heaves to hit in the winter. I feel like I would be saving lots of money in suspension components if I lived in a warm climate, as I wouldn’t hear worn parts clunking over bumps as much and thus wouldn’t be driven insane until I replaced them. But who am I kidding? I wouldn’t give up my winter-parking-lot-drifting sessions for bump-less pavement!
Exhaust Fumes 