Strut Hat/bearings

BTH14 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-14-2009, 04:11 PM

Posted this in the 3 series section earlier by mistake

Hey guys, I'm doing the strut hat swap ( left to right and vise versa) on my 98 M3. I noticed that the bearings in the hat mounts have a fair bit of slop in them. Struts were replaced at 65K with bilsteins but the mounts were re-used (89K now). I cleaned up the old grease and it looks like the bearings are pressed in from the underside of the hat and then the hat is stamped to hold the bearings in. Is this the case, if so don't see how you could replace just the bearings, I'll have to buy the whole hat assembly. Is this correct?

PurduinaM3 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-14-2009, 08:03 PM

Correct. You need to buy the entire assembly, they shouldn't be that much....

BTH14 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-14-2009, 08:55 PM

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe this'll be a good excuse to just bite the bullet and get some adjustable plates.

btw I've seen pics of your car around on various threads/forums, looks great.

BadGTho · #4 (**permalink**) 08-16-2009, 06:02 AM

i would search for a nice used set or buy new ones... IIRC they are about $75 each new.

if you had a press i'm sure you could replace the bearings, i however would not waste the time given how relatively cheap and easy it would be to get full replacements./