How to Replace Front Steering Rack Boot 1997-2006 BMW 325Xi

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to replace the steering rack boots in this 2001 BMW 225 XI. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

All right, I want to loosen up these lug bolts. I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. Loosen them up. Now, I'm going to raise and support the vehicle. We're using a two post lift. If you're doing this at your house, you can use a jack and jack stands.

Now, we'll take these lug bolts out. Just use the socket to help you get them out. I'm going to just hold the wheel with my other hand so it doesn't fall. Take the last one out. Then I can grab the wheel and slide it off.

First thing I want to do is loosen up this jam nut right here. Just going to spray some rust penetrant on there and let that soak for a little bit. This thing's pretty rusty, so let that soak. Then I'm going to take a 15/16th wrench. You could also take a 24 millimeter wrench. Loosen this up.

All right, that wasn't too bad. Give it a couple turns. Next thing, I'm going to take this outer tie rod nut off. I'm going to use an 18 millimeter wrench. You can use a socket and ratchet or even a socket and an air gun just to loosen this up. Normally, they're not too tight. So, I switched to a ratchet wrench, makes it a little easier and just make sure the stud isn't spinning. If the stud starts spinning, then you can use a hex bit to hold the stud from spinning. Or even if you are able to put a jack underneath here and just put a little bit of pressure, sometimes that helps. Take that nut off.

So, to separate the outer tie rod, I'm just going to use this front end tool. You can use something like this, or you can use ... A couple of the methods you could do, taking a hammer and trying to tap it on the top of it. You just got to be careful you don't mushroom the end over, otherwise it's not going to go back in unless you're replacing it. Then it's not going to matter.

So, I'll just take this tool. I'll just separate this. All I got to do is tighten it up. What I'm basically doing is pushing the stud down with the tool.

And there we go. Separated. So, make sure you don't stand too close when you're doing that, and wear safety glasses. Then I can separate that.

So, I want to loosen up the inner tie rod or separate the outer tie rod from the inner tie rod. This is pretty rusty. So, what I'm going to do is just slide the outer tie rod back in and then just put the nut on loosely no need to tighten that down or anything. And I'm going to try to loosen this up. I'm going to use some locking pliers to see if I can get this to spin.

If you're doing this, try not to get too close to the threads where the nut is. I'm going to try to loosen this nut up a little more.

All right, so that's moving. Then we just need this little .... There's like a little sleeve on here. So, just move that out a little bit.

All right, so I'm using some bigger locking pliers or like a pipe wrench. You can use a big pipe wrench. Just loosen this up this way, and it's a good idea to mark something on the inner tire rod so you know how many turns you twist this out. So, I've already gone one turn.

All right. It's getting looser. So, it's been about five turns. What I'm going to do is just use some locking pliers. Lock this right here. Take the other tie rod end off. Use some other pliers. Try to take this off this way. You just want to count how many times can you go around. That's six turns. Eight, 16, 17, 18, 19.

So, 19 turns to take it off. So, when you put the new one on or if you're reusing the old one, you want to put it on 19 turns.

Now, to get this boot off, I am going to have to take this nut off, so I am going to use an air gun. It's going to make it a lot easier. I'm going to use a 24 millimeter socket or a 15/16th socket. Leave these locking pliers on here and just take it off.

There we go. Got the nut off. We want to take this clip off the old boot. You can take a straight blade screwdriver ... Actually, this one's a little too thick. Take a pocket screwdriver. To start, get underneath here. Try not to stab yourself. We're not going to reuse this clip, so we can break it. You can even cut it off for the cutting wheel if you want. It's just going to smoke a lot because of the rubber. Loosen this up.

Sometimes you can be successful and take these clips off and reuse them. I've done it a couple of times, but it's really not that easy. So, just better off replacing it. Should be able to slide this off. Pull that clip off.

Now, if your boot's not ripped, you're going to have to pull the inside clip, but this one's ripped, so I'll just slide the boot off first, and then same with the other clip. Just get in there with a straight blade screwdriver or even some cutting device. You can cut it off. Just trying to twist it to loosen it up. There we go. And slide the boot off. There's the broken clip. It's the back half of the boot.

Here's the old part. Here's the new steering boot from 1AAuto.com. It has a similar shape to the original, slightly different design. It comes with new clamps. Get yours at 1AAuto.Com, and you'll be ready to rock and roll.

So, these boots come with these special clips, and you need this special tool to be able to pinch this clip. Basically, when you squeeze this, it's going to squeeze it in and push it down at the same time.

Now, because this is an all wheel drive car, you don't have any room to get this tool in there. We could take the rack out and try to get this tool in there, or we could even take some side cutters that are pretty dull and try to pinch this. But if that's not going to work for you, what you can do ... It's not the best, but it will work. You can take a wire tie and just put the wire tie on the inside like this. Just slide that boot over like that. So, the bigger end is going to go towards the rack. Slide that over the steering rack. Make sure the wire tie is not too tight. There's just not a lot of room in here because it's all wheel drive.

Okay. With that all the way around, you can take the wire tie. I'll just take some side cutters and just try to pull it tight without cutting it first. Just get it as tight as you can get it. Make sure it goes all the way around the boot. You can even twist it a little bit. Once that's pretty tight, you can even twist the boot, knowing that the boot doesn't twist, then it's tight enough, and then I'll just cut the excess off. There.

Now, I want to slide this piece on. You can take a little lubrication and just move this up a little bit. Slide it in there to make installing it a little easier. I'm just basically using the threads as my advantage and just twisting it on. It's going to rotate it on, and then I just have to push it on to this section.

So, I got to pass the threaded section. I'm just going to push it over here. So, that's good right in that location. I'll slide the boot over this. That looks good.

Now, I can show you how this tool actually works. Just take it, and everything's lined up, and you squeeze it. It tightens it up, pushes it in. Now, it's nice and tight.

I am going going to use a little bit of anti-seize on this tie rod. It was difficult coming out, so just put a little bit on, not too much. It'll just make it easier to install and also if I have to remove it ever again, then it'll make it easier to remove.

Put the nut on. Take this little cup. This is what squeezes the tie rod together to make sure it's tight so it doesn't move. Slide that on, and we're going to count 19 times. One, two, three, 18, 19 okay. So, that's where it was when we took it off. Wipe] some of this away. Then we'll take this end, slide this back into the knuckle. Take the nut and reinstall the nut.

Now, I'm going to tighten up this nut. I'm just going to use an 18 millimeter wrench, and as you can see the stud is spinning. So, I'll take a five millimeter hex key and go right in the top of the stud. That's going to prevent it from spinning as I tighten this up. Snug that up a little bit.

Then if you want to use a torque wrench, you can torque this nut to 48 foot pounds. It's kind of hard to get a torque wrench in this small location. So, I'm just going to use an 18 millimeter wrench and just tighten it up. That's good. And then take a 15/16 to tighten up this jam nut. If you can get a torque wrench on this, if you have a crows foot, you can tighten this to 33 foot pounds. All right, that's good. Take off my locking pliers.

So, whenever you're replacing any of these steering components, it's a good idea to go to a shop after you're done doing the job and have the vehicle aligned. Otherwise, you can have premature tire wear.

Now, I'm going to install the wheel. Line it up with the lug holes, and I'll hold the wheel on. Grab a socket with my lug bolt, get that started.

All right, now I can lower the vehicle and torque the lug nuts.

Now, I'm going to use a 17 millimeter socket and this torque wrench that we sell at 1AAuto.com. I'm going to torque these lug bolts to 95 foot pounds in a star pattern so that it torques the wheel down evenly. Just go around again.

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