How to Replace Rear Sway Bar 2004-13 BMW 325 Xi

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you to replace the rear sway bar on this 2001 BMW 325XI. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

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. With the vehicle raised up in the back, I'm going to take a 13mm socket extension in a ratchet. There's two nuts right here that are attached to the links, one here and one here. I'm going to take both of those nuts out. So this nut on this side is very close the drive to one of the axle shafts, so you're not going to be able to use the deep socket. You're going to have to use the shallow socket on that one.

So, the bolt was spinning up top, so I have to use a 17mm socket in a ratchet up top so that I can hold the bolt from spinning while I loosen up the nut underneath. I'm going to use an air ratchet to loosen up the nut underneath. It'll make it a little easier. We sell these air ratchets at 1AAuto.com. If you don't have an air ratchet, you can just use a regular ratchet. Take that nut off and then you're going to do the same for the other one, just move the 17mm socket over to the other side and loosen up this nut. I'll take that nut off. This is loose. Now what I'm going to do is do the same with the other side, loosen up the other two bolts on the driver's side.

So we took these bolts out on both sides for links for that bracket right there. Next, we're going to take these nuts out for the sway bar bushings. This one there and then one up here above the exhaust. If the nuts are rusty, make sure you spray some rust penetrant. Gonna take a 13mm socket in a ratchet, get that on, loosen these up. All right. So the bolt is spinning on the other side, so I'm going to use a 13mm socket in a ratchet on the other side, hold the bolt while I take the nut off. All right, now I can pull that nut out and the bolt.

Alright, I want a little bit more room to take this bushing, the mount off of that. I don't have a lot of room in there because of the exhaust, so I'm going to take a pry bar, just slide this bushing, this exhaust mount, off right here. And there's another exhaust mount over here. Slide that off. Slides off. All right, that gave me a little more room. So I can push it to the side a little bit. Get in here.

Alright, from the front of this, I'm just going to use the 13mm socket in the ratchet. I'm just using the pry bar to help guide me onto the nut. Loosen this up. And then I'm going to put another socket and ratchet on the other side. All right, finally got that nut out and the bolt out. Ends are pretty rusty, so I'm just going to take a pry bar, pry this out. Pry it back here, pry it back over here. All right, so that's off of there. Just want to try to get this past the axle. Just like that, drive axle. And then I can twist this side. And twist it right up. And there you go, there's the rear sway bar.

Take the bar from this position, we're going to go over the exhaust. Slide this over. Just like that. And then the bar's going to be in that location. I'm going to have to... and that like that. Get that lined up like that. Just going to rotate these. There's these little slots, these little tabs are going to go in those slots just like that. There we go. Get that lined up like that. All right, its looking pretty good.

Before I put the bolts in where the bushings are, I'm going to take the bolts and at least get the links lined up in position. If the bolts fell off from up top, put those back in. And then take the nuts... Get the nuts started. I'm going to do that with all four of these, but I'm not going to tighten those up yet until I get the bushings on. The bolts for the bushings. And I'll do the same to the other side.

Okay with all those bolts in just loose, then I'm going to take this bolt right here for the bushing, line this up. I'm just going to use a pry bar to try to pry that back into position. Or you can use some large pliers and try to squeeze it. Get that where it needs to be. Get this bolt started. Then you're going to get the nut on the back side. Do that on both sides. I'm going to use a 13mm wrench and a 13mm socket and a ratchet, tighten these up. Do the same for the other side.

From the topside, I'm going to take a 17mm socket extension and ratchet. Just going to hold the bolt from up top. And then take a 13mm socket extension and a ratchet, tighten the nuts up from underneath. Do the same on both sides. If you had to disconnect the vacuum for this exhaust valve right here, you're going to reattach that, and then there's these mounts. Slide the mounts in position. If you have to, you can use a little soapy water. It's a good idea not to use any type of lubricant, because you don't really want them to slip out by accident. The soapy water will evaporate. Slide that on. And slide the other one on.

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