[VTMike]

Interested in hearing from folks that have done this job...

Grew up with a dad that was a Ford Master Tech, so been around tools/shops my whole life. I do some work, but defer more complex work to shops.

Broken rear spring diagnosed and parts are on their way.
Trying to decide whether to do this myself or pay to get it done.

My points of hesitation include:
1. Removing the current strut. I see some suggest loosening a bolt to create space (link) while others suggest to weight the wheel/hub to get clearance (link).
I'm not sure whether loosening the bolt would necessitate a need for alignment or whether the weighting is too shade-tree in approach...
2. Per my dad, I have a healthy fear of the power of those springs. I did this job on my E46, but that was easy where the weight/length allowed me to simply remove the spring. For this one, I'm anticipating that I'd borrow a spring compression tool from a parts store and work with that. Is this challenging? One of the videos that I watched talked about a challenge in getting the spring correctly located and then a challenge in lining up the strut mount...

It seems like this would be pretty straight-forward, but I'm clearly hesitating. My wife says to have a shop do it and free up some of my time...

I'd love to hear from some of you.

[workandfish]

I can't help you with the opinion of someone who as already done it - I am researching the same job on my wife's 2011. Self/Dad taught as well, but my Dad was no master tech, just learned out of necessity. As far as the job itself, youtube videos are pretty helpful. I have spring compressors from years of work on other vehicles and definitely recommend against doing any job like this without at least borrowing the spring compressor tool from your local parts store. Agree it looks pretty straightforward. Always a good idea to take your time and take pictures as you go to make sure all gets put back the way it was. Good luck with yours. Let us know how it goes.

[OrcaPod]

i was in the same shoes last year and decided to do it myself.
That was my most time consuming car repair so far as all four springs were broken (springs' end coils were rusted and broken off. it seems like a common issue on F10s). car is a 2011 BMW F10 528i RWD with 170K km mileage at the point of repairs. now at 176K km (and car drives like brand new). I replaced shocks/springs, spring pads/dampeners etc (pretty much everything related to struts' assembly) Sourced parts from FCPEuro and RockAuto and had them shipped over to Toronto, Canada.
Few notes:
- I didn't have to remove any control arms etc (not sure how it would work on your Xdrive car though and if you have an M-sport suspension or not. mIne has a basic suspension.
- Main bottom strut bolts were a pita to remove (you'll either need to lift car a bit higher to have a leverage and use some long extensions or have a powerful small enough impact driver to fit in (latter worked in my case)
- Make sure you have a good spring compressor (or two). I used actually two, a second smaller one as a backup to compress springs while assembling the struts.
- Rear springs were easier to compress. I had some issues compressing the front ones and had to attempt it several times. I guess the front ones are much stiffer due to engine weight.
- I just used youtube video directions on how to align springs/shocks/ spring pads. ( I know that a proper way is to use some laser tools but eyeballing was sufficient enough to assemble so struts can all fit nicely).- When removing rears, I had to detach/move wheel liners a bit and then used a car jack with some wooden planks inside of the wheel arch to move the wheel/hug assembly an inch or 2 down so I could remove the strut assembly. Looking back at it now, I would now probably just disconnect some control arms etc as it would be faster to remove/install struts.

- After everything was installed the car was noticeably higher until everything settled down. I also did wheel alignment after i drove around 1000km as i want to suspension to settle first.

One more note: perhaps replace both rears (i suspect if one is broken then another one is on the verge)
I'm sure you can handle it especially if you already have some experience and help from your dad. (I'm self-taught on youtube vids )

[VTMike]

Had the work done for me at a nearby independent shop.
Labor rate was reasonable and he quoted 3.3 to 4 hours, depending on how it went (shop rate was 3.3 without the springs).

My wife stopped to pay the bill as I wasn't able to get out of work on time. Tech told her that it was a good thing I DIDN'T do the work on my own, that turning to line things up was tough....and that having the lift was super-helpful.

This is consistent with some of what I had watched/read....the spring pads need to line up and then you have to, obviously, line up the shock bottom. I didn't talk with the tech but I think that's what he was referring to.

I had some remorse in NOT doing the work, but I'm glad it's done (and I'd like to think that I've done my part to help the local economy).