[sredwine]

Does anybody have the torque specs on the front sway bar bolts? Are these one time use only bolts? They look aluminum, but the heads will stick to my magnetic parts tray. I just changed my water pump, thermostat and coolant, and had to take the front sway bar mounts off to pivot it down to reach the pump. I'm leery of overtightening these, want to know if I should just replace them. I've watched several YouTube videos about this procedure and no one mentions the bolts. When is Robert Bentley going to publish a manual on these cars? TIS at $250 a month sucks!

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by sredwine

Does anybody have the torque specs on the front sway bar bolts? Are these one time use only bolts? They look aluminum, but the heads will stick to my magnetic parts tray. I just changed my water pump, thermostat and coolant, and had to take the front sway bar mounts off to pivot it down to reach the pump. I'm leery of overtightening these, want to know if I should just replace them. I've watched several YouTube videos about this procedure and no one mentions the bolts. When is Robert Bentley going to publish a manual on these cars? TIS at $250 a month sucks!

For my 535i X-Drive

The bracket bolts call to be renewed but are not torque-to-yield : simple 78 ft-lb

The end link nuts call to be renewed and are TTY: 33 ft-lb + 45*

I have reused both before a couple of times, but not more. If the bracket bolts were TTY I would not even reuse them once.

[sredwine]

Thanks Surly73! My observation is that your posts are among the most intelligent and to-the-point on this forum. Do you know why these (apparently) aluminum bolts stick to my magnetic parts tray? Could they have put a steel core in the head for just that reason?

Stan

[Surly73]

I don't think either any of those fasteners are aluminum. There is quite a bit of surface rust on the heads of my bracket bolts and they are awfully weighty to be aluminum. I had an end link nut seize onto the bolt due to corrosion too and had to cut it off just last weekend. I'm a little surprised to see TTY on a steel fastener, and the TIS instructions to replace almost everything after each use on the F series has been a pain in my backside since I started turning wrenches on this car.

If you're working on this, pay attention to the fact that the two bracket bolts are different lengths. There's also a plate under the bushing for which there is only one correct orientation.

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by sredwine

Thanks Surly73! My observation is that your posts are among the most intelligent and to-the-point on this forum. Do you know why these (apparently) aluminum bolts stick to my magnetic parts tray? Could they have put a steel core in the head for just that reason?

Stan

The bolts are steel, unsure where you're finding information stating that they are aluminum. The dead give-away is that they're self-tapping bolts - aluminum would never be able to do that at that fastener size.