E36 rear shock mount replacement

Symptoms: A thump or creak is audible from the rear suspension when you go over bumps or uneven roads.

Goal: replace the rear shock mounts

Performed on: '97 M3

Applies to: All E36 cars: 318i, 318is, 318ti, 325i, 325is, 328i, 328is, 323i, 323is, M3

Time needed: 30min; this is a very easy task.

Disclaimer: I do not assume any responsibility for the correctness of these instructions or their applicability to the specified models. Use at your own risk! Also, use commons sense, don't do stupid things.

Instructions

• If you have the large rear speakers (earlier E36s) that are almost touching the rear shock towers, remove those speakers. You do that by prying off their cover from inside the car and unscrewing the screws that hold the speakers (again from inside the car).
• Peel off the gray inner lining from the sides of your trunk to uncover the shock mounts. The shock mounts are under the rear speakers. It will take some strength to pull that thing out of the way. Don't worry, you won't tear it - it's very strong. Some cars have two layers of trunk lining, the inner one being of a rubbery material - pull that one too. When uncovered, a shock mount looks like this:
  
• Untighten (but don't unscrew all the way) the two 13mm nuts on the sides of the shock mount. (see picture below) NOTE: the car is still on the ground at this point.
• Hold the top of the shock with a 6mm open wrench and untighten the 16mm nut with an open wrench (but don't unscrew it all the way).
  
• Lift one side of the rear of the car, but don't get the wheel off the ground. Just lift until there's about 5cm (2in) between the top of your tire and the top of the wheel well. Basically enough room for you to slide your arms in there. If you can fit a jack stand under the car at this height, do so; if not, make sure your jack is very secure and know that you're taking a risk. The alternative is to lift the wheels off the ground so you have enough room for a jack stand, and then somehow support one of the rear control arms (or the wheel itself) with a floor jack. The idea is NOT to have the wheel/suspension suspended by the shock (because normally when you lift the car, the shock is the first thing that stops the wheels from sagging farther down; for this job, you want to have something ELSE supporting the wheels).
• Unscrew the 3 nuts all the way and take off the top washer.
• Push the whole shock mount down with your hand. It should stay down and slowly come up by itself. It's not hard to push it down.
• While the shock mount is pushed down, reach from underneath (stick your hands in the wheel well) and take off the shock mount by just lifting it up off of the shock. There is a thin paper gasket on top of it (goes on the underside of the wheel well). If the gasket didn't come off with the shock mount, it must be stuck on the inside of the wheel well. Scrape it off from there.
  
• Put the new shock mount and gasket in place of the old one. There's a washer/spacer below the shock mount as well, make sure you didn't take it off with the old shock mount (if you did, put it back there).
• As the shock extends by itself, guide the shock mount up through the correct holes.
• People recommend that you replace the 3 nuts that hold the shock mount on top when you replace the shock mount. I reused the nuts and don't see a problem with that.
• Put the 3 nuts back on and hand-tighten them. You can also tighten them with wrenches at this stage (see below for torque specs), but I find it easier to do that when the car is not raised.
• Lower the car back to the ground
• If you haven't tightened the 3 nuts, tighten them now. Bentley says that the torque for the top one is 14 Nm (10 ft-lb) and the two side ones are 24 Nm (17 ft-lb).
• Repeat the procedure on the other side of the car.
• Put the trunk lining back as it was. This can be a little annoying as it's hard to tuck it back the way it was, but with some patience, it will work.
• Go take a drive on a bumpy road and enjoy the silence of your rear suspension :)

Additional info: If you want better shock mounts, UUC recommends getting E46 shock mounts (which fit the E36), combined with Z3 reinforcement plates on top for additional support (see this page). Or just get the Ground Control or Rogue Engineering performance shock mounts which come with reinforcement plates.

This is how my old shock mount looked: (notice the cracks around the midle of the bushing)