Quote:
Originally Posted by 3798j
The clips aren't supposed to be removed. To take a strut off, you just pry up a bit on the clip with a small flat blade and pull. To install, you just push the socket onto the ball...don't even touch the spring clip.
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From my experience what you said to do isn't easily possible. Very hard to get even a tiny flat bladed screwdriver under the clip and when I did it get it under it didn't want to budge. When it started to move one side of the clip popped completely off and was impossible to get back on without damaging the clip (this same thing happened multiple times, both with the new struts and the OEM one I removed). The BMW factory instructions I found elsewhere on this site were no help either. All of them say what you just did, to gently pry the clip towards the top of the socket. This wasn't doable by my hands. And I am pretty handy. I have done lots of things on my car. As I said, right after trying this I was able to easily swap the HID bulbs so I am not completely inept. It just seems like a really poor design to me. Why can't the metal band be replaced by a plastic piece that pops out and back in (with a positive and foolproof motion unlike the metal strap) when the socket is over the ball? The thing is, I can easily see the paint being damaged if real care isn't taken with both removal and reinstalling the struts as you are 1-2" from the paintwork when working with the struts/clips so I am loathe to turn it over to a repair shop. Heck the original dealer completely gouged my wiper arms swapping the blades when I had them replaced during the warranty period. They ended up ordering new wiper arms to fix that screw up.
This is the video I watched: