I had a little run in with a retaining wall (backing into my driveway, and the tire caught the edge of the wall), which left the suspension on the rear passenger side out of whack. I was taking a look today, and took the rear spring perch off and saw that the part of the subframe where the toe bolt attaches is ripped.

I've sourced a replacement subframe, and am contemplating doing the work myself. Has anyone here done a rear subframe replacement before? Any words of advice?

 

Borked? Hahaha.

 

I can't find the definition for borked online it must be a new word.

 

Do you have access to air tools? I would say that alone would make the job much, much easier and therefore doable at home. I've never dropped the subframe, but just going by how some of the other underbody bolts are tightened from the factory, they will probably be a bear to release using just some PB and a breaker bar.

Just to give you an idea:
http://www.*********.com/w/images/d/...ension_003.jpg

(replace the *** with 350z, dash, tech to see the image)

You're obviously going to need to disconnect the propeller shaft, driveshafts, and remove the center pumpkin. Not sure off the top of my head if there are any hard lines you need to worry about. Also, I know the rear differential is doable weight-wise, and I'm sure the rear subframe assy is the same since it's aluminum (heavy, but manageable without the need for a lift/dolly).

 

OP make sure you have a 32mm deep socket for the axle nut. Rear subframe swaps on this car are "interesting".

 

borked - first hit on Google. Seemed like a good word to describe my car.

I don't own air tools yet, but it's been on the "to buy" list. I have a few friends w/ tools, so I can borrow what I need -- if I don't just go ahead and buy. I've got the service manual, and have been looking over what all's involved.

Any particularly nasty things to watch out for? I figure there will be lots of stubborn bolts. Other than that, it seems like it's just a *lot* of simple steps of unbolting things, and then bolting it all back together. I'm guessing a weekend to get it all taken apart, and another weekend to put it back together with the new subframe. Does that sound reasonable?

I don't have a 32mm deep socket yet. I'm going through the manual and seeing what tools I need that I don't currently own.

 

You can do it in a full day if you wanted to but if you have that much time then you should not have a problem.

A compressor, air tools, deep impact sockets, a lift or a creeper, if you are doing it on jack stands then maybe a tranny jack for the rear pumpkin if you are working alone or even a regular jack if you are creative enough, PB Blaster and patience. The service manual is pretty self explanatory. You are also going to want a torque wrench, deep sockets and grease for when you are putting everything back together.

 

I finished the project up on Sunday! In all I spent 4 weekends working on it, but that was nowhere near 4 weekends of solid work. 2 weekends to get it apart -- the first (well, a few hours) was spent wrestling with the exhaust. The next weekend I spent a few hours taking everything else out (half axles, drive shaft, pumpkin, disconnect parking brake, calipers, swaybar, stays, subframe), and transferred the suspension parts to the new subframe.

I followed the DIY pumpkin swap article from the DIY section for disassembly, and then jumped to the service manual for removing the remaining things.



The following weekend I set out to replace the nuts on the suspension (the ones the service manual says to replace on disassembly), and I discovered that the dealership had ordered the wrong nuts. So that weekend was pretty much a waste.



I took off of work early last Thursday, when the new nuts arrived, and was able to get the nuts replaced and torqued correctly. I was also able to get the subframe back up in the car.



I ended up buying a transmission jack adapter, for about $40 from Amazon. Turns out neither of my jacks would work, so I also bought a jack from Advance Auto. It's a torrin trolley jack for SUVs. It lifts the car way higher than either of my craftsman jacks. I also ended up picking up a new set of jackstands, because the ones I had just wouldn't hold the car up high enough.



In all, it was a really rewarding project. My girlfriend helped out during disassembly. It was great seeing her under the car with the impact wrench taking a half-axle out!

I did replace the brake pads too, since I had the pads removed anyways. I ordered them from Z1, and they showed up really quickly. Thanks Kwame!

 

I hate when stuff gets Borked.

 

I'm glad to see it all worked out. Congrats and be more careful next time

 

Very nice, I don't think I can or even want to swap my own subframe. Props!

 

Next time I have medication that says not to drive while on the meds, I'm going to listen... What a pain in the ***. Also, I've taken a sledgehammer to 1 of the 2 retaining walls, so it's much easier getting in and out now. The other wall will be coming out in the not to distant future.

Thanks! It just took reading through the service manual a few times. If you break each step down, it really comes down to "remove nut/bolt" or "torque nut/bolt". I'm sure you can do that. You just do that a lot of times. There are a handful of steps that aren't that, but they're pretty much using the jack to lower/raise the pumpkin & subframe, or disconnect the breather hose, or parking brake line (it's similar to disconnecting the cable on a bicycle's brakes). The rusty nuts on the exhaust were a pain, not going to lie about that. PB Blaster is your friend.

Kwame's right, just be careful and you won't have to worry about swapping your subframe.

 

Congrats. Good work. Glad to see some people on here aren't afraid to tackle a big project.