Front coil shape on Sports Suspension

[z4beth]

My well loved z4 has been in the local garage for over 2 weeks now after it failed its MOT due to a cracked front coil spring. The garage has had two replacement springs delivered and each time it has been the wrong one.

The car is a 2004 3.0i SE with Sports Suspension (S704A).

The first one sent to them was for car with standard suspension and didn't fit. The second was from a specialist supplier and although it would have fitted, they reckoned it would have lowered the ride even more than currently (it has the standard Sports Suspension lower ride atm) and I don't really want that.

I went to the garage today and we browser the available parts together. BMW say the part is not available (endless back order) but have given us the part number: 3133676022

But when we looked at an equivalent part that matched the part number, eg: https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/suplex/8675144 then they didn't think the fitment looked right. The garage is saying that the correct springs have an end coil that goes "flat" on it's final half.. (bearing mind I have not seen the actual spring) they drew me a diagram which I have tried to replicate attached ..

Does this shape of spring look familiar to anyone and has anyone ordered the part aboe (or equiv) and can confirm that this is the correct one.

The car is a manual, so everything says to me that this should be the correct one but the garage says it just does not look like it in the picture (the garage in question is not a z4 specialist but they are pretty good normally) so I wanted to check before I went back in and argued the case lol

Thank you for any help ...

 

[Rockhopper]

You have Msport suspension. If you go the Suplex spring web site and pick one that says “for cars with sports suspension” then you’ll be good.
It’s possible the springs you already have fitted are the wrong ones.
If you want to raise the car by 15mm you can fit standard springs and they will fit.
Pictures on internet parts suppliers are not always of the actual part you will receive.
It’s worth using aVIN checker to see what you car was actually delivered with.

 

[E86]

Hello, have a look at this thread, it suggests the Suplex part you mention is correct...

 

[z4beth]

You have Msport suspension. If you go the Suplex spring web site and pick one that says “for cars with sports suspension” then you’ll be good

Thank you .... maybe it's me (probably is lol) but I am still a bit confused .. the parts site list two types .. "for vehicles with sports suspension" and "for vehicles with M-Technology", is that literally the same thing in this case (but just different manufacturer's ways of describing it)?

 

[z4beth]

Hello, have a look at this thread, it suggests the Suplex part you mention is correct...

Thank you for the link. Yes this seems to be the same thing ... I'm going to take these links and go back into the garage this morning and try to convince them to order those even though the pic looks different from what they are seeing ...... lol

 

[bigwinn]

Morning

I did my front struts a few weeks back

I can confirm (I’m sure mine has sports suspension as it’s lower than the 2.2) that the springs do indeed look a bit like your drawing

A pronounced v toward the end of the lowest coil

 

[bigwinn]

Interestingly my car on real oem gives no spring catalogue numbers

On autodoc these are showing

 

[enuff_zed]

Swapped the front struts on wifey's 2.5i last weekend. I was surprised to see that whilst the top end of the springs are circular, the bottom seems to follow a kind of squashed triangle shape on the strut mount. All goes together fine but if I'd not just taken them off the car I would have doubted they were the correct ones tbh.

 

[E86]

There's a description of the various spring forms at the front of the Suplex catalogue.

 

[Rockhopper]

You have Msport suspension. If you go the Suplex spring web site and pick one that says “for cars with sports suspension” then you’ll be good

Thank you .... maybe it's me (probably is lol) but I am still a bit confused .. the parts site list two types .. "for vehicles with sports suspension" and "for vehicles with M-Technology", is that literally the same thing in this case (but just different manufacturer's ways of describing it)?

You have sports suspension like i said. Cars with M technology are the M cars.

 

[z4beth]

Thank you everyone - especially those who managed to decipher my diagram lol .. I have now ordered Suplex 06248 (x2) and hopefully they will be with me by the end of next week to drop into the garage for fitting.

tbf this is the first issue of any kind my z has given me, I have had it 5 years , got it at 80k miles and it now has 125k miles, and I literally use it as a daily driver for short drives and for longer drives when I am feeling like a proper drive. I still love the shape and the look and it still makes me smile

 

[z4beth]

You have sports suspension like i said. Cars with M technology are the M cars.

Perfect -thank you

 

[z4beth]

Swapped the front struts on wifey's 2.5i last weekend. I was surprised to see that whilst the top end of the springs are circular, the bottom seems to follow a kind of squashed triangle shape on the strut mount. All goes together fine but if I'd not just taken them off the car I would have doubted they were the correct ones tbh.

Yes I think i'm probably going to have to convince the garage these are the right ones when I take them in lol

 

[enuff_zed]

Swapped the front struts on wifey's 2.5i last weekend. I was surprised to see that whilst the top end of the springs are circular, the bottom seems to follow a kind of squashed triangle shape on the strut mount. All goes together fine but if I'd not just taken them off the car I would have doubted they were the correct ones tbh.

Yes I think i'm probably going to have to convince the garage these are the right ones when I take them in lol

Are they not simply comparing them with the old ones?