Front suspension problem

D

Dreamer

Senior member
So i've been getting a bit of cluncking from the front right hand side for a while and always suspected it was in need of some new ball joints. It was only really noticeable over rough ground going slowly.

Now im thinking i may need a new shock, but wanted some extra opinions.

I took some pictures to show you, i thought maybe the spring had been slightly dislodged but i can now see a ridge/split type of thing where the spring should sit.
Here....DSC_0059.jpg
And here...
DSC_0061.jpg

Heres the good side to compare against...
DSC_0057.jpg
 
the spring in question is in the totally wrong position , the end of the coil should sit in the seat of the strut like the one that looks ok. Two things.

1. you will need to remove the strut compress the spring and rotate it to sit correctly.

2. question is why is it like this ???????
 
I hit a couple of potholes very heavily a while back im guessing this has done it.
Even if the spring was twisted round would this solve the problem? That ridge which is part of the strut (? im not an expert btw) should be turned aswell/or with the spring? Or is it in a bad way?
 
The ridge does form part of the strut and it is where the end of the spring sits, thinking about it are you sure the spring is not snapped ???, follow it round with your fingers and see if you can feel if it's intact, snapped springs are very common, when i fitted eibach springs to my car i found both rears were snapped :wink:
 
Looks to me like it has snapped, seems like there's about two thirds of a coil missing in the top pics.

I had my car serviced last week and had two snapped rear springs. They wanted me to pay for replacements but I mentioned that it seems to be a common problem on the Z4 and shouldn't be happening at 45k miles, they emailed BMW and got an immediate automatic response, replace them for free :) The dealer should of checked this before asking me to pay but atleast it got done.

I hadn't noticed any clunking but it would have been like that since I bought it.
 
Its not in warranty but i might get someone at BMW to look at it. Never keen on going to the dealer but needs must. :(
So do people think the strut/shock might be ok?
I'm all for upgrading the suspension to some billies/eibachs or the like :evil: , but not with the rfts :roll: . I dont have the cash to do suspension aswell as tyres so thats a a little way of.
 
Does the front of the car sit level, if the spring was broken it should sit at an angle.

Delaer migt not replace front spring as good wil if not known problem, rears seem to be an issue, but not heard about fronts.
 
I dont think goodwill would even get a look in. As you say its only the rears that are recorded as a fault.

I have no idea if the car sits lop-sided as im rarely on a level surface. Its going to be marginal if it is.
I need to get it in a garage really. If its just a spring that needs replacing i'll have to sum up costs of a bmw part vs an aftermarket set. Just hope nothing else is bust :(
 
I would agree the goodwill is a long shot, but best of luck. Let us know how you get on.
 
The spring does look shorter than normal. It also looks like it is coiled the wrong way. For the spring to sit correclty in the ridge, it would have to be coiled clockwise down, but right now it looks counter-clockwise.

You may also consider changing the front swaybar end links. The ball joints can wear out over time become loose. I just changed mine out yesterday and it eliminted alot of my pothole clunks.
 
plowy said:
The ridge does form part of the strut and it is where the end of the spring sits, thinking about it are you sure the spring is not snapped ???, follow it round with your fingers and see if you can feel if it's intact, snapped springs are very common, when i fitted eibach springs to my car i found both rears were snapped :wink:
Click to expand...

Whats the ride like with the Eibachs fitted? Contemplating fitting a set myself or a set of the H&R's but someone else on here said they where pretty hard!

J.
 
Well a trip to the local garage and the car was up in the air. The verdict was nothing looked to be wrong. The spring didn't looked snapped or in the wrong place. Im not sure if thats the pictures that makes it look wrong or not.?
We took it for a drive and he agreed that there was a SLIGHT clunk from that side (at least i wasn't imagining it). But, to demonstrate that was us in the car going up and down, up and down repeatedly on a very low curb. You cant feel it at any ther time. He said all the other bits looked fine and if it gets worse maybe changing the ball joints etc would help.
Im going to a BMW indy in a couple of weeks for a service i'll have them look at it aswell to double check.
 
Our 325ti Compact just went in for its brake fluid change, and the (non-BMW franchise BMW expert) garage noticed that one of its rear springs had broken near its lower end. AFAIK, the suspension of the E46 and the Z4 have quite a lot in common.

He said that this and other sundry spring problems were quite common on E46 cars. Fortunately, neither parts nor labour were particularly steep. Because the springs always seem to break in the outermost turn, it does not cause much of a change in ride height, and the geometry of the suspension tends to minimise the lopsidedness it might be expected to cause.

A
 
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