Squeaky front suspension ///M coupe

tomscott

tomscott

Elite
 Manchester
Hey guys,

I have a squeak at the drivers side front suspension. It is only the front and it only seems to happen if I hit sharper bumps in the road like a speed bump and the occasional hidden pothole. I have H&R springs and they look fine had the wheels off etc I checked that there was no play what so ever in the bushes everything is planted. Car drives perfectly, no pull straight as an arrow. You can only hear it with the window down and doesnt make the noise if I press the front right strut down to test the recoil. It also flew through its MOT no play anywhere.

So I decided to take it to BMW just before Christmas and the technician had to take the car out on 3 drives to here to noise.. which sounds like BS to me. On the 3rd he 'finally' heard it (although to me quite noticeable), so brought it back and they took the wheel off tested all the bushes and suspension components and said it was fine. He said at some point the springs have been switched for 3rd party spring AKA not BMW and when it is compressed its making a slight squeak, then assured me everything was fine and not to worry about it, but that was the culprit. But its only the front right.

Just spent 3 days with the car up on the ramps refurbing my callipers, maybe some remember but I painted them orange then ended up with a sticky calliper so had 3 orange one black. So as it was bank holiday I decided to not only make the others better but make them all the same colour. Finished, put the CSLs on, took it off the stands no problems, we had that awesome weather yesterday so had both the windows down and went for a drive and hearing this bloody squeak!! Its annoying.

So really I wanted to know if any of you guys have any ideas? The only other thing maybe worth noting is that I have a strut brace which was on the car when I bought it. Other than that im stumped.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :thumbsup:
 
Tom,

I know that you've had your front suspension dismantled at some point because you've got H&R springs, and so your front dampers have been removed. If you've re-used the bolts, once they've been undone, they need threadlok if they're reused. Part 3 in the diagram below, would be my "Suspect No1": I would either replace them with new, or remove them and re-torque them with threadlok.

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Make sure that the three top mount bolts are properly torqued, and same for the bolts holding the diagonal braces to the firewall and suspension towers.

Also check the torque of the bolts on the drop links. Failing drop links can be noisy.
 
Thanks exdos I was going to PM you but I am a complete noob when it comes to suspension. Do you know what torque they should be? They were done before I bought the car, so I dont know a lot about it.

The noise is like a creek/squeak is that a sign of warn drop links? Would you expect warn drop links at 55k? What about lubricating drop links I've read that can reduce it? and how would I go about doing it? Are the drop links apart of the anti roll bars? and the bushes? Ive read the Z4M is prone to anti roll bar bushes going but I asked them to look at them and as said there doesn't seem to be play.

Goes to show BMW techs dont have a clue... and weren't willing to help. My car is under warranty still and really I dont know what im doing and dont want to mess around with it. As soon as they said the springs weren't OEM that was end of discussion although I bought the car from BMW as AUC and specifically asked if the car had been lowered the answer they came back with was no. Although as soon as I whipped off the wheels and the springs have H&R written all over them. I like the drop and suspension feel just dont really know what to do about sorting it out.

Sorry for all the questions and vagueness.
 
Tom, the two bolts on the bottom of the dampers should be torqued to 81Nm and the two bolts on each end of the drop links should be 78Nm.

You do get a creaking/squeak from both loose bolts on the bottom of the dampers and from the drop links. If you try putting threadlok on the damper bolts (or fitting new ones, Part Number 31 31 1 136 465), you should be able to eliminate that as your first step. If that doesn't work, try retightening the front drop link. Unless you are familiar with the BMW front drop links, undoing the bolts will probably catch you out, especially since you say that you're not mechanically minded. There's a flat head on the captive bolt at each end of the drop link behind the rubber covers that needs to be held with a thin spanner whilst you undo the nut. These flat heads need to be aligned vertically for the drop links to operate properly. Drop links can fail at around your mileage and they're cheap enough to replace see: http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E86/Coupe/Europe/Z4_M3.2-S54/browse/front_axle/stabilizer_front/

If you were local to me, I'd do it for you, it's such an easy job. It might be easiest to get a good local Indy to do this for you. Just make sure that you adjust just one thing at a time, so that you can eliminate all the potentials individually.

Keep me posted with how it goes. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks a lot Exdos really helpful as usual!

With being in Cumbria there are no indys :( nearest ones are 70-100 miles away so thats why I unfortunately rely on BMW. I will give it a go and get back.

Thanks again
 
Do you know any other petrolheads in your vicinity who are happy to dabble with spanners? If so, offer a few beers to someone who you trust to give you a hand.
 
Hi, I've recently noticed the same issue as the OP when I go over speed bumps. I've recently had my drop links changed (within the last 6 months). Could it be that the mechanic didn't tighten them to the correct torque? Could there be any other reason?
 
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