Standard spring and brakes alternatives?

[DevonPaul]

At the service (main dealer) on the wife's Z4MC last week a broken spring was reported.

They provided a price for replacement, but I can see a set of lowering ones for the same price as a pair of BMW ones. What I haven't been able to find with my limited searching skills are aftermarket standard height springs. She has a lot of speed ramps on the way to work and ground clearance is tight getting on and off the drive (2-up it can grind on the crest as we pull out) so I'm a bit concerned about lowering it.

I was also informed over the phone that there was a slight weep from one of the rear callipers. Upon collecting the car the quote turned out to be about £1300 for new callipers, discs, pads, and handbrake shoes! It is going for a second opinion to an independent next week as 37000 miles seems low for wearing out the rears when the fronts are still OK, and nothing was mentioned at the Insp2 4000 miles earlier.

Looking around there are calliper rebuild places that are substantially cheaper then the £250 or so per side for new ones. Has anyone used any of these places and got any they recommend or avoid?

Cheers

Paul

 

[mmm-five]

Is that for just rears or for all 4 wheels?

Mine's on 152,000 miles and has had 1 front calliper stick (and replaced under warranty). It's gone through plenty of discs & pads though as it's driven quickly, frequently, on road & track!

BMW dealers do recommend markscustomers replace everything when something 'associated' has failed - mine needed 2 new front discs, pads & callipers when I had a sticky calliper, but strangely changed to 'just a calliper & pads' when they were told it was under warranty - so in reality, your indy might just get the calliper rebuilt and refit everything else.

If you want to send them away yourself, so that the pair are rebuilt, then Big Red has been recommended frequently on here.

Rear discs (Pagid) can be had for about £130 each from EuroCarParts (if you remember to use their ever-changing, variable discount code, that goes along with their ever-variable pricing), or from CarParts4Less (EuroCarParts sister company without the variable discounts/prices).

 

[DevonPaul]

Thanks for the suggestion.

As it happens we went to a local(ish) Indy last week for a second opinion. Once up on the ramp neither of us could see any weep from the callipers, and they said the brakes were fine with half worn pads and as expected after under 40k, just a bit of surface rust from lack of use.

2 coil springs, one strip and clean of the handbrake system, one MOT, and a bill 4 figures less than the main dealer quote for the work needed.

Paul