Strut rubber cracked
- Thread starter TIMMOS29
- Start date
You might struggle to find springs, i had a heck of a job.
Bottom pinch bolt - soak in plus gas daily for a week before you try and get them out. Buy new ones to go back in. Be prepared for them to break and then you'll have to find a new hub.
Drop links - i had to cut mine off with a grinder even though it was less than four years old.
Don't break the headlight levelling motor but if you do its £15 for a new one....ask me how I know.....
An impact gun makes sorting the top nut out easy.
And obviously you'll need a decent trolley jack, at the very least you'll need to to compress the suspension enough to get the drop link back in.
Bottom pinch bolt - soak in plus gas daily for a week before you try and get them out. Buy new ones to go back in. Be prepared for them to break and then you'll have to find a new hub.
Drop links - i had to cut mine off with a grinder even though it was less than four years old.
Don't break the headlight levelling motor but if you do its £15 for a new one....ask me how I know.....
An impact gun makes sorting the top nut out easy.
And obviously you'll need a decent trolley jack, at the very least you'll need to to compress the suspension enough to get the drop link back in.
TIMMOS29
Member
Rockhopper said:
Cheers
I hace ordered everything above apart from the shock bodies...Not the budget yet to do that and if i need to do that next year nevermind, to be fair the springs seem to be in good nick although i cant tell if they are compressed too much. My Z4 has done 80000 miles and is from 2006. It has M sport suspension on it.
Attleborough, Norfolk
Assuming they are the original dampers on 80k then they won't be doing anything anymore. Doing all that work and refitting the old ones is (to be completely honest) a bit daft.TIMMOS29 said:
To compress a gas shock i usually put the end against a wall and lean on it. As soon as I relax it pops straight back out. I'm betting yours can be pushed in with one finger and will never venture out again.
Assuming they have never been changed they would have been knackered 40,000 miles ago! Look for Bilstein B4 if you want close to OEM and the only supplier for Msport springs I found was AutoDOC in Germany.
TIMMOS29
Member
Thanks for all the help guys ! I have spent most of the afternoon trying to source parts and some suppliers contradict each other …..a real pain.Rockhopper said:
So I have ordered as you gurus have told me
Top mounts
Drop links
Protection kit
Pinch bolts ill get from bmw direct as cant to get one supplier to supply me with the correct part.
Ill order some bilsteins b4s if you reckon they are ok for the m sports suspension package.
Are springs a definite? but if i cant find any can i use the old’ones?
I have B4's on my Msport 3.0i and they are fine! If you go for springs you need to find some that are 270mm long which as far as i can tell is what Msport were (no longer available from BMW though). My advise is the same as the others, do the lot now as you'll only have to do it again a few months down the line when a spring breaks. See my other thread for pics of my broken one.
Sachs are OE, but Bilstein B4 are very much the same.TIMMOS29 said:
Sachs used to make a Sport damper which was slightly shorter, but I believe those are only now available from BMW at vastly inflated prices. The standard length one is perfectly good to use, and is the same length as the B4 anyway.
I usually give the springs a good inspection and if there is no damage, significant corrosion or obvious weakness I re-use them. Over 100k I tend to fit new.
Did you mention bump stops? Get the shorter ones for the sports set up.
TIMMOS29
Member
enuff_zed said:
Has anyone got ref numbers for the b4s? Ive looked but again i check and check and now ive got on the parts page for a toyota supra !!
To be honest i only drive the car when it’s sunny and dry so im not looking for racing lines to the shops. So the question is can i just use the standard shocks on the front? Its the spring that determines the ride height anyway?
That's what I was trying to tell you.TIMMOS29 said:
You can use standard Sachs. But B4s aren't any different in length anyway.
And because I'm a pedant: the spring is the shock absorber. The piston bit is a damper to stop the spring from continuously bouncing up and down.
What’s available varies week to week, when I did mine no one had Sachs so I got Bilstein. Sachs be a bit cheaper.
I recently did front / back suspension on my 3.0si following this excellent guide: https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=130203
1. Take note how of the spring doesn't align with the "notch" on the rubber pad as you might think it should, when re-installed it should be the same way
2. It helps to support the brake rotor assembly with something solid and heavy underneath (pieces of wood), I also used ratchet straps and bungee to hold the rotor/brake assembly. It's helpful (though nerve racking) to lift the car decently up in the air so the control arm can come down and you can more easily lift the strut out and put the new one in. I had to lift it more than expected to get the new struts installed.
3. I bought a lot of Lemforder parts (drop-links, etc) but FCP Euro says the Lemforder top-mounts are built in China, so I sourced the BMW OE top mounts (at vastly inflated prices) ; I replaced all the bump stops, rubber, coverings.
4. You might want to consider adding reinforcement plates (under the front shock tower), I used the BMW OE ones for E46 but had to drill out a hole where the camber pin goes in. I had to borrow some "time" on a friend's drill press. If you do this, you end up loosing some thread on the nuts, I plan to add a strut brace, we'll see if there's enough thread left.
5. I can highly reccomend Koni Sport as another suggestion over the Sachs. They are top-adjustable and while I've only done a few miles after installing them, the adjustabilty allowed me to get the rebound so it wasn't "springy" ; I was pretty impressed. I spoke with Koni before buying them (incidentally with the guy who helped test them for the Z4!) and he said they did a lot of work to match OEM ride quality but provide sportiness. His one warning was never leave the adjuster at either extreme. I should have written down exactly how much adjustment I dialed in, but I followed a procedure outlined for the E46 ; I think it was 2.5 turns on the front and 2 turns on the rear.
6. You can also get rear-adjustables Koni's if you buy from TCKline (they are white) which is what I did. If you go this route you need to then get a different top mount from OE since the tube diameter is bigger than OE (I think 12mm). This is also why Koni doesn't sell the 'adjustable' rear shocks "to the market", because they knew the top mount would have to be different.
I used a Rogue Engineering rear top-mount which is also re-enforced, but had to notch it since I have a Roadster and there's some additional tabs to hold the (useless) rear plastic shelf.
1. Take note how of the spring doesn't align with the "notch" on the rubber pad as you might think it should, when re-installed it should be the same way
2. It helps to support the brake rotor assembly with something solid and heavy underneath (pieces of wood), I also used ratchet straps and bungee to hold the rotor/brake assembly. It's helpful (though nerve racking) to lift the car decently up in the air so the control arm can come down and you can more easily lift the strut out and put the new one in. I had to lift it more than expected to get the new struts installed.
3. I bought a lot of Lemforder parts (drop-links, etc) but FCP Euro says the Lemforder top-mounts are built in China, so I sourced the BMW OE top mounts (at vastly inflated prices) ; I replaced all the bump stops, rubber, coverings.
4. You might want to consider adding reinforcement plates (under the front shock tower), I used the BMW OE ones for E46 but had to drill out a hole where the camber pin goes in. I had to borrow some "time" on a friend's drill press. If you do this, you end up loosing some thread on the nuts, I plan to add a strut brace, we'll see if there's enough thread left.
5. I can highly reccomend Koni Sport as another suggestion over the Sachs. They are top-adjustable and while I've only done a few miles after installing them, the adjustabilty allowed me to get the rebound so it wasn't "springy" ; I was pretty impressed. I spoke with Koni before buying them (incidentally with the guy who helped test them for the Z4!) and he said they did a lot of work to match OEM ride quality but provide sportiness. His one warning was never leave the adjuster at either extreme. I should have written down exactly how much adjustment I dialed in, but I followed a procedure outlined for the E46 ; I think it was 2.5 turns on the front and 2 turns on the rear.
6. You can also get rear-adjustables Koni's if you buy from TCKline (they are white) which is what I did. If you go this route you need to then get a different top mount from OE since the tube diameter is bigger than OE (I think 12mm). This is also why Koni doesn't sell the 'adjustable' rear shocks "to the market", because they knew the top mount would have to be different.
I used a Rogue Engineering rear top-mount which is also re-enforced, but had to notch it since I have a Roadster and there's some additional tabs to hold the (useless) rear plastic shelf.
TIMMOS29
Member
r3vmatch said:
Brilliant reply, thanks a lot! I’ve taken everything in.
Yes, I was thinking of adding top reinforcement plates.
One thing I’m definitely buying is a spring compressing machine. I can get a Vevor one for under £85 delivered. It’s the springs that worry me the most.
Do you think I can risk driving it for another 500 miles? I have the Le Mans Classic beginning of July.
Thanks again, lads.