Why does my car sit so low?

[ryan roopnarine]

wow. i think everyone here knows how much of a whiny little woman i am...if i were slamming on decent sized bumps, i'd take em off and check the shock insert operation by hand......with a box ready to send em back to bilstein, bma, whomever if i found even the slightest irregularity...that's the whole reason you replace shocks, to keep it from slamming on bumps.

ps, i guess if you were to take em out, you could put the stock springs back on the front to make sure.....lotsa hardware from bma, but if the shock is dead and its gotta lifetime warranty.....better to do it sooner than later.

[632 Regal]

the sports are supposed to have internal bump stops but if they do there a bit firm. I think im going to order new stock bumpstops so I can cut them up and stick them in to cushin it a bit. at 15 bucks a pop id rather use something else though but im drawing blanks.

Ryan, the car always slammed when I changed springs and only after, then I got the new shocks and it still slammed but a bit less. Im talking potholes that are on the verge of busting your rims not little turtle holes. the warrantee deal works like this...you order new onew, take the old ones out and send them back, they send them in and if they find them to be OK you now have 4 new struts...minus shipping of course.

[Jr ///M5]

It is also a problem with the M5's that have converted over to Bilstein sports. The internal bump stops have to be cut down. You can do this yourself or you can ship them back to Bilstein and they will do it for you. Either way, you are not getting the full travel from the shock before it bottoms out on the stop. Most of the posters on the M5 board that are running the Bilstein Sports have had this done and fixed the "bottoming out" problem.

Hope this helps,
Jr

[632 Regal]

I read about where the shocks were serviceable they could unscrew the bottom off and chop it, now they are pretty much sealed with weld or something (i dont remember) Can you point me to some of them links your talking about Jr?

[Kalevera]

Jeff -

When I had my BavAuto springs on the car, I called up the aforementioned company to bitch about strut inserts and the like...They told me that the inserts didn't need to be altered (although I *told* them about the practice of people cutting the bump stops to keep the car from bottoming out all the time).

Now, I know that you're running Eibachs...but I'm still wondering why/how the car is all of the sudden bottoming out all the time -- it didn't do it previously, did it? Seems to me like something's up with the inserts...


best, whit

[Jr ///M5]

I read about where the shocks were serviceable they could unscrew the bottom off and chop it, now they are pretty much sealed with weld or something (i dont remember) Can you point me to some of them links your talking about Jr?

I believe the bumpstop is located at the top of the shock. I've only read about other M5 owners doing it, through the E34 M5 board on Yahoo. Let me look around and do a couple of searches for you, meanwhile get in touch with Bilstein and see what they have to say about it. The others had to practically tell Bilstein how and what to do before they realized they really knew what they were talking about.

[632 Regal]

Lowell, the car has bottomed since I lowered it, a bit less with the Eibachs. It isn't an all of a sudden thing it's just that its getting warmer up here and I would like to fix it if I can. I dont mind spending money on my car (its not problematic at all) but I dont want to waste money I could spend in other places such as intake gaskets, pcv plates etc.


Jr, it does definetly seem as though the travel is limited but I cant compress the car enough to see where abouts the shock is in relation to the top. Need a spy cam in there or something. Any links are definetly appreciated as I couldnt find any definetive posts on this subject.

[Jr ///M5]

Here's a message taken from the M5 mailing list on Yahoo. Even after altering the bumpstops, there still appears to be trouble on speedbumps and such. Maybe this will help your decision.


Yes, I have had lengthy discussions starting with Will Turner and
ending with the heavily German-accented engineer from Bilstein (who
took great offense at my assertion that their engineering for our
application was lacking!) I was less than impressed when my
discussion with them started with "we do not have an application for
the E34" at which point I had to walk them through their own website
which gives the part number for our car! Only after a lengthy
discussion of rates and accelerations and "these are fine on my
wife's E34 wagon" did I finally get an admission that, "Oh, just ship
those to us and we'll install shorter internal bump stops." In the
end, I got a solution that handles great and will probably last
forever, but it still bottoms out on speedbumps and large dips. I
might try the Konis in the future if I get bored and need a project,
though.

Kurt Lehman


So are your potholes the same dynamics as the speedbumps? Having Bilstein alter the bumpstops might not be a solution afterall. The solution might be to fill the potholes...=)

Just slow it down on those damn gravel roads....=)

Jr

[ryan roopnarine]

from my somewhat thorough investigation of the subject, jeff....i'd say that a good 90% of all shocks are extremely easily disassembled, i would think that only 10% or so are welded shut. most of the time it takes a punch and a rubber mallet to disassemble, a lot of the time its easier than that, disassembly is usually popping a screw fit loose, and unscrewing at top or bottom. i never got around to disassembling the ones you sent me, however.

[632 Regal]

Ryan, thats all i need is pressurizes gas shooting across the barn. I think Im going to go for new shock mounts as the top rubber stops arent compressed at all and maybe the support is done. Im going to order the stock stops and chop them up to cushion it a bit and call it a day. Have to address the intake gaskets and such before too long.