B.I. Official e34 lowering, new suspension, wheels, and thrust arms!

[HDhandyman]

last time I checked they were about $115/each with the bushing pressed in, and it's been documented that the E34 M5 bushing is more durable than the 750 bushings.....this brings the upper arm price to ~$130/ea with the bushing pressed in

Here's the mail.

Yves Bright
<yves@bmaparts.com>to me
More options Feb 13
Hello Steven,

Per our conversation, here are the prices for the suspension parts.

Thrust arms - $99.00 each Lemfoerder arms with 750il bushings pressed in
Control arms - $85.00 each Lemfoerder
Sway bar links - $21.00 each
Idler arm - $35.00

Looks like I mixed them up. Still, the price total is the same. I've edited "said" post. What's up with the M5 bushings? Give us a link, Scott!

[Jon K]

I was invited here by HDhandyman to talk about control arm bushings.

I had originally installed upper and lower control arm bushings (new arms) with 750i bushings (new) from BMA Autoparts. The setup seemed to alleviate 90% of my shimmy issue but there still remained a little bit of shimmy. I replaced a couple of my tie rod ends and it went away mostly.

Less than 10,000 miles later I had decent shimmy again at 65 mph. I had originally followed the installation procedure of setting the car on the ground and torquing the bushings to the spec. However, I was sort of frustrated with that theory and the whole installation process annoyed me. I decided enough was enough and ordered the Grunt's Polyurethane control arm bushings. Because these are for the upper control arms (to replace 750i bushings) I was able to use a special BMW tool to press the old bushings out and new bushings in while the control arm was still attached to the car. This made the job 10x easier and only took about 45 mins to do the bushings.



I think that was around 140,000 miles on the odometer and I am now at 184,000. I have ZERO shimmy issues - the front is very solid and very well connected. When you get up above speed limit speeds... lets say 65+ you can sometimes feel a slight "roughness" or minute vibration - but this is from the bushings being solid and not due to failure or anything like the shimmy experienced with 750i bushings. Some people suggest that M5 bushings are more solid than 750 bushings but quitely honestly I love that the Grunt bushings have no bizarre torque scheme (loading the car etc). You just torque until they're tight, i'd say 80ft lbs or so. Put the car on the ground - drive home. They provide great feel of the road and the handling is not too harsh - my car is on 17" wheels (235/45 front 38 psi) and 3mm M5 spring pads along with the polyurethane bushings and it's not very harsh IMHO.


Here is a picture of the contraption I made in order to get the ball joint end out of the strut base. The tool used to press the bushings on the car allowed me to never have to do this again!

[Scott H]

only countless posts about them....along with most other things related to suspension.

Last I paid $130 for lemforder arms with M5 bushings......two months ago.

Thrust arms - $99.00 each Lemfoerder arms with 750il bushings pressed in

What's up with the M5 bushings? Give us a link, Scott!

[Scott H]

early. The M5 bushings should last longer than the 750 bushings....

I was invited here by HDhandyman to talk about control arm bushings.

[Anthony (M5 in Calgary)]

[QUOTE=Jon K]and 3mm M5 spring pads

M5 has 9mm upper spring pads as standard. 3mm pads are from a different model and cross to E30, E34 and E36 cars. The part number is not handy or I'd post it.

Good thread, keep it up.

Cheers

[Scott H]

31 33 1 128 523

Find E32/E34 with EDC or M-tech suspn options in the ETK and you will find it.

and 3mm M5 spring pads

M5 has 9mm upper spring pads as standard. 3mm pads are from a different model and cross to E30, E34 and E36 cars. The part number is not handy or I'd post it.

Good thread, keep it up.

Cheers

[califblue]

here is an old post:
4 1/2 hrs and installed the following: Sachs kit, M-Tech sways , upper control arms & dog-bones... Need a floor jack , jack stands, spring compresser ( borrowed from Auto Zone) I had air tools but you can do it manually

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=1227

[HDhandyman]

Special thanks to Jon K. for an excellent post with great photo documentation!

Scott, we would all bennefit greatly from a "link" to one of those "many" posts about the E34 M5 bushings. The whole point of this thread is to put everything together. If you have something to say about a topic that is documented, then please help us by providing that documentation. My hope is that other new guys like me will be able to sit down and read this thread in it's entirety and get all the answers to the upgrades, as well as POV about debates between what components are best to use. If you can give us something tangeble about the E34 M5's, people will have the ability to make a choice between 750ils, Polys, and E34 M5s, and feel good about it.

Thanks again,

[billb]

Special thanks to Jon K. for an excellent post with great photo documentation!

Scott, we would all bennefit greatly from a "link" to one of those "many" posts about the E34 M5 bushings. The whole point of this thread is to put everything together. If you have something to say about a topic that is documented, then please help us by providing that documentation. My hope is that other new guys like me will be able to sit down and read this thread in it's entirety and get all the answers to the upgrades, as well as POV about debates between what components are best to use. If you can give us something tangeble about the E34 M5's, people will have the ability to make a choice between 750ils, Polys, and E34 M5s, and feel good about it.

Thanks again,

...I don't think there's going to be ONE thread with ALL the answers to all the upgrades. That's why we started the archived sections, then had to ease up on that process so folks wouldn't miss "active" posts. My suggestion for all these questions is to begin looking through "archived" posts relative to the question at hand. I am the "assigned archiver" for suspension and steering. I'd suggest you go look in that archive, as I did a search for most everything "suspension" or "steering" that was over 1 year old back in November and began putting it in there. As you identify things that I've missed, pm the link to me and I'll archive 'em.

[Scott H]

I'm not going to resource, reinvent, and summarize 100 other posts that winfred, myself, brandon j, etc, etc have made about M5 bushings. Also go to mye28.com and roadfly to find plenty of posts where urethane bushings have been destroyed or lasted many fewer miles than many had hoped.

My post here is tangible enough regarding the M5 bushings. If I was interested in forcing my opinion on other people re: the M5 bushings, I would go hunt up other threads and cite them endlessly. I'm merely putting it out there to chew on when you think about what you are going to purchase.

I agree with Bill B. in that these has been way too much info on suspension posted and hosted here and on other websites in the past. No determination will be made as to the best setup for any particular car. Other factors will ultimately drive someones decision on what to purchase, those being, price, availability, misinformation, cosmetic effects, etc. You can talk until you are blue in the face about getting lemforder components, but there will always be someone out there who will insist on buying an inferior part.

Forgive me for sounding harsh, but I believe there is enough information out there on this topic and I personally am not motivated to do much hunting and linking on the topic of M5 bushings.

Regards
Scott

Scott, we would all bennefit greatly from a "link" to one of those "many" posts about the E34 M5 bushings. The whole point of this thread is to put everything together. If you have something to say about a topic that is documented, then please help us by providing that documentation. My hope is that other new guys like me will be able to sit down and read this thread in it's entirety and get all the answers to the upgrades, as well as POV about debates between what components are best to use. If you can give us something tangeble about the E34 M5's, people will have the ability to make a choice between 750ils, Polys, and E34 M5s, and feel good about it.

Thanks again,