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

[HDhandyman]

OK guys, time for a late night installment.

Again we're dealing with front end suspension at the moment. We've heared from our panel of experts, even the distributor himself, and it looks like the choice is totally up to you on bushings. Time for you to make your decision and me to move on.

So, there's a couple more things that we're gonna need in terms of front end suspension, the first of which are Sway Bar Links. Again, Lemfoerder would be best, but do what ya gotta do. These little buggers make a faint click sound when you go over bumps and they're fairly cheap to replace while we're down there. Next is the idler arm; I don't need one, but you could replace it during this install if your Indy said "looks bad", you have more miles than me, or you just wanna spend the money.

Here's a snapshot from the Bentley manual...



OK, my current total is $450.00, and it's time for me to start thinking about struts, shocks, and springs. There are several options for me to choose from. BMA carries almost all of them. Amoung those, some of the preffered leaders apear to be Billstein (strut and shock towers), Koni (strut and shock towers) which are adjustable, Eibach (lowering springs applicable for the front and the back), H&R (lowering springs applicable for the front and the back), and Sachs (a German engineered combo of strut and shock towers, and lowering springs. Their most inherrent value is the fact that all eight major components are designed to work together. Unlike other "sweet" combos between strut/shock and spring, these probably put less stress on other suspension related components due to the nature of shared design.) These are only a few of the available options. Do the research and talk to the perveor about which combo is right for you.

My first instinct tells me to go with the Sachs. I've read several positive testimonials about them from members of this board, I like the fact that all the strut/spring compenents come in the kit, and I like the idea that these components are designed to work together. Unfortunately BMA, the largest distrubutor of Sachs in the continental US, is out of them at the moment. BMA was expecting a shipment of Sachs to arrive in DEC/2005, but they were ultimately told by the German manufactuer that the old design had been discontinued and that a "new and improved" design of the hugely successful first product would be shipped to them in March. I don't know if I can wait until "sometime" in March since I need to make repairs, so I've asked Yves to provide me with additional quotes for some of the "sweet" combos listed above.

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.

Bilstein Sports with H & R springs - $746.00

or

Koni with H & R springs - $913.00

Let me know if you have any questions or would like to place an order.

Yves Bright
www.bmaparts.com
(888) 262-3911


That about wraps it up in terms of shopping for suspension related parts for me. I'll let you know next time what I decided about parts selection and how much it cost me. For now, here are a few photos of some of the tools I'm gonna need for this job!

A torque wrench is absolutely essential, not just for this job, for lots of em. I got this one at Harbor Freight Tools on sale for $18.00 last weekend. It's not a Snap-On, but it's cheap and it's gonna suit my needs plenty well. Get what you want. Remember that 80ft./lbs. that Jon K. talked about applying to the polyurethane bushings? This is what I need.


Forced air is a luxury that I learned I couldn't do without some time ago! This is an air compressor (blue). You can see that it sits next to a smaller (red) air compressor. The red one travels with me if somebody in the family gets a flat, or I just need air--the motor is no longer functioning, so it can only be filled with air by using another air compressor. The blue boy is the big guns that powers the air wrench and many other tools (attachments). I think I got this one at Harbor Freight for $220.00.




In this photo, you can see the air wrench (looks like a silver gun) attached to a yellow hose, and ultimately the air compressor. This thing isn't nessecary, but it will make parts of this job tremendously easier. Next to it, you can see two jack stands (these are truck/suv rated for 6,000lbs. I'm not taking any chances) and two Rhino ramps. Again, the ramps are truck/suv rated for 6,000 lbs. I could just use four jack stands, but I like being able to just back the car up onto the ramps and check out the rear end from time to time. They also make it a lot easier for me to remove the enigne from the VW Bug, since the engine is in the back and has to be removed by jacking it out from underneath the car. Also in the photo, one of my hydraulic jacks (green).




Next time, I'll talk More Tools, More Photos, New Wheels, and New Tires!

[liquidtiger720]

Minor correction. The sachs kit does not come assembled.

[HDhandyman]

Minor correction. The sachs kit does not come assembled.

Yves just told me they would be shipped as a complete strut assembly. Am I wrong? Has something changed?

[BigKriss]

Stephen, I'll chime in here if I may. I think you have the terminology wrong on the word "strut". The strut is the device that holds the shock and spring in place. I've never heard of someone replacing it unless it's been bent in an accident, but I've heard of deliberately bending this baby to give you more camber on the front wheels.



Being a s advocate here. Why go for lowered springs anyway? The camber at the rear will be increase (more negative camber) causing the inside of the tyres to wear faster which can only be fixed by rotating the tyres more often which will have to come off the wheels or install eccentric bushings in the trailing arms which is very time consuming job. What are you doing for strut mounts at the front?

Also with a lowered front spring, it maybe so low that you cannot get your floor jack under the front crossmember when jacking up the car (thats what happened to me). Not a major deal just a bit annoying since I drive onto bricks first.

As for the thrust arm bushings, I think Scott H is right, the m5 ones are the ones to get. I asked about this on here with limited responses (I was curious also).
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=17705
The reason being, your going to upgrage the bush from normal to 750i, so why stop in the middle ground?

For best performance get some spherical bearings to replace the rubber on both control arms (upper and lower). Bruno is reported to be making sets recently.
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthr...ght=thrust+arm

I use these;
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthr...RT+thrust+arms

and the e31 lower control arms are a direct swap
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthr...RT+thrust+arms

Maybe this article can also state that you can't have your cake and eat it also. Meaning any upgrade that contributes to a "more sportier feel" or stiffer ride will contribute to an increase in noise, vechile, harshness. You will feel more bumps in the road and it won't be as comfortable to ride on. I'm going to finish this off and get out of here; what are you doing for swaybars?

[HDhandyman]

Stephen, I'll chime in here if I may. I think you have the terminology wrong on the word "strut". The strut is the device that holds the shock and spring in place. I've never heard of someone replacing it unless it's been bent in an accident, but I've heard of deliberately bending this baby to give you more camber on the front wheels.



Being a s advocate here. Why go for lowered springs anyway? The camber at the rear will be increase (more negative camber) causing the inside of the tyres to wear faster which can only be fixed by rotating the tyres more often which will have to come off the wheels or install eccentric bushings in the trailing arms which is very time consuming job. What are you doing for strut mounts at the front?

Also with a lowered front spring, it maybe so long that you cannot get your floor jack under the front crossmember when jacking up the car (thats what happened to me). Not a major deal just a bit annoying.

As for the thrust arm bushings, I think Scott H is right, the m5 ones are the ones to get. I asked about this on here with limited responses (I was curious also).

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=17705

The reason being, your going to upgrage the bush from normal to 750i, so why stop in the middle ground?

Maybe this article can also state that you can't have your cake and eat it also. Meaning any upgrade that contributes to a "more sportier feel" or stiffer ride will contribute to an increase in noise, vechile, harshness. You will feel more bumps in the road and it won't be as comfortable to ride on. I'm going to finish this off and get out of here; what are you doing for swaybars?

Thanks BigKriss. Like I said, I'm a new guy here as well. So, thanks for the strut info and words on lowering springs. I don't know what to do about sway bars, what should I do? Why don't you tell us about why you did what you did to your car, and do you know other options for people who don't want to lose that cushy ride? I noticed that cool track video that you have--are all your mods for track time?

Thanks, again!

[BigKriss]

Sorry mate, I added a bit more information in there. I'm setting up the car to be as stiff as possible. I will take any tradeoff in comfort for an increase concering speed. Of course the car can get uncomfortable over harsh roads but I've lived with it so far even though 99.9999+% of my driving is on the street. It also depends on how you want the car to handle, I mean understeer or oversteer. I only upgraded the front swaybar becasue I thought the rear one would be too hard to install myself - I was wrong. Understeer (losing grip on the front wheels) is a lot easier to control than oversteer.

I e-mailed Brett Anderson from Koala Motorsports a along time ago, he suggested to leave the front bar (23mm) as is and replace the rear bar with one from the e34 3.8L touring? (20mm and largest OEM available), which is slightly over us$100 from BMA. I would imagine this setup to give you some controllable oversteer at wide open throttle, but I can't say from experience.

You will find the largest swaybars around made by manufacturers in the USA and anywhere worldwide are 27mm for the front and 20mm on the rear. Adjustable ones are good becasue you can then fine tune the handling characteristics of the car. Personally I'll evenutally get a 22mm adjustable rear custom made one made by Whiteline in Australia, were my front bar comes from. This will mean a +2mm (front and rear increase over the larqest OEM bars). Most of the swaybar bushes with aftermarket bars are polyurethane and have to be lubed occasionally (with special paste provided) or else they squeak but I haven't experience this yet.

If you don't want to lose that cushy ride, stick with OEM stock everything, but I would still install the m5 thrust arm bushes because worn thrust arm bushes are a major complaint of the dreaded 50-60 shimmy!

[Scott H]

the strut housing is what holds it

Stephen, I'll chime in here if I may. I think you have the terminology wrong on the word "strut". The strut is the device that holds the shock and spring in place. I've never heard of someone replacing it unless it's been bent in an accident, but I've heard of deliberately bending this baby to give you more camber on the front wheels.

[Scott H]

necessary to do the job (4 springs, 2 struts, 2 shocks, short bump stops, strut retaining collars) but nothing is assembled. The springs are Eibach and the boge turbo gas sport shocks are custom valved for the spring they are applied to. The sachs kit is stiff and still puts plenty of stress on other parts.

Yves just told me they would be shipped as a complete strut assembly. Am I wrong? Has something changed?

[BigKriss]

Scott, I always thought the picture what I showed was the strut, item 1 and the shock absorber goes inside that.

the strut housing is what holds it

[88m53453]

Handyman,
BMW is the US's biggest Sachs distributor in the US ? Really ? I would think that IMC and WP both are much larger.

I've never seen the e34 strut assembly come complete in over 20 years of BMW professional wrenching, unless it was assembled by a retailer or bought from a junkyard.

Koni's rule IMO, just more money,but that doesn't seem to be the issue here