Suspension leveling message

[rockin1978TA]

Well I did replace the front struts, and you can tell the back is sagging. It appears the car has struts, but how can you tell the differnece?

[ss2115]

If the self levelling struts are still in the car, then at their base (the lower join next to the wheel) there will be a shorter cylinder next to the main cylinder that is the bottom of the strut.
There should be a hose (like a brake hose) coming out of the smaller cylinder.

The other clue is that up under the body cavity over the diff, you should see two roundish metal bulbs with hoses and a pipe coming from them. These are what everyone in the BMW world refer to as "bombs". The correct term is a nitrogen sphere.
(Mind you, these could still be there even if someone has replaced the SL struts with normal stuts and they just didn't bother to dissassemble and remove the entire self levelling system).

If you've replaced the front stuts, did you put the same springs back on?
If its all new up front,and you didn't lower the ride height and the back is obviously lower than the front, then you would expect the camber on the rear wheels to increase as more weight is shifted now to the back suspension and the rear wheel will flair outwards a bit more.
This would occur even if you do still have the self levelling as the valve that controls the pumping up of the struts will still be seeing the same adjustment on the rear sway bar that it always has - its just that the car has been "tipped upwards" at the front.

You'll probably notice considerable rear tyre wear on the inside edges pretty quickly if not attended to.
You could always get a 4 wheel alignment to check it out - don't let them make any adjustments as it will be a waste of time, but get them to give you the readings front and rear. If my idea is correct, I would expect to see some increased castor on the front (and possibly an incorrect toe in/out unless you had it adjusted after fitting the struts) and increased camber at the rear wheels and its toe in/out probably incorrect as well.

Basically, you need to get the car back to its correct ride height, or at least to the same angle if you've lowered the vehicle, and then you can get the wheel alignment back to normal and get rid of the levelling message. If you've lowered the vehicle, you'll need a rear camber adjuster kit if the car hasn't already got it oem. (mine doesn't, but I think most 535's did - or it might have been all M5's - not sure).