| Author |
Message |
Mike G
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Nov 20, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject:
525 shocks |
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'94 525iSE. M-Tech lowered and stiffened suspension.
I need new rear shocks sometime in the near future.
One has a slight weep. Still works OK, but obviously both will need
replacing.
Any recommendations. Online retailer, make etc?
Choice seems faily limited.
I'm in the UK BTW.
TIA.
Mike.
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supai
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:40 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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Bilsteins.
"Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:309ae0F2u8lqvU1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: | '94 525iSE. M-Tech lowered and stiffened suspension.
I need new rear shocks sometime in the near future.
One has a slight weep. Still works OK, but obviously both will need
replacing.
Any recommendations. Online retailer, make etc?
Choice seems faily limited.
I'm in the UK BTW.
TIA.
Mike.
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Andrew Thomas
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 21, 2004 4:38 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:<309ae0F2u8lqvU1@uni-berlin.de>...
| Quote: | '94 525iSE. M-Tech lowered and stiffened suspension.
I need new rear shocks sometime in the near future.
One has a slight weep. Still works OK, but obviously both will need
replacing.
Any recommendations. Online retailer, make etc?
Choice seems faily limited.
I'm in the UK BTW.
TIA.
Mike.
|
Bilstein Sprint (there are two kinds of Bilstein "yellow" shocks in
the UK - Sprint and Sport. Sprint is designed for shorter springs -
but check with a retailer first). Your local dealer will want around
£250 for a BMW rear shock absorber - avoid at all costs.
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Mike G
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"Andrew Thomas" <andrewj_nospamthomas@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:ff692cff.0411210338.42ca876a@posting.google.com...
| Quote: | "Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:<309ae0F2u8lqvU1@uni-berlin.de>...
'94 525iSE. M-Tech lowered and stiffened suspension.
I need new rear shocks sometime in the near future.
One has a slight weep. Still works OK, but obviously both will need
replacing.
Any recommendations. Online retailer, make etc?
Choice seems faily limited.
I'm in the UK BTW.
TIA.
Mike.
Bilstein Sprint (there are two kinds of Bilstein "yellow" shocks in
the UK - Sprint and Sport. Sprint is designed for shorter springs -
but check with a retailer first). Your local dealer will want around
£250 for a BMW rear shock absorber - avoid at all costs.
|
The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike. |
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Fred W
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:58 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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Mike G wrote:
| Quote: | "Andrew Thomas" <andrewj_nospamthomas@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:ff692cff.0411210338.42ca876a@posting.google.com...
"Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:<309ae0F2u8lqvU1@uni-berlin.de>...
'94 525iSE. M-Tech lowered and stiffened suspension.
I need new rear shocks sometime in the near future.
One has a slight weep. Still works OK, but obviously both will need
replacing.
Any recommendations. Online retailer, make etc?
Choice seems faily limited.
I'm in the UK BTW.
TIA.
Mike.
Bilstein Sprint (there are two kinds of Bilstein "yellow" shocks in
the UK - Sprint and Sport. Sprint is designed for shorter springs -
but check with a retailer first). Your local dealer will want around
£250 for a BMW rear shock absorber - avoid at all costs.
The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike.
|
You will only get what you pay for.
It will definitely negatively effect the handling.
Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
-Fred W |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:28 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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Fred W <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote in message
<dsCdnZlCr6NV2T_cRVn-2g@adelphia.com>:
| Quote: | The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike.
You will only get what you pay for.
It will definitely negatively effect the handling.
Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
|
I'd guess that working cheap dampers would be more effective than
leaking 'good' dampers. Of course you'll only get what you pay for but
anything will surely be an improvement over something with different
damping rates on each wheel? |
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Fred W
Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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deadmail@burnt.org.uk wrote:
| Quote: | Fred W <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote in message
dsCdnZlCr6NV2T_cRVn-2g@adelphia.com>:
The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike.
You will only get what you pay for.
It will definitely negatively effect the handling.
Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
I'd guess that working cheap dampers would be more effective than
leaking 'good' dampers. Of course you'll only get what you pay for but
anything will surely be an improvement over something with different
damping rates on each wheel?
|
Perhaps, but how long will the cheapies be better for? I'd look for a
less expensive place to get the Bilsteins. They are out there...
-Fred W |
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Dave Plowman (News)
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:03 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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In article <dsCdnZlCr6NV2T_cRVn-2g@adelphia.com>,
Fred W <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
|
Are you saying the Japanese can't make decent shocks for some reason?
They seem to be able to make just about anything else...
--
*It's lonely at the top, but you eat better.
Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
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adder
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:<30bp5pF2t896vU1@uni-berlin.de>...
| Quote: | Bilstein Sprint (there are two kinds of Bilstein "yellow" shocks in
the UK - Sprint and Sport. Sprint is designed for shorter springs -
but check with a retailer first). Your local dealer will want around
£250 for a BMW rear shock absorber - avoid at all costs.
The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike.
|
M-tech springs aren't all that much lower than regular so regular
shocks will do (i.e. not the shortened ones) but you need one of the
slightly more heavy duty versions.
Sachs (OEM) do M-tech spec shocks and I think you can get them fairly
cheap from German & Swedish. |
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Fred W
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
| Quote: | In article <dsCdnZlCr6NV2T_cRVn-2g@adelphia.com>,
Fred W <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote:
Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
Are you saying the Japanese can't make decent shocks for some reason?
They seem to be able to make just about anything else...
|
Decent? perhaps. But certainly not as good as the Sachs/Boge OE's or a
set of Bilsteins, and not what the suspension system was designed to use.
Besides that, I have heard some stories (unverified) about the KYBs not
lasting very long.
-Fred W |
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Mike G
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:01 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"Fred W" <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote in message
news:0LadnaX8Ptq_PjncRVn-3A@adelphia.com...
| Quote: | Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article <dsCdnZlCr6NV2T_cRVn-2g@adelphia.com>,
Fred W <Fred.Wills@SPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote:
Why would you want to put Japanese shocks on your German car?
I know I sure wouldn't...
Are you saying the Japanese can't make decent shocks for some reason?
They seem to be able to make just about anything else...
Decent? perhaps. But certainly not as good as the Sachs/Boge OE's or a
set of Bilsteins, and not what the suspension system was designed to
use. |
IME the jap cars can't be accused of lacking quality, even compared to BMW.
I've no doubt they make shocks equally as good as any produced in the west.
As long as an aftermarket shock has a comparable damping rate to an OE one,
by definition, it'll perform equally as well. Durability is the only real
difference open to question.
Shocks are a bit like nuts and bolts IMO. Make doesn't matter as long as
they perform within the design parameter.
| Quote: | Besides that, I have heard some stories (unverified) about the KYBs not
lasting very long.
|
I have a few more choices now, so I'll look into value for money. longevity
etc, more closely before I buy.
The leak is barely enough to discolour the seal area of the n/s/r damper.
Obviously it is failing, and both will need replacing, but there is no great
urgency, as the damper still works perfectly.
Damping is even on both sides of the car.
Mike. |
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Mike G
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:01 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"adder" <adder1969@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:66674363.0411240246.190f7dd2@posting.google.com...
| Quote: | "Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:<30bp5pF2t896vU1@uni-berlin.de>...
Bilstein Sprint (there are two kinds of Bilstein "yellow" shocks in
the UK - Sprint and Sport. Sprint is designed for shorter springs -
but check with a retailer first). Your local dealer will want around
£250 for a BMW rear shock absorber - avoid at all costs.
The Bilsteins cost more than I'd like to pay.
Found an online retailer offering suitable KYB shocks for £85.16 a pair.
Obviously not as good, but any particular objection to them?
Mike.
M-tech springs aren't all that much lower than regular so regular
shocks will do (i.e. not the shortened ones) but you need one of the
slightly more heavy duty versions.
Sachs (OEM) do M-tech spec shocks and I think you can get them fairly
cheap from German & Swedish.
|
Euro Car Parts do Boge/Sachs OEM stds at £103.28 a pair.
Bilstein Sport at £254.14 a pair.
GFS have stds at £85.77 a pair. Sports susp at £105.75 a pair.
All prices inc VAT, exc delivery.
GFS have a branch fairly local to me which makes purchase easy, but they
don't say what make their shocks are. I'll check tomorrow.
One thing is certain, I won't be buying the Bilstein Sport shocks.
Mike. |
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adder
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:37 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:<30kln0F32hkagU2@uni-berlin.de>...
| Quote: | Euro Car Parts do Boge/Sachs OEM stds at £103.28 a pair.
Bilstein Sport at £254.14 a pair.
GFS have stds at £85.77 a pair. Sports susp at £105.75 a pair.
All prices inc VAT, exc delivery.
GFS have a branch fairly local to me which makes purchase easy, but they
don't say what make their shocks are. I'll check tomorrow.
One thing is certain, I won't be buying the Bilstein Sport shocks.
Mike.
|
When I was getting some for my 325 they listed M-tech and standard as
different items. |
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Fred W
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:43 pm Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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Mike G wrote:
| Quote: | IME the jap cars can't be accused of lacking quality, even compared to BMW.
|
Quality? Perhaps. Handling and ride - no, there is no comparison.
| Quote: | I've no doubt they make shocks equally as good as any produced in the west.
|
Considering the difference in handling I have no reason to agree with that.
| Quote: | As long as an aftermarket shock has a comparable damping rate to an OE one,
by definition, it'll perform equally as well. Durability is the only real
difference open to question.
Shocks are a bit like nuts and bolts IMO. Make doesn't matter as long as
they perform within the design parameter.
|
I disagree vehemently. A shock is about as far from a piece of inactive
hardware as can be IMO. Dampening has so many variables that the
likelyhood that an Asian shock performs identically to the OE is pretty
slim. That said, you may be able to actually find one that would work
well, maybe even better than the OE one, but I agree the question is
durability of that performance.
| Quote: |
Besides that, I have heard some stories (unverified) about the KYBs not
lasting very long.
I have a few more choices now, so I'll look into value for money. longevity
etc, more closely before I buy.
The leak is barely enough to discolour the seal area of the n/s/r damper.
Obviously it is failing, and both will need replacing, but there is no great
urgency, as the damper still works perfectly.
Damping is even on both sides of the car.
|
You may be (pleasantly?) surprised whenever you finally do upgrade your
dampers. I replaced the struts and shocks in my '95 325i a while back
because I was doing a bunch of suspension and steering work on it and
the car had accumulated 100k miles on what appeared to be the originals
(I don't know for sure because I bought it with ~80k miles).
I had no specific reason to suspect that they were bad. There was no
sign of oil leakage. I replaced them with the OE Boge Automatics. The
difference in the amount of dampening between old and new ones could
easily be felt by hand once I had the old ones out and springs removed.
Predictably, the improvement in handling and ride was quite dramatic.
Another case in point was on my '94 540i. I replaced the shocks and
strut cartridges in it this year because I knew they were shot. The car
was floating after hitting bumps, etc. On this one I opted for the
Bilstein "touring" shocks because I figured the extra weight of the 5-er
could possibly use some incremental dampening, but mostly because they
were actually cheaper than the OE Boges at Bavarian Autosport
<http://bavauto.com/shop.asp> and purported to be only slightly stiffer
than OE.
Once I had those dampers out I was amazed to find that the front right
one was completely slack. No dampening at all. The left was a bit
better off and the rears had apparently been replaced before by some PO
(I buy all my cars used) as they were in reasonably good shape compared
to the fronts. The reason that I was so surprised was there was no
signs of leakage from any of them, and the car did not feel any worse
one corner from the other. Of course, the transformation on that car
was even more dramatic than the 3 series given the sad state of the old
ones.
I think the reason for a lot of this is that the demise of shocks is
such a gradual thing that we do not tend to notice it. The restoration
OTOH is obviously acute and easy (and gratifying) to sense. My point
about going with the top quality shocks is, even if you are able to do
the work yourself, the difference in parts price is small compared to
the amount of labor involved. Why not extend the time between
replacements while maintaining the best handling between them?
Have fun,
-Fred W |
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Mike G
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Nov 26, 2004 12:10 am Post subject:
Re: 525 shocks |
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"adder" <adder1969@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:66674363.0411250137.3ec82cb4@posting.google.com...
| Quote: | "Mike G" <mikgibbs@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:<30kln0F32hkagU2@uni-berlin.de>...
Euro Car Parts do Boge/Sachs OEM stds at £103.28 a pair.
Bilstein Sport at £254.14 a pair.
GFS have stds at £85.77 a pair. Sports susp at £105.75 a pair.
All prices inc VAT, exc delivery.
GFS have a branch fairly local to me which makes purchase easy, but they
don't say what make their shocks are. I'll check tomorrow.
One thing is certain, I won't be buying the Bilstein Sport shocks.
Mike.
When I was getting some for my 325 they listed M-tech and standard as
different items.
|
I've decided to order GFS Sports Shocks at £105.75 a pair inc VAT.
Checked with them this afternoon. They're Boge/Sachs.
OEM on many BM's apparently.
Mike. |
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