Hi folks, as many of you here my car has reached the "shocks are shot" age. Since the ZHP serves as my daily driver I wasn't looking to make the ride and lower or harsher.
The top contenders for me were:
FSD - reviews are 50/50. Saw many posts with early failures.
SRT - Couldn't get a true sense on how these compare to OEM
Bilstein Touring or B4 - Pulled the trigger on these only to find out that the front struts are not available from factory and they are scrambling to build them.
This brought me back to Sachs/Boge. After reading more and more about Sachs I came across their literature that essentially splits the shocks into Super Touring and Advantage lines. It looks like Advantage is the old TurboGas line used by Boge.
Long story short I came across some interesting data that suggests that pre 2002 330i Sports came with Advantage line of shocks. But then BMW started using the same suspension on all E46s regardless of sport/non-sport package presence. Additionally they switched to using the cheaper Super Touring line.
One interesting thing I will mention is that I owned a 2001 330i Sport and also 2004 330i Sport. And I felt that the 2001 car felt a lot sportier (minus the overboosted power steering).
So.... I decided to conduct an experiment. I pulled the trigger on a set of Advantage shocks and struts that are listed as 2001 330i Sport units as oppose to the ones listed as the units for 2002+ models.
I installed this set 3 days ago and am very happy with the results. No matter which shocks I would have gone with I obviously would feel a difference between new and old but these units are very nicely paired with the springs and the weight of this car. Cars feel comfy, stiff and more importantly very confident at very high speeds (professional driver on a closed course).
I was able to score these struts at autozone and with their discount at the time they were 147 bucks which is cheaper than the Super Touring line you'll typically see as the correct replacement for the 2004 330i Sport. Rears I ended getting from autohausaz.
Interestingly enough, these shocks and struts are used on M-technic models in AU and NZ.
Part numbers
Sachs 556-873 / 556-874 - Front struts
Sachs 556-884 - rear shock
All and all, can't go wrong with $450 total cost for the swap using the higher end line.
Be sure to replace the protective boots, top mounts are also recommended.
I wanted to put it out there that this replacement works and things fit nicely together. My ride high is the same but with a noticeably less dive over speed bumps.
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