Road trip story & Project thread: 2001 Titanium Silver e39 M5

[704sw]

My rear shocks looked just like that lol.

And thanks for the tip, I’ll have to check out the Edd’s YT series.

[RUS_ZHP]

M5 is going ride so good with this shocks.
I am waiting to hear your feedback on the ride quality, when everything is installed.
I am pretty sure you gonna do some fun road trip-

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[Sreten]

My rear shocks looked just like that lol.

And thanks for the tip, I’ll have to check out the Edd’s YT series.

My old e39 530i and 330Ci ZHP with similar miles had shocks in the same condition, totally blown! I guess 100k miles is way more than you can get out of stock Sachs shocks.

M5 is going ride so good with this shocks.
I am waiting to hear your feedback on the ride quality, when everything is installed.
I am pretty sure you gonna do some fun road trip-

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Thanks, Rus! I finished installing them last week and it definitely changed the way M5 rides now. More updates below.

First, I started off by replacing the center link and idler arm which is something I should've done when I was replacing the control arms.
The center link that I removed from the car was made by TRW so most likely original unit. Ball joints were shot and I replaced it with a Lemforder unit.

Fun fact - inner ball joint that connects to the idler arm is actually a fixed stud. I got little confused by this since it does look like a normal ball joint that should be movable but after a quick search and removing the original unit I confirmed that it's indeed a fixed stud.



While in there, got new sway bar bushings too.



I went for a short drive after and I could immediately feel improvement just by moving the steering wheel as it would retract much easier in the center position. It used to have a minor play and this certainly tightened things up.

Then I embarked on sorting out the struts. Front struts are straightforward to replace. Pulled the old ones out, compressed the spring and put it on the new Koni sturt along with new strut mounts, bearings, bump stops, spring pads, metal plates and all new locking nuts. I just didn't replace the dust boot since replacement parts didn't arrive in time so reused the old one. It didn't have any tears and it was still, well, rubbery so should be fine.





I marked the original position of the spring on the stock strut and replicated that on the new sturts. Installed the unit back on the car and proceeded with rear shocks.



Rear shocks are not that difficult to replace just more time consuming as it requires more stuff to be removed.

To access the top mount the following needs to go out: rear seat, C pillars, parcel shelf and rear speakers and then we end up with this.





Off goes the fender liner and fuel filler neck moved out of the way. It's amazing how much crap the fender liners accumulate over the years, goggles are highly recommended for this part.
I used a block of wood cut to 23,5 mm and wedged against the frame of the car to keep the swing arm in place which makes for easier removal and installation of the shocks.







I set the spring perch at the lowest position on Koni shocks which matched the original setup and replaced all wearable parts along the way and then finished putting everything back together.







This is the end result. 3 totally dead shocks and 1 that would bounce back at snail speed. 105k miles is definitely more than stock Sachs units can go for.



Per Koni's recommendation when pairing them with stock springs, I left them in their factory delivered setting which is full soft. I really don't want to pull the rear shocks again anytime soon and I would rather live with softer and comfortable suspension than bounce around. The fronts are easy to adjust on the car so I can still play with them.

I went for alignment the next day and then took it on a short trip to Stuttgart to visit a friend on Saturday.



I still need to put more miles on them before I give them a proper review but since I was essentially driving just on springs before, the difference is simply unmistakable.
New struts transformed how the car rides and It finally feels like a proper M5. It's planted, firm, comfortable and the car gives me the confidence to push it to the limit and cruise at higher speeds which is exactly what I want for this M5. New shocks were undeniably a good call.

In other news, the 8er arrived earlier last week. My initial plan was to rent a tow truck and go pick it up myself but I ended up finding a guy who transported it for roughly the same cost which saved me a whole day of driving back and forth which was nice.





I started off with some basic maintenance like new oil & filters, distributor cap and rotors, cleaning up the interior and exterior and I'm still left with sorting out various vacuum lines and spark plugs and million other things.













For a 27 years old car, the interior is looking really sharp.







Looks to be a non-smoker car. Love little details like this.



Finishing the update with some clean Le-Mans-Blue-goodness.

[704sw]

This guy knows how to make a damn update!!!

Also, what a ridiculous procedure to access the rear mounts. Jeez...

[BMWCurves]

This guy knows how to make a damn update!!!

Also, what a ridiculous procedure to access the rear mounts. Jeez...

+1

[RUS_ZHP]

Your update are awesome. Keep them coming-
And excellent job as usual

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[Sreten]

Danke schön, fellas!

Yeah, rear mounts are absolute pain to access which makes the adjustment of the rear shocks pretty much useless on e39.

[Sockethead]

I'm assuming the e39 has a traditional steering box judging by the center link?
I can see now what you mean about the rear shock adjustment!
Can't wait to see your progress with the 8 series... never seen one up close

[ZHPizza]

Checking flights to come do a Euro tour with your two cars next year...

[704sw]

Checking flights to come do a Euro tour with your two cars next year...

Checking flights to come buy some cool old BMW and bring it back to the States. As the wise @BMWCurves once told me, “saving is for suckers.”