[bmw_solid]

Hi All,

Hope you are all good.

As above, I am actually quite disappointed with BMW for the job they did in the E92 SE suspension pre-lci models.

I bought my 330d SE with 105,000 miles back in April this year with 1 front leaking shock and 1 rear leaking shock and shot front control arms.

Now, having replaced all 4 shocks with Sachs OEM standard suspension shocks + all mounts + all bump stocks (lemforder/febi) + all front arms (febi) and having spent north of £500 on these repairs alone, the ride actually feels worse than before tbh... It feels like a M-Sport suspension in my opinion but doesn't handle like one!

More harsh, more thuds, more bumpy ride. I got all the above done over a span of 2 months, and one thing that I did realise was that everytime I drove the car for the first time after a 'certain' job was completed, it felt comfortable, compliant but then after 2-3 days, it would go back to bad again!!

Okay I admit that my car has the 19" wheels 225/35 and 255/30 (non run-flats) but I still expect a better ride than currently...

I am therefore considering the following things now:

1) Reduce air pressure in tyres by 10% of stated values: Did this today, car felt comfortable for the first 10 odd minutes then back to the bad ride again.

2) Springs: I don't know if my car has had its springs replaced but most likely it has due to its mileage. Therefore, I don't know if they are cheap stuff or decent like Sachs/Lemforder etc. Could cheap springs cause the above symptoms?

3) Progressive front springs: I was reading on one of the threads here where a member said that earlier E9x models had progressive springs on the front? Is this true? If it is, my car certainly doesn't have them. (2008 model)

4) Is it possible my car has the 'Sport' suspension as an option? It has the sport seats, sport steering wheel with shift flaps...I need a good website that can decode my VIN and display all the options.

5) I did the rear shocks my self. I didnt change the lower shock mounts as I couldnt get them off (i did change the upper mounts). However, I did torque the main shock nut to 17Nm. I didn't torque the upper shock nut as I could only use a spanner but I did tighten it enough.

6) Front shocks were done by a general car mechanic. Is it possible they have either tightened a bolt/nut too tight or loose, which is causing a bad ride?

7) On the front springs, I understand there is like a thick rubber housing that the spring sits on, if this gets bad, could it cause problems?

Finally, the million dollar question. Does the E92 LCI SE Model have a more compliant ride? Did it eradicate the thuds/pothole explosions/harsh ride etc for a more german-engineered feel? If it did, can I replace the front shocks to LCI shocks because I understand the rears are the same in pre and LCI? If I can, will this resolve my problem or did the LCI have better suspension arm/links also?

One last thing, Does the E90 LCI SE Model also have a more compliant ride? Because I am considering selling my E92 for a LCI E90 325d with the M57 engine (2009 year), if it does...

Came across this thread but couldn't really get a confirmation re. the LCI suspension: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=479033

Thanks all.

[bmw_solid]

To the Mods:

Can you please delete this thread as I need to start a new thread on a similar topic.

Thanks,

[The Nightman]

I think there are two main factors here:

1. Wheel size and tire model
The tire model has a significant role in ride comfort, but ride comfort is already limited due to the 19" wheels. Downsizing to 17" or 18" wheels with premium tires will make the biggest difference in ride comfort.

2. Improper dampers
You might have standard dampers with sport springs. Your springs may still have the codes on them. C# is standard while D# is sport. If you have sport springs, then you will need sport specific dampers.


Also, it's hard to establish ride comfort without any context. I would say the E9x NVH is acceptable given its sporty intentions, but I don't think I would ever describe the ride as comfortable, especially when compared to other vehicles in this class.

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by freedomfries

I think there are two main factors here:

1. Wheel size and tire model
The tire model has a significant role in ride comfort, but ride comfort is already limited due to the 19" wheels. Downsizing to 17" or 18" wheels with premium tires will make the biggest difference in ride comfort.

2. Improper dampers
You might have standard dampers with sport springs. Your springs may still have the codes on them. C# is standard while D# is sport. If you have sport springs, then you will need sport specific dampers.


Also, it's hard to establish ride comfort without any context. I would say the E9x NVH is acceptable given its sporty intentions, but I don't think I would ever describe the ride as comfortable, especially when compared to other vehicles in this class.

Thanks for your response.

Yes, wheel size and tyre type is a big factor surely. But on the contrary, I sat in the back of the car for the first time on Saturday, and the ride is like a different car at the back. No thuds whatsoever, no crashing over bumps, hardly any road noise, despite the fact that I am running 19" wheels with budget tyres! If I can get the front to feel similar to the back in terms of behaviour, that would be the icing on the cake.

Point number 2 is interesting. I will try to have a look next time I remove the wheel, but I doubt that could be the case as the handling doesn't feel like a 'sport' spring set up even before I replaced the original BMW shocks on the car.

It depends...from what I have learn't, the E9x LCI was a much more compliant ride because they used Bilstein for their shocks....I have seen threads on the net where people have put B4s onto their Pre-LCI E9x models and significantly improved the ride.

To be fair, the E9x in SE trim is a fairly comfortable car IMO bar the crashing over bumps and the silly thuds and pothole explosions. I have started another thread here asking about B4s and I am hopeful to get more views/opinions to confirm my research and will then be tempted to replace the terrible Sachs shocks to the B4s.

[aphael]

I am not familiar with the sachs shocks that you guys get in the UK but my e92 328i sport came with bilstein b4s on sport springs. The ride quality and handling were both pretty good.

What type of springs are you using? I would avoid any types of lowering springs since they made my relatively new shocks ride like trash over bumps (made me go to coilover). The B8s would be better if you are using an aftermarket spring. B4s are good for stock springs. Also you could also go for koni yellows which are more expensive but good quality and are adjustable

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by freedomfries

2. Improper dampers
You might have standard dampers with sport springs. Your springs may still have the codes on them. C# is standard while D# is sport. If you have sport springs, then you will need sport specific dampers..

I was just looking through some of the pictures of the rear suspension arms that I took when doing the rear shocks. I did notice that on the rear spring there was a sticker 'C2' which confirms the car has standard springs on the rear? I noticed these 'C2' stickers at the time when I was actually replacing the rear shocks and at the time I though the springs were aftermarket assuming the label C2 was a specific spring type/model.

I've attached a picture of the rear spring. Does this mean the car has BMW springs at the back?

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by aphael

I am not familiar with the sachs shocks that you guys get in the UK but my e92 328i sport came with bilstein b4s on sport springs. The ride quality and handling were both pretty good.

What type of springs are you using? I would avoid any types of lowering springs since they made my relatively new shocks ride like trash over bumps (made me go to coilover). The B8s would be better if you are using an aftermarket spring. B4s are good for stock springs. Also you could also go for koni yellows which are more expensive but good quality and are adjustable

Good to hear that your e92 with B4s had a good ride. As it appears, my car has the BMW original SE springs. I am very inclined to swap the Sachs to B4s now. I can't believe I made this stupid mistake - I should have researched more carefully before buying the Sachs. At the time, I thought the B4s were some lowering/sporty ride shocks that people were using to get better handling. After doing some more in depth research, It turns out the B4s were actually the OEM provider for BMW E9x LCI models!! Had I known this before...

Yes, I agree with you. I will be sticking with B4s non sport and B3 SE springs as I can't afford and don't want to get into the B6 or B8 etc territory, especially on a SE spec model!

[The Nightman]

Originally Posted by bmw_solid

I was just looking through some of the pictures of the rear suspension arms that I took when doing the rear shocks. I did notice that on the rear spring there was a sticker 'C2' which confirms the car has standard springs on the rear? I noticed these 'C2' stickers at the time when I was actually replacing the rear shocks and at the time I though the springs were aftermarket assuming the label C2 was a specific spring type/model.

I've attached a picture of the rear spring. Does this mean the car has BMW springs at the back?

Correct, the C2 sticker denotes BMW Standard (ie non-Sport) springs. The Sport version of this spring would be labelled D2. If you check your front springs, the label may still be there if you want to confirm what they are.

Regardless, it appears you have mismatched dampers. The Sachs 311-410 shock in your picture is for Sport suspension, so you are running Sport dampers with Standard springs. This would likely explain the lack of ride comfort rather than Sachs vs. Bilstein B4 since both are more or less OE.

Front struts: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=31_0766
Standard: 31316786001/31316786002 = Sachs 311-403/311-404, Bilstein B4 22-136572/22-136589
Sport: 31316786003/31316786004 = Sachs 311-405/311-406, Bilstein B4 22-135032/22-135049

Rear shocks: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526771725 = Sachs 311-409, Bilstein B4 19-135021
Sport: 33526771729 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-135052

And for whatever it's worth, I replaced my Standard springs and factory Sachs dampers (with 121k km) to Sport springs and Bilstein B4s on my E90 LCI and the ride quality did improve. I attributed this to having brand new dampers.

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by freedomfries

Correct, the C2 sticker denotes BMW Standard (ie non-Sport) springs. The Sport version of this spring would be labelled D2. If you check your front springs, the label may still be there if you want to confirm what they are.

Regardless, it appears you have mismatched dampers. The Sachs 311-410 shock in your picture is for Sport suspension, so you are running Sport dampers with Standard springs. This would likely explain the lack of ride comfort rather than Sachs vs. Bilstein B4 since both are more or less OE.

Front struts: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=31_0766
Standard: 31316786001/31316786002 = Sachs 311-403/311-404, Bilstein B4 22-136572/22-136589
Sport: 31316786003/31316786004 = Sachs 311-405/311-406, Bilstein B4 22-135032/22-135049

Rear shocks: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526771725 = Sachs 311-409, Bilstein B4 19-135021
Sport: 33526771729 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-135052

And for whatever it's worth, I replaced my Standard springs and factory Sachs dampers (with 121k km) to Sport springs and Bilstein B4s on my E90 LCI and the ride quality did improve. I attributed this to having brand new dampers.

That's strange, I really doubt I have the Sport dampers at the rear as I purchased these from ECP and they mentioned for standard suspension and I also cross-checked on Sachs website and they also said for standard suspension.

In fact Sachs now only sell the 311-410 here in the UK according to their parts page (link below) and apparently the 311-410 is for all Pre-LCI and LCI models, SE and Sport strangely enough. That's the reason why I purchased these... Please confirm.

https://aftermarket.zf.com/go/en/sac...9,854,190,1180

How about the front dampers - I have got Sachs 311-403 and 311-404 currently...these are for SE right? I hope the SACHS website hasn't got an error running on their system???

Thanks for confirming about the C2s.

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by freedomfries

Correct, the C2 sticker denotes BMW Standard (ie non-Sport) springs. The Sport version of this spring would be labelled D2. If you check your front springs, the label may still be there if you want to confirm what they are.

Regardless, it appears you have mismatched dampers. The Sachs 311-410 shock in your picture is for Sport suspension, so you are running Sport dampers with Standard springs. This would likely explain the lack of ride comfort rather than Sachs vs. Bilstein B4 since both are more or less OE.

Front struts: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=31_0766
Standard: 31316786001/31316786002 = Sachs 311-403/311-404, Bilstein B4 22-136572/22-136589
Sport: 31316786003/31316786004 = Sachs 311-405/311-406, Bilstein B4 22-135032/22-135049

Rear shocks: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526771725 = Sachs 311-409, Bilstein B4 19-135021
Sport: 33526771729 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-135052

And for whatever it's worth, I replaced my Standard springs and factory Sachs dampers (with 121k km) to Sport springs and Bilstein B4s on my E90 LCI and the ride quality did improve. I attributed this to having brand new dampers.

Just re-read your thread agin and noticed you kindly put the part numbers as well. The 311-409 is until year 2006 08 as mentioned on their website. It appears that after this date, all the E9x models pre and lci had the 311-410s for some strange reason. one would think the M-Sport models would have a different rear shock??

[bmw_solid]

See below screenshots for Rear shocks by SACHS (from their website after putting my Registration number):

Hence, as per their site, it appears my model 2008 08 build requires the 311 410 rear Sachs shocks... The 311-409 was only available up until 2006 08...

I'm just hoping their website does not contain an error as I will be really gutted if I have the wrong shocks on the rear.....

[aphael]

Originally Posted by bmw_solid

See below screenshots for Rear shocks by SACHS (from their website after putting my Registration number):

Hence, as per their site, it appears my model 2008 08 build requires the 311 410 rear Sachs shocks... The 311-409 was only available up until 2006 08...

I'm just hoping their website does not contain an error as I will be really gutted if I have the wrong shocks on the rear.....

The pre lci and lci in the us had the same bilstein shocks I believe. Double check compatibility, since I don't know if bilsteins will fit on an euro e92.

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by aphael

The pre lci and lci in the us had the same bilstein shocks I believe. Double check compatibility, since I don't know if bilsteins will fit on an euro e92.

Not sure about the US but for UK, SACHS made the pre-lci shocks, which were bad. Then in the LCI, B4s were used. Now, as soon as B4s were introduced in the LCI, the ride improved a lot as we all know (I'm assuming the ride was also improved in the SE LCI models as well).

Now, what I think is that in the US the pre-lci B4s may have been a different part number to the LCI B4s?? I will try to find out more about this but because its for US market, it may be hard for me, as Im in UK and wouldn't know exactly where to look.

If however the pre-lci and lci did happen to have had the same/identical B4 shocks, then the million dollar question is how did BMW manage to improve the ride by using the same shocks? The only way to do this IMO is to re-design the shocks, no?

[The Nightman]

Not sure why Sachs specifies the same shock for both E92 LCI standard and M-Sport models. BMW and Bilstein have different part numbers:

LCI:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526796157 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-136592
M-Sport (S704A): 33526796161 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-136622

Pre-LCI:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526771725 = Sachs 311-409, Bilstein B4 19-135021
Sport (S226A): 33526771729 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-303581

[bmw_solid]

Originally Posted by freedomfries

Not sure why Sachs specifies the same shock for both E92 LCI standard and M-Sport models. BMW and Bilstein have different part numbers:

LCI:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526796157 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-136592
M-Sport (S704A): 33526796161 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-136622

Pre-LCI:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=33_1353
Standard: 33526771725 = Sachs 311-409, Bilstein B4 19-135021
Sport (S226A): 33526771729 = Sachs 311-410, Bilstein B4 19-303581

No idea... I can only think that after 2006 08 BMW tweaked their suspension to maybe a more sporty-biased feel at the rear end (for all suspension models). The back seats in my E92 does feel quite firm but also has a waft feel to it when needed. I would say it feels like what a M-Sport car should feel like - firm but not harsh like a plank and also has a waft ready when needed.

From what I see, I am sure I haven't got the wrong shocks on the rear according to SACHS website and my build date 2008 08...