Just had the rear spring changed in readiness for a cruise tomorrow. Just thought I would post a picture to show how much broke off.
New one 9", this broken one is 7 and 3/4"
New one 9", this broken one is 7 and 3/4"
Broken rear spring
- Thread starter GazHyde
- Start date
Blimey Gaz
That was lucky
If you had run over them you might have needed a new tyre as well......
Z3nt from m'iPhone on Tapatalk
That was lucky
If you had run over them you might have needed a new tyre as well......
Z3nt from m'iPhone on Tapatalk
I had one snap on my E36 and it flew out behind the car, luckily there was no one following me or it could have been very dangerous :-(
Zed Carer
Zorg Addict
Had 2 new rear tyres on the Z4 (07 2.0i Sport) yesterday and whilst the wheels were off had a look at the brake pads and also the rear springs. The o/s spring was broken, about 2 coils from the bottom - similar to Gaz :head:
Tried RealOEM but it doesn't recognise the VIN number as the 2.0i Sport was a separate model so couldn't get a part number therefore no choice but to contact the local dealer - Sandal BMW in Wakefield. Phoned them about 3pm and rear springs are special order parts at £99 (incl VAT) each fortunately they were quite happy to sell just one! They phoned just after 9am this morning to say that it had arrived so off to collect it.
Couldn't find anything on Youtube for the E85 but did find This One for an E46. Followed this and used the jack from the Z3 and it was quite straightforward - took about an hour taking it slowly and carefully.
The Part Number for the o/s rear spring is: B33.53.6.761.924 and it was marked with 3 Silver marks for the lowered suspension option.
Tried RealOEM but it doesn't recognise the VIN number as the 2.0i Sport was a separate model so couldn't get a part number therefore no choice but to contact the local dealer - Sandal BMW in Wakefield. Phoned them about 3pm and rear springs are special order parts at £99 (incl VAT) each fortunately they were quite happy to sell just one! They phoned just after 9am this morning to say that it had arrived so off to collect it.
Couldn't find anything on Youtube for the E85 but did find This One for an E46. Followed this and used the jack from the Z3 and it was quite straightforward - took about an hour taking it slowly and carefully.
The Part Number for the o/s rear spring is: B33.53.6.761.924 and it was marked with 3 Silver marks for the lowered suspension option.
The front broke on my old E46 when i had it and the spring did this
The car was so low on the ground I had to tie a 4"x 4" block of wood in where the spring should have been to get the car high enough to get it on the back of the truck
The car was so low on the ground I had to tie a 4"x 4" block of wood in where the spring should have been to get the car high enough to get it on the back of the truck
Mr-P
Zorg Addict
Zed Carer said:
I know there is a cost issue but I would never replace just one spring, its bad enough that most spring are not matched when new.
Zed Carer
Zorg Addict
Rear springs on the E85 Z4 are a well known issue and when repaired under warranty BMW used to just replace the one broken spring. However if the car was out of warranty BMW used to try and insist that they had to be replaced in pairs! They have now dropped that and it wasn't mentioned when I bought the single spring.Mr-P said:
Shocks wear so these should always be replaced in pairs as should discs and pads. With the broken spring the o/s had dropped 12mm and with the new spring there is now 1mm difference between the n/s and o/s and that is probably as good, if not better than it was when it was new. Generally springs do not "wear" out like the shocks and the springs generally maintain the correct ride height - until they break!
Mr-P
Zorg Addict
Zed Carer said:
I hear what you are saying, with warranty claims the dealer/manufacture is always trying to save money. So they will always go for just replacing 1.
As for springs, yes the can last for the life of a car, however, springs can wear out due to fatigue from heavy/longterm use. A spring that shows fatigued in simple terms can just get lazy.
Zed Carer
Zorg Addict
In the past when BMW were telling people that they needed to replace the rear springs in pairs they said it was a safety issue but that backfired on them as they were only fitting one spring under warranty but I agree that was probably to keep their costs down.Mr-P said:
I think that the key is heavy/longterm use but out of the almost 43,000 miles on the Z4 30,000 of these were the last 5 years of my wife's commuting with only her laptop in the boot. After fitting the new spring I left it for an hour or so with 2 bags of sand in the boot, took these out and checked the ride height. Then put the bags of sand back in the boot and took it out for a run and re-checked the ride height. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few weeks to see if the new spring starts riding any higher but so far so good. The sports suspension is extremely stiff and the MoT tester (same one for the last 3 years) has given up trying to do the bounce test as as it just doesn't move - the first time he had a moan about nearly giving himself a hernia!
It's probably one of the reasons why since 1976 the family cars (loadluggers, caravan towing cars, etc) have always been Citroens - 2 x GS, 1 xGSA, 2 x BX, 2 x Xantia and currently a C5 as there's no springs and shocks. In all the years the only suspension failure was a linkage in the rear ride height control and the new link piece cost 75p.
What's that in metric?...........GazHyde said:
