[Aundrew]

I have a 2008 328i that is approaching the 100k mileage mark that I DD. Recently the handling of the car has been noticeably harsh - bump steers and loud thuds over any little bumps in the road surface. Steering feels all loose. Can anyone give me an idea of what I should be looking to replace, in terms of suspension components, to get the handling back to what it once was? Are there components that are more critical to replace first or should I be trying to do them all at once? Thanks

[GoRomeo]

subscribed... I am in the same boat. Most likely shocks, bushings and upper and lower control arms? Am I missing anything?

[Patris]

Originally Posted by Aundrew

I have a 2008 328i that is approaching the 100k mileage mark that I DD. Recently the handling of the car has been noticeably harsh - bump steers and loud thuds over any little bumps in the road surface. Steering feels all loose. Can anyone give me an idea of what I should be looking to replace, in terms of suspension components, to get the handling back to what it once was? Are there components that are more critical to replace first or should I be trying to do them all at once? Thanks

Hello! I believe that you need to replace the steering rack and all your problems will be solved, check the tire pressure, this can also be one of the reasons. maybe the best decision in your situation will be selling a car and if you do it, then take advantage of this cheapautoinsurance.com when I sold my e60 550 then this site helped me to make a very good strike in Miami...

[tlow98]

Does it feel pretty "wallowy"?

Shocks/sturts and all rubber (spring pads) that immediately touches the shocks/struts. I wouldn't mess with the upper/lower control arms unless they're leaking.

This is if you're going for an OE-like ride.

Bilstein B4, Sachs or similar will be your best bet for OE-like.

[BravoJohny33]

Full suspension refresh would be struts, shocks, mounting hardware, upper and lower control arms. You are looking at 1000's of dollars. Its not worth it. Replace what is broke and move on.

[Bamaben]

I just posted a thread on what I replaced and I did the front control and thrust arms and added rear subframe bushing inserts and car is tight

[Aundrew]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Does it feel pretty "wallowy"?

Shocks/sturts and all rubber that immediately touches the shocks/struts. I wouldn't mess with the upper/lower control arms unless they're leaking.

This is if you're going for an OE-like ride.

Bilstein B4, Sachs or similar will be your best bet.

Yes the car does feel wallowy and wobbly around dips and bumps on the road. Not exactly confidence inspiring. The car also feels very harsh when going over those same bumps, especially since this is a stock non-sport suspension. I'm not sure if the problems are independent of each other or not.

Originally Posted by Bamaben

I just posted a thread on what I replaced and I did the front control and thrust arms and added rear subframe bushing inserts and car is tight

Will look into this. Thanks!

[Aundrew]

Originally Posted by Patris

Hello! I believe that you need to replace the steering rack and all your problems will be solved, check the tire pressure, this can also be one of the reasons. maybe the best decision in your situation will be selling a car and if you do it, then take advantage of this cheapautoinsurance.com when I sold my e60 550 then this site helped me to make a very good strike in Miami...

Definitely will consider selling if repair costs exceed the wife’s cost expectations. She’s been dying for an SUV!

[NiNeTyOne]

Originally Posted by BravoJohny33

Full suspension refresh would be struts, shocks, mounting hardware, upper and lower control arms. You are looking at 1000's of dollars. Its not worth it. Replace what is broke and move on.

This entire job is $1200 in parts and one day of work. I have done it on three cars, and it's not a difficult job at all if you have any DIY skills.

Add in an alignment and the car is back to handling like new.

Hardly the thousands you claim. Not everyone needs to run to the dealer every time they need work done.

We did this on Dan Bilzerian's car a few days ago, he's happy as a clam:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22833665

[Efthreeoh]

OP, my E90 has has the factory sport package and over 300,000 miles on it. I've refreshed the suspension twice. The first at 182,000 miles with BMW OE sport suspension struts, rear shocks, and a bunch of ancillary hardware that came with BMW's (at the time) sport suspension conversion kit (it was on sale so I bought it and stored it for 2-years before I used it). At 182K I did not replace any of the bushings other than the front swayarm bushings (they came with the kit) and the front thrust arms (also called tension struts or upper control arms) with M3 parts because I was getting some brake shimmy, which is an indication of bad thrust arm bushings. I left the front lower control arms (wish bones) and tirerods alone. I did replace the strut swivel bearings and rubber spring perch bushings. Nothing in the rear was replaced other than the shocks.

I just refreshed the suspension for a second time at 336,000 miles. The left front strut was leaking. This time I went aftermarket with Bilstein B8 (sport shock/strut for lowered cars) and H&R sport springs. As far as suspension components I replaced the lower control arms and tierods. I built entirely new front struts with all new parts, springs, spring perch rubber isolators, swivel bearings, and the aluminum upper spring perches (really didn't need them, but it kept me from having to breakdown the old struts first). At 314,000 miles I did replace the M3 tension struts again because the left side came up with a bad ball-joint. In the rear, I installed new shocks, upper shock mount parts, and lower shock mounts (they bolt into the lower rear control arm) springs, and spring rubber perch isolators. I did not replace any of the bushings in the various rear suspension arms (links) nor the rear subframe bushings.

Here are my observations and opinions. My car sees mostly smooth roads, but about 40% of my daily commute (of 175 miles round trip) are back country roads that I hammer on a daily basis, so the suspension sees a lot of stress and periodic hard braking. City cars may need different attention because of shitty roads, who knows. My old front suspension components (tierods and lower control arms) were still in good shape. The inner and outer ball joints on the tierods had no play in them. The lower control arm bushings were still tight and the ball joints had no play (remember, these components had 336,000 miles on them). The rear end suspension bushings in the various links all looked to be in good shape. The car lined up perfectly fine when I took it to a local independent shop for the alignment. My refresh was about $1,000 in parts. I DIY'd it.

My opinion is that a lot of folks here unnecessarily replace bushings and suspension arms/links thinking it will freshen up the suspension. I got in an argument about this a few weeks ago here on E90 Post with a guy who lives in Washington State who disagreed with me that my car didn't need new bushings, even though my car is in Virginia and he's never seen it... I have a lift in my home shop so I can see up close each bushing for inspection. I have been DIY'ing cars for 40 years now (before I could drive), so I have decent experience with this type of work.

You didn't say if you were going to do the suspension work yourself or have a shop do it for you. Since you don't have the sport suspension I recommend either swapping out to a sport suspension, which means new springs that lower the car and shorter sport struts/shocks, or if you want to keep the springs you have, you can go with Bilstein B6's, which have stiffer dampening but are meant for non-sport springs (height). There are several ways to go with a suspension refresh on the E90. Turner Motorsports has a good website to see most of the the offerings from various manufacturers. There is tons of info on the Suspension/Braking subforum. If you have a wife-sensitive budget, then maybe just go with some Bilstein B6's, which will tighten up the suspension considerably. If you want to drop the car a few inches to sport height then that's new springs, which run around $250 for a set of four (front and rear). As far as suspension components, you can save some budget by just not replacing components without first inspecting them and evaluating their condition. I do recommend that you do at least the thrust arms with M3 parts (because the bushing are solid vs. hydraulic) only because age and road chemicals can weaken the thrust arm and it can just snap in half under hard braking or pot hole hits. We had a Poster last week or so had this happen to him and he lives in Philly too. Thrust arms take about 15 minutes a side to replace. They literally drop out of the car once you un-bolt them. The nice thing about the E90 front suspension is it comes apart without the need for ball-joint splitting tools; it is very easy to work on comparatively speaking.

[BravoJohny33]

Originally Posted by NiNeTyOne

This entire job is $1200 in parts and one day of work. I have done it on three cars, and it's not a difficult job at all if you have any DIY skills.

Add in an alignment and the car is back to handling like new.

Hardly the thousands you claim. Not everyone needs to run to the dealer every time they need work done.

We did this on Dan Bilzerian's car a few days ago, he's happy as a clam:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22833665

1000's are Indy prices.. not dealer son.

Just so we are clear 1200 in parts would be about 3500 in labor and parts from an indy. I love how everyone assumes these indy mechanics are much cheaper than the dealer. The places here charge over 500 just to replace 2 control arms. Doing upper and lower across the car would prob be around 1400 dollars. Struts and shocks on this done by an indy would be around 1500 dollars.

I love how you say its soo easy to do this job. I have done the shocks and control arms. Its not easy without a lift and air tools. Those bolts for the control arms are a bitch to get off without air tools.

The shop I had put my struts on got stuck trying to get the struts out. Took them twice book time to get them out. That is with a lift. I can't imagine someone doing a full refresh without a lift and airtools. Complete hell.

You try doing this work in your apartment complex, no garage with harborfreight tools. Its hell.

[srey]

Originally Posted by BravoJohny33

1000's are Indy prices.. not dealer son.

Just so we are clear 1200 in parts would be about 3500 in labor and parts from an indy. I love how everyone assumes these indy mechanics are much cheaper than the dealer. The places here charge over 500 just to replace 2 control arms. Doing upper and lower across the car would prob be around 1400 dollars. Struts and shocks on this done by an indy would be around 1500 dollars.

I love how you say its soo easy to do this job. I have done the shocks and control arms. Its not easy without a lift and air tools. Those bolts for the control arms are a bitch to get off without air tools.

The shop I had put my struts on got stuck trying to get the struts out. Took them twice book time to get them out. That is with a lift. I can't imagine someone doing a full refresh without a lift and airtools. Complete hell.

You try doing this work in your apartment complex, no garage with harborfreight tools. Its hell.

I'll be doing shocks, struts, and control arms in a few weeks in my garage on jackstands with no air tools. I'll try to remember to post back here and say how it was. I don't anticipate it being a big deal.

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by srey

I'll be doing shocks, struts, and control arms in a few weeks in my garage on jackstands with no air tools. I'll try to remember to post back here and say how it was. I don't anticipate it being a big deal.

keep us posted....

I need to do mine too...

[NiNeTyOne]

Originally Posted by srey

I'll be doing shocks, struts, and control arms in a few weeks in my garage on jackstands with no air tools. I'll try to remember to post back here and say how it was. I don't anticipate it being a big deal.

I did mine alone on stands in 7 hours, including walking 4 blocks each way with my front assemblies to use a buddy's spring compressor. It's cake.

I've done this job 3 times now on various e9x's and you'll be fine.

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by NiNeTyOne

I did mine alone on stands in 7 hours, including walking 4 blocks each way with my front assemblies to use a buddy's spring compressor. It's cake.

I've done this job 3 times now on various e9x's and you'll be fine.

should have done a DIY video or something...

[NiNeTyOne]

Originally Posted by GoRomeo

should have done a DIY video or something...

Yeah, there's a manual for that, this is not a difficult job.

[mecheng77]

1/2" electric impact is your friend. I'm a believer
In quality tools but all impacts are from China and my $60 cdn tire (probably similar to Harborfreight) never let me down

[BravoJohny33]

Originally Posted by NiNeTyOne

Yeah, there's a manual for that, this is not a difficult job.

Never said it was a technical job. There is a difference between technical and hard. Its a hard job without power tools and anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. It takes forever to get anything apart. The splash shield takes 20 min to get off with a non powered screw driver.

If the job is so "easy" why do all these mechanics charge 3k+?

[Dan Bilzerian]

Originally Posted by BravoJohny33

Never said it was a technical job. There is a difference between technical and hard. Its a hard job without power tools and anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. It takes forever to get anything apart. The splash shield takes 20 min to get off with a non powered screw driver.

If the job is so "easy" why do all these mechanics charge 3k+?

It takes you 20 minutes to get the splash shield off?!? Work on those forearms son.

[hassmaschine]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

OP, my E90 has has the factory sport package and over 300,000 miles on it. I've refreshed the suspension twice. The first at 182,000 miles with BMW OE sport suspension struts, rear shocks, and a bunch of ancillary hardware that came with BMW's (at the time) sport suspension conversion kit (it was on sale so I bought it and stored it for 2-years before I used it). At 182K I did not replace any of the bushings other than the front swayarm bushings (they came with the kit) and the front thrust arms (also called tension struts or upper control arms) with M3 parts because I was getting some brake shimmy, which is an indication of bad thrust arm bushings. I left the front lower control arms (wish bones) and tirerods alone. I did replace the strut swivel bearings and rubber spring perch bushings. Nothing in the rear was replaced other than the shocks.

I just refreshed the suspension for a second time at 336,000 miles. The left front strut was leaking. This time I went aftermarket with Bilstein B8 (sport shock/strut for lowered cars) and H&R sport springs. As far as suspension components I replaced the lower control arms and tierods. I built entirely new front struts with all new parts, springs, spring perch rubber isolators, swivel bearings, and the aluminum upper spring perches (really didn't need them, but it kept me from having to breakdown the old struts first). At 314,000 miles I did replace the M3 tension struts again because the left side came up with a bad ball-joint. In the rear, I installed new shocks, upper shock mount parts, and lower shock mounts (they bolt into the lower rear control arm) springs, and spring rubber perch isolators. I did not replace any of the bushings in the various rear suspension arms (links) nor the rear subframe bushings.

Here are my observations and opinions. My car sees mostly smooth roads, but about 40% of my daily commute (of 175 miles round trip) are back country roads that I hammer on a daily basis, so the suspension sees a lot of stress and periodic hard braking. City cars may need different attention because of shitty roads, who knows. My old front suspension components (tierods and lower control arms) were still in good shape. The inner and outer ball joints on the tierods had no play in them. The lower control arm bushings were still tight and the ball joints had no play (remember, these components had 336,000 miles on them). The rear end suspension bushings in the various links all looked to be in good shape. The car lined up perfectly fine when I took it to a local independent shop for the alignment. My refresh was about $1,000 in parts. I DIY'd it.

My opinion is that a lot of folks here unnecessarily replace bushings and suspension arms/links thinking it will freshen up the suspension. I got in an argument about this a few weeks ago here on E90 Post with a guy who lives in Washington State who disagreed with me that my car didn't need new bushings, even though my car is in Virginia and he's never seen it... I have a lift in my home shop so I can see up close each bushing for inspection. I have been DIY'ing cars for 40 years now (before I could drive), so I have decent experience with this type of work.

You didn't say if you were going to do the suspension work yourself or have a shop do it for you. Since you don't have the sport suspension I recommend either swapping out to a sport suspension, which means new springs that lower the car and shorter sport struts/shocks, or if you want to keep the springs you have, you can go with Bilstein B6's, which have stiffer dampening but are meant for non-sport springs (height). There are several ways to go with a suspension refresh on the E90. Turner Motorsports has a good website to see most of the the offerings from various manufacturers. There is tons of info on the Suspension/Braking subforum. If you have a wife-sensitive budget, then maybe just go with some Bilstein B6's, which will tighten up the suspension considerably. If you want to drop the car a few inches to sport height then that's new springs, which run around $250 for a set of four (front and rear). As far as suspension components, you can save some budget by just not replacing components without first inspecting them and evaluating their condition. I do recommend that you do at least the thrust arms with M3 parts (because the bushing are solid vs. hydraulic) only because age and road chemicals can weaken the thrust arm and it can just snap in half under hard braking or pot hole hits. We had a Poster last week or so had this happen to him and he lives in Philly too. Thrust arms take about 15 minutes a side to replace. They literally drop out of the car once you un-bolt them. The nice thing about the E90 front suspension is it comes apart without the need for ball-joint splitting tools; it is very easy to work on comparatively speaking.

+1000000

People here complain about maintenance costs, but most of the time they are replacing parts unnecessarily. Do you think people who drive Camrys *ever* replace suspension parts? hell, they run tires with 800 treadwear ratings for 90,000+ miles.

E90 suspensions are actually pretty solid - they don't have any major weak points, and parts don't seem to wear out as fast as BMWs in the past (which were still more than fine). I'm at 134k on my original Sport suspension, and my car is very solid, rides well and handles sharply.

I suppose at some point I'll have to replace the shocks (nothing lasts forever), but every single bushing at 100k? You're wasting your time...

[crossface007]

start with something low cost and easy ie sway bar bushings and End links. I promise you will eliminate 90% of your issues. just my 2 pennies.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

+1000000

People here complain about maintenance costs, but most of the time they are replacing parts unnecessarily. Do you think people who drive Camrys *ever* replace suspension parts? hell, they run tires with 800 treadwear ratings for 90,000+ miles.

E90 suspensions are actually pretty solid - they don't have any major weak points, and parts don't seem to wear out as fast as BMWs in the past (which were still more than fine). I'm at 134k on my original Sport suspension, and my car is very solid, rides well and handles sharply.

I suppose at some point I'll have to replace the shocks (nothing lasts forever), but every single bushing at 100k? You're wasting your time...

LOL. So this reminded me of an experience I had a few months ago with a buddy at work. He's has an '03 E39 540i he recently acquired as a discounted hand-me-down from his grandfather and is now experiencing the BMW tax; he's had the BMW just over a year now. He's a suburban-living family man with a few kids in middle school, so he also has an aged (15 year-old?) 140,000-mile Camry (and a Toyota Minivan). I'm not sure what year the Camry is, because one of the last cars on earth I pay any attention to is the Toyota Camry; I do know it's the ugly one .

Anyway, he and I and a few coworkers were in his Camry a few months ago and travelling at highway speeds. I was sitting in the right rear corner. Underneath me the suspension is just nosily hammering away like a jackhammer. I made mention of this fact to him and he was in somewhat disbelief as he's never felt any untoward behavior out of the suspension or handling of his suburban-environment Camry; and other than tires, oil and gasoline, he never done any maintenance on it. I suggested that he get the car looked at because I suspected there were several worn parts, least of which was a blown rear damper and maybe a few suspension bushings. I also suggested it was a dangerous situation.

Then we have knuckleheads here that replace almost every part of their BMW on a routine 30,000-mile basis and complain about the "BMW tax".