Faulty shocks?

[Loom]

After jacking up and lowering my car (E36 323i) the body (rear end) stays elevated (both sides, with the left side a bit higher than the right side). It stays like that even when pressing on the rear side or tow bar but settles back to normal after driving around a bit.

The rear tyres have bald spots but the shocks have been tested OK and there are no oil leaks.

Any ideas what could be wrong?

 

[abmi0000]

Certainly sounds like the shocks. Is the handling fine?

What I usually do is: Let the car settle and measure the ride height with your fingers is good enough. Then I lift it by the fender. If it doesn't return to normal height, it's the shocks.

Front or rear?

 

[moranor@axis]

what do the bald spots look like?

 

[Loom]

It's the rear.

I've only had the car for about 2 months and 1000 km so I don't have a baseline to compare to but I think the handling is reasonable. The rear end does come loose when taking off (and by taking off I mean hard acceleration) and turning into a cross road but I don't now it that's normal for the car or not. The car does not sway on the open road.

I intend to replace the suspension rubbers, starting at the back.

I don't have a picture of the bald spots but the tread wear is noticeably more on those/that spot than the rest of the tyre. It was like that when I got the car, so it's at least not the current driver's antics causing it.

 

[moranor@axis]

i would change the rubbers 1st and an alignment is probably also a good idea...

if you want powerflex bushes PM me... also have Koni STR.T shocks for you Rears go for R 1580 a pair... but i feel it would be better to start with bushes because you say the shocks seem fine...

 

[Loom]

What I usually do is: Let the car settle and measure the ride height with your fingers is good enough. Then I lift it by the fender. If it doesn't return to normal height, it's the shocks.

It returns to the original height.
I forgot to mention that the left side is always about one finger width (15-20mm) higher than the right hand side. It's noticeably higher than our E36 316i, which sits even on both sides.

After it has been jacked up it sits about 5 cm higher than the original height.

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i would change the rubbers 1st and an alignment is probably also a good idea...

if you want powerflex bushes PM me... also have Koni STR.T shocks for you Rears go for R 1580 a pair... but i feel it would be better to start with bushes because you say the shocks seem fine...

Thanks, moranor, but I'm going to stay with the rubber bushes.

 

[abmi0000]

It's normal for the car to stand slightly higher when lowered off the jack until the car is moved for a few metres so that it can settle out.

As for the ride height difference between the 2 sides, I have seen loads of cars this way and owned a few. My current 550i is the same. Driver side rear is higher than the opposite side. I don't believe that this is anything to worry about.

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Could you take pics of the flat spots?

Its also difficult to determine whether current situation is causing balding on the tyre as you mention that you purchased the car this way.

PS: Have you ensured that tyre pressures are o?

 

[calypso]

Shock tests are balls. I passed a shock test with flying colours when I had 2 blown rear shocks.
What is the kms on the shocks.

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

 

[Loom]

I'll take some pics. IIRC the bald spots are over the width of the tyre and not spots only partially covering the width.

The tyre pressures are OK.

I had the shocks tested at two places but I have my reservations about the tests too. The shocks are branded BMW (Sachs) so they were probably last replaced at a BMW dealership. I recall from the service book and receipts I got that the car was last serviced at BMW at either around 100k or 150k km, meaning the shocks have done at least 80k km. Or the full 230k km... I'll need to check the receipts.

It seems that the shock on the right side scrubbed the inside of the fender well lining (or whatever that part is called) at some time:

 

[abmi0000]

That's just a plastic cover but what on earth happened to the bump stop?

You need to replace those unless you want serious bottoming out on the shock or better still, body damage if the shock pushes through the metal housing of the car. Based on the amount of shock travel, those vrot bump stops could be adding to the poor unpredictable handling.

 

[Philip Foglar]

Now this could be an optical illusion from camera lens, but looks like the shaft going into the strut is at a slight angle. Saver to replace these...

It is normal for the ride height to be higher than normal after jacking the car up and back onto the ground again due to typical suspension geometry and the way the tyre tracks are less for a totally unloaded suspension. But after the wheels roll a metre or so this settles again.

 

[moranor@axis]

how rough are the roads around you looks like the bump stop has been raped...

 

[2LV2]

I'll take some pics. IIRC the bald spots are over the width of the tyre and not spots only partially covering the width.

The tyre pressures are OK.

I had the shocks tested at two places but I have my reservations about the tests too. The shocks are branded BMW (Sachs) so they were probably last replaced at a BMW dealership. I recall from the service book and receipts I got that the car was last serviced at BMW at either around 100k or 150k km, meaning the shocks have done at least 80k km. Or the full 230k km... I'll need to check the receipts.

It seems that the shock on the right side scrubbed the inside of the fender well lining (or whatever that part is called) at some time:

Hi,

Dont know what roads you are driving on, but these shocks have clearly had it. When you have such severe travel that the bumps stops are destroyed, there is a problem. (Is the car being overloaded?)

Bald spots on the tyres are usually an indication of bad shocks. If the wheel is out of round even slightly, you'll get uneven wear due to eccentric rotation.

Unprdictable handling= bad shocks (usually)

Our cars are essentially sports cars. They are not really designed for the kind of lifespans that we put them through down here.

The dry african conditions are also a problem for suspension bushes. Dust is a major problem that the Europeans dont have. They usually fail before the expected life span.

Treat your car to a full suspension rebuild. I can garentee that you will be amazed at the results, even in stock form. :=):

I am sure your car deserves it.

 

[ekseniks]

My car does that, but I noticed it's just the way the tires get lowered onto the floor (at a funny angle, and then grip the floor there instead of settling back to the normal position). If you move the car it will go back to normal. It did it with my old shocks and the new ones. As far as I know, its normal.

EDIT: After a little more reading on your other posts, there might be something not happy there.

 

[Loom]

Thanks for all the replies. I've only recently acquired the car so I don't know what roads/driving style it has been subjected to. However, going through the service receipts it seems that the rear shocks have done about 143k km so I guess it (and the rubber bump stop) is just failing due to age. Seems new shocks are in order.

A question about suspension bushes: I'm going to replace the RTABs, stabilizer bushes and stabilizer links (or just the link bushes) but what about the bushings on the wishbones? They are no.s 2 and 3 in this RealOEM diagram:

 

[moranor@axis]

may as well do all the bushes at the same time the main cost is striping the rear down...

 

[Loom]

Replaced the shocks, shock mountings and bump stops today and the handling is much better. Thanks for all the replies.