SMOKEY - My 2005 E53 3.0D Run Sheet

[SMOKEY53]

After 5 months, these fckers finally arrived from Zee Germans. Scared to open them because the box is full of those foam balls that go absolutely everywhere and I'd spend the next 3 weeks picking them up......but that's ok, still waiting on the springs!


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[SMOKEY53]

UPDATE - Suspension - Bilstein & Eibach Lowering Springs Install

Finally, after 5 months of waiting for these things to turn up, they arrived and I had a free weekend to install them. My front shocks had been leaking ever since I bought the car. Aside from the generally floaty ride quality that blown shocks deliver, this was most noticeable if I tipped it into a tight corner and put the power down, the inside front wheel would just flap and wobble about as it tried to decide if the wheel should be travelling up or down.

I went with the Bilstein B12 as these shocks are developed by Bilstein to match a set of 40mm lowering springs from Eibach. Seemed like a sound theory. After reading up on people's disappointment with Bilstein HD's I was a bit worried, but after speaking with a contact in Germany, I was assured these were different and I'd be very happy with the outcome. As a side note, my car has coil springs all round (no airbags).

I purchased new shock mounts front and rear, new gaskets and new strut bearings because I figured mine could be a bit worse for wear after 115kms. Turns out they were fine, but I like having one less thing to worry about.

Anyway, onto the install.

On counting back, I've done full suspension change outs on 9 cars now. I generally dislike the job because its heavy lifting, working in confined spaces, and working with spring compressors which are pretty dangerous at best. I always feel like I've gone 10 rounds with a prize fighter after I've finished, but it's a rewarding job and saves me money so I keep doing it. This might be the last time in retrospect.....having the right tools always helps but the main saving grace was my 18V Milwaukee Impact gun, it saved me a lot of physical work, I love this thing.

I did the rears first. The issue with the rears is the springs. There is no way to get spring compressors onto them, it's too tight. Dropping the shock out and disconnecting the swaybar link does nothing to increase clearance. You have to undo pretty much everything - brake calipers, control arms, guide arms and the friggn integral link in order to get enough clearance. The only thing I didn't have to disconnect was the wishbone from the subframe (even though the workshop manual said to do so). And getting it all apart is the easy bit. Putting it back together was a nightmare, mainly due to the integral link not wanting to line up because you've disconnected everything and the wheel carrier just goes pretty much wherever it wants, a situation not helped by the spring putting tension on the whole assembly and making the wheel carrier move laterally. It takes some careful jack placement and a lot of muscle to hold everything kinda in alignment so that you can slide the bolt through the integral link and out the other side. It took me 3 hours each side. I was not a happy camper. That was day 1.

Day 2 was fronts, thankfully a lot easier. Hardest part was getting a spanner onto the inside of the sway bar end links. Recommend purchasing an 18mm 'cone wrench' for this job. I will probably have to do end links at some stage as I reckon I ruined one of the end link bushes. The other issues I faced was the shock nut being rusted to the shaft. My pro tip on this is a bit sketchy, but basically I recommend hitting the top nut on the shock with an impact gun before you take it out of the car, but only JUST enough to break it loose. You don't want to completely remove the nut without the springs compressed - chaos will ensue.

Verdict:

Height before was Front (790mm) Rear (810mm).
Height after is Front (780mm) Rear (790mm)

These measurements are straight off the jack and with a quick spin around the block to check for noises. I'll update these numbers once the springs have settled, normally takes a few weeks. I'm not overly impressed with the drop, was expecting more visual impact - it was hard for me to believe that it had dropped anything at all but the tape measure suggests otherwise.

Ride quality is not too different to stock. It is a touch sharper, mostly due to the increased dampening and rebound - but in a good way. Feels very 'German' and quite similar to my C300 with AMG pack. The largest difference is when tipping into corners. The car sits a lot flatter now. Virtually no body roll, it feels almost sports car like. I need to get it onto a freeway to see how it manages undulations at speed, but so far I'm quietly impressed.

Overall I'm happy with the result. It was huge sense of achievement getting it all buttoned up, especially after the 5 month wait, getting mucked around by a seller for 3 months of that, losing money on my refund due to exchange rate fluctuations, and having to find a new supplier. My only real alternative would have been to go the BC Coilover route, as KW V3s are just too damn expensive - but it was very hard to find any solid info on the BCs. In hindsight I'd be willing to give the BC's a shot as this combo probably came out 50% more expensive by the time you replace all the shock mounts, bearing struts etc etc which you wouldn't have to with coilovers.

Finally, I recommend anyone else wanting to go this route to get in touch with Kai Ackermann from fahrwerke24.de - his English is great and he was extremely helpful in answering my barrage of questions and actually getting the product to my doorstep.

This was the last major modification I plan to do to this car, but will update with little things as I go along.

Cheers

Mat




Rear Springs Height Difference (OEM Sport Springs vs Eibach 40mm)

Front Springs Height Difference (OEM Sport Springs vs Eibach 40mm)



Gettin it done! Basement carpark style!


End result. Think springs will settle a bit lower over the next couple of weeks. Will update if so.

[Arrowskartax9]

Looks Great. Good work and write up. Time to enjoy your E53.
Chris.

[SMOKEY53]

Update, got a wheel alignment on the weekend.

Requested that it be set to minimum -ve camber front and rear, and 0.01 toe on the rear.

They were able to get it all to those specs except for the rears, they could only get it back to -2deg camber (factory -1.5 min). Will keep an eye on the tyre wear, but not really keen on the K-MAC camber kit, lots of people say it squeeks after a while. I'd rather rotate the tyres more often.

[LVP]

How fresh are all the joints in the rear? My upper arms and lower outer joints helped bring the alignment within spec. This upgrade didn't really drop you enough to put you out of spec I would imagine. With toe that minimal, it'll stretch the wear out. I was out by 0.5 degrees more on the one side than the other and you could see the difference in wear. And that was with the same toe setting as you.

[SMOKEY53]

Originally Posted by LVP

How fresh are all the joints in the rear? My upper arms and lower outer joints helped bring the alignment within spec. This upgrade didn't really drop you enough to put you out of spec I would imagine. With toe that minimal, it'll stretch the wear out. I was out by 0.5 degrees more on the one side than the other and you could see the difference in wear. And that was with the same toe setting as you.

I haven't changed them in my 6 month ownership and don't have any service history to indicate they've been done. I've done all the fronts, but they were showing signs of wear where as the rears were fine based on visual inspection.

I'll keep an eye on the wear patterns.

[SMOKEY53]

Update, suspension has further settled another 15mm - so that's a 25mm drop up front, 35mm in the rear.

I think the V8s would drop the front further with a heavier motor than my 6.


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[squidzilla]

Wow. Great write up.

[SMOKEY53]

Originally Posted by squidzilla

Wow. Great write up.

Thanks mate!

Not much else to report. Springs have settled a further 5mm so it's now the full 40mm drop all round. Car handles like it's on rails - it's kind of scary to be able to throw a car this heavy into a corner so hard, but tbh, it's a compromise. All of a sudden I'm very aware of all the road imperfections on my daily work commute. The car isn't crashy, but when it hits a bump the impact is short and sharp then the car is straight back to being dead flat - which I guess is the way a good sport shock should be, but probably not the best for touring. I must be getting old.....

[crystalworks]

As always, very nice work. I'm still jealous we don't get the diesels over here... would have bought one of those over the 4.4i for sure.