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New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

2003 - 2009, roadster, coupe, facelift
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PawnSacrifice
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New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by PawnSacrifice » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:50 pm

This is a how to for changing the springs. Not really my own work… credit must go to Maxum, his original work is here...
Up Date - Wheel Gap has gone
Maxum wrote: It's not a to hard job, the rears will take about 15/20min per side including jacking it up and taking the wheel of, once the wheel is off there is one bolt to remove that hold the rear shock to the swinging arm, once out just push down on the brake disc at the same time yank the spring out,
pop the new spring in, connect the shock back on, wheel back on job done :thumbsup:
The front are a bit more involved, not many bolt to take out just two at the bottom, one large one that clamps the front shock to the front hub and one nut the hold the link rod from the anti roll bar to the shock you just need to undo the top one, push down on the front hub until the shock slides out of its clamp, use plenty of WD40, then under the bonnet there are 3 nuts for the top mounts remove them, you will need a good set of spring compressors, compress the spring until the top mount fells lose then remove the dust cap in the middle of the mount and then you will see one nut undo that and then the top mount will come of , unwind the compressors and remove the springs, do the job in revers when fitting the new springs, job done. an hour for each side should do it. you just saved your self £300.00, even if the have to buy your self some tolls for the job it will still be a heap cheaper.
Good luck
As you can see, a distinct lack of pictures. So, having done mine today using the above and the BMW TIS for reference I took some pictures and will annotate as I go - this is plagiarism.
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by PawnSacrifice » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:50 pm

Rear Springs - as Maxum said, not a hard job. The TIS has you dismantling a load of other bits, but the method above worked for me.

With the car jacked up and on axel stands, the wheel comes off and here's the start point.

Image

Undo the bolt at the bottom of the shock...
Image
When you removing the bolt lower the brake / wishbone gently.

Push down on the top of the brake disk and pull the spring out...
Image

Old spring and new:
Image

Assembly is the reverse of the above with one slight variation. Once the spring is located use a scissor jack to lift the assembly up until the bolt can be inserted easily.
Image

That's the rear done.
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by PawnSacrifice » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:51 pm

Front springs - not difficult, but can be fiddly.

Again, jack the car up, put it on stands and remove the wheel. Ready to begin...
Image

There are two bolts to remove, once the are things can fall down, so a scissor jack can be used to take the strain - letting the assembly drop quickly is a bad idea as there are a few hoses / cables at the back of the disk which could be damage, as well as the protection plate.
Image

First bolt - socket on the front and a spanner on the back, which is a little fiddly.
Image

Second bolt - where the socket is, you can just about see it behind the top of the protection plate.
Image

Once this one is out, jack away the assmbly needs to drop down. I put an empty oil container down to soften the blow and stop it falling too far.
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Undo the bolts two turns each to allow the shock to move.
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To drop the wishbone / brake assembly off the bottom of the shock, make sure everything is properly WD40'd, push down on the disk and also give the shock a little push, back and forth, left and right.
Image
Once the bottom of the shock is free from the clamp, undo all three bolts on the top of the strut mount (in the engine bay) and remove the shock assembly.

Prop up the disk with the jack and take the show to somewhere it can be worked on.
Image

Pop the end cap off - the bolt inside can be removed after the springs are compressed - do not attempt to remove it with the springs un-compressed.
Image

Apply the spring compressors. Try and keep them equidistant apart, gradually tightening each one in turn, move on to the next once it becomes loose. Keep going until the spring is tightly compressed - with the compressors in the picture, until they bottomed out.
Image

Undo the bolt shown 2 pics above - this will require some force and a little patience, it is not the easiest to work on. Once the bolt is removed, take out the top mount and remove the spring.
Image
Release the spring compressors working in the same method as before, a little at a time.

Old and new spring.
Image
Compress the new spring in the same way as before. The reassemble the shock / spring.

Ready to go back on the car.
Image
Feed the shock up, and lightly fasten the top mount nuts - to allow movement to position the shock.

Once the shock is relocated in the clamp, push the disk upwards until it is in place. Using the scissor jack will help - actually works best under the wishbone.
Image
Fasten the bolts around the strut and then tighten the top mount.

Front done.
Image
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by PawnSacrifice » Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:51 pm

A few pointers from my experience.
1. Try and keep everything as gradual as possible to ensure no hoses or cables are damaged.
2. I used Draper spring compressors, while they seem well made they were a little too industrial for the Z4 setup - something with a little more finesse is required. Ideally.
3. Because of the force involve to get some of the nuts / bolts free I would say axel stands are a must.
4. The BMW TIS instructions, while more complete, require far more parts to be disconnected, I think Maxum's instructions were spot on, just want to make people aware that they do include short cuts - that I would use again.

Time wise the rears took about 20 minutes a go and the fronts total was 3 to 4 hours, excluding breaks and faffing about taking pictures.

Almost forgot, I went with Supersport springs as they claim to drop the car just 20mm - Eibachs and 30mm would be too much with the M wheels. I'm hoping this is the car - seems about on the money so far. Will feedback on the ride etc in a couple of weeks once they've settled and I've had the geo done. That is assuming there is no rubbing in which ace they're coming off again.

Pics of the car - not quite the same spot, but it had been turned around in between.

Before:
Image

After:
Image

Maxum, owe you one :thumbsup:
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by imp75 » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:05 pm

Excellent report! Posts like this give me confidence to try stuff myself!
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by srhutch » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:25 pm

Can you get it out of your garage OK Matt, from your foam video doesn't look like a lot of ground clearance.

I'm sure you've checked though :wink:
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by PawnSacrifice » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:48 pm

imp75 wrote:Excellent report! Posts like this give me confidence to try stuff myself!
To be honest I only gave it a go as I'd read Maxum's post on what to do - also when I mentioned I needed to get a price for fitting, someone said, "you not doing them yourself then?" As if that was the obvious choice. So, thought I'd give it a go... there is nothing technical here, it is all about confidence. And spring compressors.

srhutch wrote:Can you get it out of your garage OK Matt, from your foam video doesn't look like a lot of ground clearance.

I'm sure you've checked though :wink:
With some of the cars that have been on there I thought I'd be fine - although I was a little worried he playalistic's Eibached M grounded the heat shield yesterday. Yikes! But all seems to be okay.
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by AlanJ » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:07 am

Nice 'HOW TO' thanks :thumbsup:
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by Dreamer » Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:42 am

Looks really nice :thumbsup:

Whole car is really coming together well. Looking forward to the report back after geo :)
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by skillick » Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:51 pm

Another pointer.... when you are taking the offside front apart.... be careful with arm on the autolevelling switch... otherwise you'll end up having to replace either just the arm or the whole sensor!! :oops: :oops:
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by big_al » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:23 am

Have to say, this was VERY useful - thanks to all involved.

From doing the rears, I found that jacking just 1 side up made it very hard to lower the hub with just the lower shock bolt out - the anti-roll bar was holding it up (as the other wheel was taking even more load than usual. I ended up jacking the whole rear up, which made it a LOT easier. Hope that helps someone else.

Now for the fronts and discs and pads etc etc....

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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by Marius » Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:34 pm

Same at the front, jack both wheels to release pressure of anti roll bar

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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by gr3mlin » Thu Nov 07, 2013 8:05 pm

Any info on Torque settings, tried to find some BMW TIS manuals but no luck, going to give this a try next weekend after finding a cracked rear spring.

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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by ben g » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:09 pm

gr3mlin wrote:Any info on Torque settings, tried to find some BMW TIS manuals but no luck, going to give this a try next weekend after finding a cracked rear spring.
As tight as you can go seemed to work for me. Had my springs on a year now with no problems.

Does everyone use them pads on the rear springs? Thought about removing mine off my aftermarket springs to go that little bit lower at the rear.
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Re: New springs fitted and Maxum's how to

Post by Darkangelv2 » Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:23 am

Apologies, Massive thread resurrection!!!

I used this guide this weekend - thanks so much PawnSacrifice (if you're still here?!)!

One bit of really useful info would be the socket sizes required which would have saved me a bike ride to Halfords half way through (none of my 3 sets had an 18MM socket!).

Also, I've only done the rear so far as I hit issues with the front end (insufficient spring compressors).

For the front, can anyone let me know if it's ok to atleast de-torque the bolt in the top of the front strut whilst it's all bolted up? It's going to be a bugger to steady/grip the strut on my own whilst giving it enough oomph to get it undone when off the car....
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