Suspension refresh 🙄

[Zola3]

Howdy all.

Having spent some summer days refreshing the rust resistance on my 2.2 (2002) sills - you have to keep an eye on it don't you?! (I won't be using POR-50 again - but that's a whole other story), I became a little depressed at constantly looking up at the tired condition of front & rear struts/hub/dust protection discs and decided the whole lot needs to go.

Calipers/brake lines (stainless steel) and brake discs are newish and in good condition, but the rest - pah!

So, what experiences have you all had? I don't want to spend silly money as a modest investment would probably considerably improve, what must be, knackered shocks (96k miles).

Bearing in mind that the 'M' mods on springs and shocks (for my car) lowered the ride, it'd be interesting to see what you all used to refresh the suspension and bring back that 'fizz'. I sourced some new 'M' front springs before they went out of production (couldn't get rear replacements from BMW) - so they're good.

 

[Zola3]

?

 

[smiffy]

Be careful what you start, if doing it yourself!

My quick back end rebuild, plus front shocks & springs has ended up taking me 4 years!

 

[FLZ_Boy]

To get that old time feeling back, you would have to do the replace for the Front: front control arms with mounts, struts and strut mounts, swaybar bushings, tie rods, swaybar links. Rear: rear subframe bushings, sway bar bushings, sway bar links, rear shock mounts and shocks.

Really, just replacing anything that has bushings. You could replace struts and mounts and possibly get most of the "fizz" back, but depending on the bushing condition mentioned above, it is in small increments that eliminate the small wiggles of tired bushings.

 

[Nodzed]

As said, if you really want it back as was then all the rubber bits need changing including the rear beam bushes, once everything is changed the car will be a totally different driving experience.