E39 M5 with coil over suspension

[alabbasi]

Dumb question from a guy who's never owned a car with coil overs. I recently bought an E39 M5 that is lowered and with coil over suspension. The car has clearance issues just going down the road and would scrape the ground. I've been told that you can adjust height on coil overs and it requires special wrenches. The PO thinks that the coil over kit made by a company called ground control. I've seen a bunch of coil over wrenches for sale on eBay. Will any coil over wrenches work or are they unique to the kit?

I fear that if I continue to drive this car the way it is, i'll lose my front bumper fairly soon.

Thanks

[996Keef]

Yes they're adjustable, but usually for a couple of days then the steel threads rust and they seize solid.

Any of the spanners on eBay will work on GC but you need to measure the coilover body to get the right size. Probably 50mm

Hopefully yours are ok, if the threads are rusty then I've had success with wire brushing the threads and using XCP or similar penetrating fluid , and undoing the locking collar with a few sharp taps with hammer and bolster. Then wind the locking collar down and clean threads again.

Once freed off, just wind the upper collar upwards, say an inch, then wind the locking collar up and lock it up. Drop the car down and see where the suspension is sitting, and readjust

Motorcycle chain lube is good to spray on the threads for some protection over winter

[d_a_n1979]

As above

Initially give them all a good douse of Wurth Rost Off Ice or just WD40 and get them freed up; adjust them to your ride height liking and then give the threads a treatment of something like lithium grease (the spray) and hopefully they'll stave off seizing again

C spanners are what's needed; should be able to buy them readily enough; but get a few different ones as they're not all the same!

If they are Ground Control then they're fairly well made: https://groundcontrolstore.com/collections/bmw/pro...

You could always contact Ground Control and see if they can send you a fitting kit (ie C spanners and all the other bits etc) or ask the guy who you bought the car off to have a look for them again?

[HM-2]

As a slight aside, Ground Control stuff is supposed to be very good quality.
Can think of a lot worse to have fitted to an E39 M5.

[alabbasi]

Thank you all, I live in North Texas so hopefully there will be zero rust to worry about. I'll order the wrenches and get cracking this weekend.

[d_a_n1979]

alabbasi said:

Thank you all, I live in North Texas so hopefully there will be zero rust to worry about. I'll order the wrenches and get cracking this weekend.

If not already, get yourself registered on bimmerforums.com - superb forums with a wealth of knowledge and with dedicated BMW car sections (ie. there’s a dedicated section to E39s and M cars etc)

[alabbasi]

Thank you. I will check them out