E36 tourer & drooping rear
Discussion
Sorry to be back hunting advice again.... But the tourer seems to be a gift that keeps on giving.
When purchased it was running tired springs/shocks/bushes all round, some bordering upon MOT fail if left, also THE REAR SAT NEARLY ON THE BUMP STOPS ...... So in my infinite wisdom, I used a couple of motor-trade mates for contacts, and sourced all new shocks, springs (35mm lowering - made by "Killen" I believe) and bushes..... Had them all fitted by a local indy that is trusted, been used for years, and knows these cars reasonably well.
Fast forwards 2 weeks, and yet again my tourer is "ass down".... And now fast forward a couple of days further and cue myself & friend who's had 36s years (but no tourer) trying to fit OEM BMW 17 inch wheels, including the correct profile tyres (the standard 15s were in need of refurb and rubber). Fronts, go on like a dream... Rears fitted and looked OK if a little low.
Now comes the unexpected part - leaving his yard. Flat surface, barely any bumps, and the tyre edges are scraping the arch lip like mad.
Off come the wheels, on go 20mm spring assisters, and try again..... SCRAPE.
So, off come the wheels and out come the springs, compare them to STANDARD ones from a 318 cab, and suddenly we see the problem, they're the same length near enough and about half the coil thickness. Even when pushing them by hand you can feel how soft they are.
The only "quick fix" was to put 318cab springs in the tourer with 20mm assisters, and be gentle. Fast acceleration (but not speed bumps strangely) causes scraping on the arch lip still, but under normal load all is well.
From all this (3hours of messing around testing and fiddling) the 4 of us can only think that my mate at the motorfactors has supplied the wrong spring rate rear springs.... I.e. 4door saloon ones.
Does this sound likely? as with no box left from purchase, and only a spring part number on the coil, I am unsure as to how to go about proving this.
If kicking off at the factors fails, is my best bet getting a set of 328 tourer rear springs and assisting them, to keep firmness to match the fronts?
Thanks in advance. Matt
When purchased it was running tired springs/shocks/bushes all round, some bordering upon MOT fail if left, also THE REAR SAT NEARLY ON THE BUMP STOPS ...... So in my infinite wisdom, I used a couple of motor-trade mates for contacts, and sourced all new shocks, springs (35mm lowering - made by "Killen" I believe) and bushes..... Had them all fitted by a local indy that is trusted, been used for years, and knows these cars reasonably well.
Fast forwards 2 weeks, and yet again my tourer is "ass down".... And now fast forward a couple of days further and cue myself & friend who's had 36s years (but no tourer) trying to fit OEM BMW 17 inch wheels, including the correct profile tyres (the standard 15s were in need of refurb and rubber). Fronts, go on like a dream... Rears fitted and looked OK if a little low.
Now comes the unexpected part - leaving his yard. Flat surface, barely any bumps, and the tyre edges are scraping the arch lip like mad.
Off come the wheels, on go 20mm spring assisters, and try again..... SCRAPE.
So, off come the wheels and out come the springs, compare them to STANDARD ones from a 318 cab, and suddenly we see the problem, they're the same length near enough and about half the coil thickness. Even when pushing them by hand you can feel how soft they are.
The only "quick fix" was to put 318cab springs in the tourer with 20mm assisters, and be gentle. Fast acceleration (but not speed bumps strangely) causes scraping on the arch lip still, but under normal load all is well.
From all this (3hours of messing around testing and fiddling) the 4 of us can only think that my mate at the motorfactors has supplied the wrong spring rate rear springs.... I.e. 4door saloon ones.
Does this sound likely? as with no box left from purchase, and only a spring part number on the coil, I am unsure as to how to go about proving this.
If kicking off at the factors fails, is my best bet getting a set of 328 tourer rear springs and assisting them, to keep firmness to match the fronts?
Thanks in advance. Matt
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