Eagle

Comes down to what you are working on in my experience. A basic tool set you all you needed on 80's BMW's. I could go on forever but a set of extra long double ring ratchetting spanners is one of my most used tool (almost essential on stupid Japanese etc designed FWD engines) EDIT: + M18 mid torque rattle gun.

Swapped out the fronts and wallowing\slop is gone. Should be even better with new rack and alignment. Yeah should be a good normal usage test. They going to take awhile to catch to worn OE ones so im sure they adequate for your usage. Im giving my old fronts to a mate on 100,000km OE ones.

Any photos of them without the center caps? Could be just me but i feel like would look better.

I forgot about RockAuto. Yeah you are right they are sometimes cheaper, but their selection is pretty poor for decent quality parts. Their shipping prices are calculated very inconsistent too i find so only good for one offs or a few small items if they happen to have them.

Spareto for the most part these days. Schmeidmann for BMW stuff. Both way cheaper any US store. FCP is are more expensive and still use USPS i assume? (they suck compared to Fedex and DHL)

Not sure what you coded you values to, but yeah i think the point is the have warning\be scared as opposed to having none\instant overheat. I coded mine (cant remember values) it drops down 11 o'clock mark a lot more with my driving, ecu orders the thermostat to low ~80's under bigger loads for safety (ideally should be around that all the time but emissions, mpg, and other bs) Given the total extent of your work i reckon you have done well. Being able to ID and fix mistakes properly before any damage is closely second to not making them in my book. Dont think you have actually broken or really damaged anything either? so its a nice lesson rather than a painful one.

Air freight seems faster than ever though. DHL have been delivering stuff to me in 4 days from Europe.

That's what i thought about mine and its true to certain extent, but as above. I see the 100k mark for replacements mentioned a fair bit. All the 90's-00's BMW's with <100k etc on original equipment ive driven had worn (in my opinion) dampers, so im inclined believe that for a general rule if they have never been replaced. Will see how big of difference it makes when the front ones go on this weekend. Had the steel non msport ones on my E39 530i before i went to mspec stuff. Obviously miles ahead of the worn OE 230,000km shocks they replaced. I drove mostly expressway on them for around 60-70,000k. One was misting when i sold them but they still felt ok, certainly not as good as the replacements but with spring and swaybar changes i couldnt compare.

Ah sorry must of got mixed up with Sachs. I find B6's too harsh in general for our roads, running them and firmer springs would ruin this car i reckon. Koni are decent but a bit overpriced for what they are, suppose you can adjust dampening somewhat to compensate for wear and a plus, but rebuilding them here cost the same as new ones overseas which always annoyed me. B4's cost me $780 NZD from Spareto. Bilstein\Koni's are around $~1500 landed iirc The rear's have settled in nicely with ride quality and handling restored. Got new fronts coming so will see how long this set last for this time without excessive speed bumps and more open road. They are still very usable compared to what on the average NZ older car, they just out of their optimal performance range. As ive been preaching for years only replacing one axle always shows up the weaker one. @hunter is running Genuine OE Sachs on his E39, i have no doubt they will outlast most offerings on the market. No doubt they have better\more consistent performance too compared to aftermarket Sachs which arent known to last long either.

Not sure what profile Dunlop uses but a different shaped tyre may also help in the future.

Sedan has plastic trim inserts around the car unlike coupes with just the pin like indent. That M3 would look ok on a coupe im guessing. Ive seen msport ones mixed up and once you see you cannot unsee, looks odd.

Yeah i did them to get my castor reading back to spec as it was reading low. Never felt any difference otherwise.

Ive got some loose Meyle HD front control arm bushings floating around, near new, bought a set to use the brackets for Z4M ones. $20 + shipping you you want them. I think these along with the ones you mention above are the ones that give the best results + sway bar bushings\links.

Nice. Can't of been cheap with shipping prices these days. Guess you are doing all the other suspension bushings now or at some point? or at least the RTABS?. E46 got to be the last BMW that doesnt cost very much to sort suspension wise.

Ive always had a much better match going off a good sample than paint codes, probably for that reason.

Haha. I asked the local parts guy about pricing once - he said they can ring\enquire to Germany about the price, but it can go up or down and then it gets updated to that value regardless. Actually a 21.5mm upper ive never seen -33531091599

Dealer wont be cheaper than Schmeidmann but can be close. I bought the same ones back in the day for bugger all maybe 20-30 NZD ea. My theory is E30 tax caused the hike. Try doubling your spares up for a test?. If it works you modify them a bit better or get something custom made (used to run 10mm poly ones on my E30) Looks like URO do them now - https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspension-Steering/Springs_Sway_Bars/Rear-Spring-Pad-15mm-Thickness-E30-E36-E46-Z3-Z4.html

Ah didnt know about that 28 days thing. Guessing you not going back to BMW then?

I hope so. Lots of places don't give the sheet unless you ask. I assume they think most people dont understand it or care to have it anyway. 14mm more poke in the rear is quite a bit compared to factory. Id try thicker spring pads if it is the tyre that rubbing. Problem with adjusting camber is the toe changes (more negative more toe out) so technically need another alignment.

Its just 2x simple camber arms ffs, everything else is the same. Nearly 3x the price is something id expect for adjusting coilovers. Sounds like whoever was doing it didnt know what they are doing or they wanted to extract more money out of you, probably both given my experience with dealers. Ive never done the rings because it seems like a game of guess the tolerances.

Id never be convinced he spent even close 100k restoring it. Maybe 50k and he wants another 50k profit.

To be fair the equivalent aftermarket Sachs probably wouldnt last much longer. Those TRW's i put in my car are 62 euro a set from Spareto, so even if they only do 15,000km they are still a good buy.

Reddish ones dont so id say its a CMP thing or maybe the touring is a little different B6's have internal bump stops so shouldnt any on there. I can't remember your reasoning behind getting rid of them? not that im a fan of them either for ride quality reasons, but B4's are overpriced if they only last 25,000km like my ones. Easier to do an alignment with monoball RTAB's and those camber arms compared to stock.

I bought mine nearly 4 years ago as i needed a cheap daily and it was the only thing local for 2k. Money well spend even after dumping a few k into it.

That a fair bit. Assuming you bought them along time ago? maybe they were better quality back then or dont notice the loss as much in the old barges. I had them my W140 and they were fine (compared to the original 220,000km ones) but only did 2000km.