acribb

I have had a tire wear problem where it looks like initially it was wearing down the middle of the tires. Noticed this at 65K. Now at 68K, the tires look to be wearing unevenly on the edges and look choppy, particularly on the outside edges of the right side.

I unscientifically took out my tape measure and measured the top of the rims to the bottom of the wheel well and the right side of the car was almost an inch lower than the left side!

Do I need new struts at 68K? When people are talking about shocks and struts, are these the same thing on an E60 and these names are just being used interchangeably? How can I determine what the issue is? Do I need to replace them all or just the affected struts, if that is indeed the problem? Do I need springs as well?

The car is 100% OEM at this point, 2004 530i sport.

Any strut recommendations that keep the car as close to OEM as possible? I know I can get 4 OEM struts for $1K before labor, but that seems very high.

Thanks for any help.

salaki

Have you tried doing realignment on your car?
This is the cheapest method before replacing all 4 struts.

Struts are dependent on the condition of the roads you are driving.
If you have a bunch of bad roads on your commute then they wear out faster.

Usually struts (or shocks) tend to wear (or begin to wear) north of 75K so I'd go ahead and change if you are keeping your car.
If your car is lowered then it's even faster especially if you have non sport strut.
If you still want to replace you can get Bilstein Sport for less than $700 shipped excluding labor.

525iEnjoy

If you come to a stop and it feels like your hittin switches then you need struts, but your symptoms sound like a alignment is needed its the cheaper route

acribb

What do you mean "and it feels like your hitting switches?" I'm not following here....

Will a misaligned car make one side of the car sit lower than the other side?

525iEnjoy

Damping controls the travel speed and resistance of the vehicles suspension. An undamped car will oscillate up and down ( lol hittin switches or the lowrider effect)

525iEnjoy

our cars have different ride height measurements on drivers and passengers and If you come to a stop and the nose dives, if your turning and you feel a lot of bumpsteer its time for struts.

acribb

So you are saying that the car rides lower on the right side vs. the left side? This doesn't sound right.

I am so confused right now. I'm not sure what you mean by bumpsteer - is that a slight bouncing when going around corners that I feel? As in I make a turn across bumps and my car goes bounce bounce bounce as it turns over that part of the bumpy road?

The car does seem like it dips more when going over dips, especially deeper dips in the road. But I don't notice it bouncing multiple times when going over dips or bumps - just one bounce, not like boing boing boing like you see on old Crown Vics on ther road.

Another thing I have noticed is that when I have two large passengers on the right side with myself driving on the left, that the car easily rubs in the back - i have to drive extra slow over bumps when these guys are in the car.

ObD

The left side is higher because BMW compensates the suspension for the driver. Put your average 150 lb person in the drivers seat and then measure.

acribb

Do any of you have the specs on ride height for the E60?

acribb

From the replies on this thread, it sounds like I would know if I needed new struts are not. I would not need to even ask the question if I really needed new struts, I would just know, because it would be that obvious if my car actually needed them. At least that's what I got out of this conversation.

I am not sure I need an alignment, since my car drives perfectly straight when I line it up on the road and take my hands off the wheel. Is this a correct assumption? I don't drive the car hard at all and the one and only alignment done by BMW was at about 40K (I now have 68K on it). Incidentally, I will be buying new tires in a few weeks.

I still have a few questions for the time when I will need to replace my struts/shocks-

If I want to keep the car riding as stock as possible, will replacing my struts/shocks with Bilstein Sports retain the same feel that I have now on my 2004 530i sport?

Do I need to replace the springs when I replace the struts/shocks? If so, which aftermarket springs will keep the car feeling as original as possible?

Thanks.....