cid042

Hi all,

I have been around for several months as a reader, and it is time for me to, maybe, take the modding way...
Let me first introduce myself a little :
I'm from France (please excuse my poor English), at Grenoble, near Lyon and am the proud owner of a 02/2004 530d with standard suspension and active roll bars. It has around 126 000 km and wears Style 138 17'' wheels without runflat in the winter and Style 135 18'' rims with runflats on summer (will be changed for non runflats this spring).

Here is my concerns:

My shocks are worn and have to be changed soon.

I have to decide if I upgrade the shocks to the sport (not M-Sport) ones and need some help deciding. With the winter setup (17'' non RFT), I would like a little more stiffness in the suspension, because the ride feels a little bit "floaty". It may be due to the worn shocks, but I'm also wondering if, by getting rid of the runflats on my summer setup (which was fine to me except for the noise and feeling of "heavy" wheels), the ride will also seem "floaty" with (new, non-sport) stock shocks. I unfortunately don't have the opportunity to try a sport e60 to compare...

You have to know that :
- This is my DD and used for long distance trips, and my back (and wife :-)) needs confort
- This is not my sport/track beast (have a GT3 for this purpose)
- The roads in my town are really crap
- No lowering is required

I really don't know how harsh is the sport suspension, but have back hurting memories of my past e46 M3 & X5 with sport suspension.


Thanks in advance for your advices,

Cedric

iCharles

You sound like a good candidate for a Mercedes.

I have never been in a BMW that didn't have some stiffness to the ride, I think it is a characteristic - and in Germany many people talk about the comfort/sport differences between MB and BMW.


That being said, I have sport suspension with low profile tires and my car is capable of giving me a literal translation of the road surface from time to time - I actually found it quite annoying the other night in LA, felt like I might get sea sick. I am hoping new shocks might clear this up, but we will see. Assuming that all modern BMW shocks are 'sport oriented' you are probably best off getting OEM replacements if comfort is a big priority for you.

cid042

Well, it is not that important that I would have to buy a MB I just don't want another GT3 in the fleet, especially for a car that is a long distance traveller...

Thanks for your answer anyway