Crashone

Hello, new member here, I replaced the shocks on the rear of our 2006 E61 530xi wagon this weekend. I did not read the Bentley cause it's just shocks right? Well all went well until I took the car for a ride, it is like the new shocks have no damper effect, back end wants to bounce all over when I hit any kind of bump. I now have a level control system malfunction showing on the dash.
When all else fails I read the instruction manual and I found out I was suppose to disable the EHC system before jacking the car up, oops. Today I disabled it by pulling the #81 fuse, raised the vehicle up, released the air in the air bags, set car down and reinstalled the fuse and took the car for a ride. No change. Still bounces all over.
The shocks I installed are Bilstein 19-230887 (B4), they are suppose to fit E60 and E61 vehicles.

Can anyone help me out here as to what I have done wrong and how to correct it?
Thanks in advance.

kd7iwp

Hmmm, that's odd. Are you sure you have the upper shock mount installed correctly? I just changed out the shocks/struts in my E61 this summer and I did not disable the air suspension, just lifted it right up in the air. I may have put a jack under one of the wheels or something, can't fully remember that part I guess. Or maybe I put the rear wheels up on ramps. It rides just fine and I used OEM Sachs. Have you checked that the little arm on the rear control arms isn't broken? That's used for headlight leveling and suspension leveling and I believe it needs to be disconnected when lowering the rear suspension without the shock as it can go too far.

Crashone

Thanks for the reply. Yes everything is installed correctly. I removed the ride height sensor arm before working on it. I had it up on jackstands for a couple of days as I was changing out a wheel bearing as well. I'm starting to wonder if the shocks are actually correct as they say they fit E60 and E61 chassis.

kd7iwp

If I'm not mistaken, the suspension on the E61 is significantly different than on the E60. I believe the E60 uses a rear strut where the shock is in the middle of the spring. On the E61 the shock goes diagonally away from the wheel and is in a separate spot from the air spring obviously. I don't see how they could make one that works on both models. I know there aren't as many shocks available for the xDrive models, probably even less for the air suspension. I really wanted Koni Special Actives but there are none for the xDrive cars. In my limited experience new shocks can be quite hard for a few weeks until they wear in (though I didn't experience that on my E61). I've installed Special Actives on an E46 and an MK4 Jetta and both were a bit jiggly for the first bit.

Crashone

I just got off the phone with the place I ordered these from about 20 minutes ago, verified they are the wrong shocks for my car even though their website showed they are. Getting a refund and the correct ones sent out. I will be putting the old ones back on for now until the new ones get here. I'll update with more info when they are installed.
For the record Bilstein 19-230887 do not work on a E61, the correct ones are 19-230894.