Looks pretty rebuildable to me...
I´ve had a bit of a leak on my left rear EDC shock for the past couple of months. Still, the M5 rode well and S mode could be clearly distinguished from P. I knew that sooner or later however, I would have to buy new ones before they would start leaking catastrophically. In Brazil, the dealership price for the rear EDC dampers is the dollar equivalent of 1200 each. Ouch!!! So, after e-mailing Jacques at BMA Parts in California, he told me that he would order them for me at US$630 each (Still expensive, but much better). Before placing the order however, I spoke to some of the fellow members of the BMW Car Club Brazil about my problem. One owner of an e39 M5 told me about a factory in the south of the country that builds industrial dampers for heavy machinery, pneumatic systems, electric beds for hospitals etc.. He said that they were capable of rebuilding any type of electronic damper.
In fact, he said that he had sent them his father´s 2003 Mercedes E500 front dampers since one of the front wheels had fallen into a large pothole in his farm which broke the pneumatic damper. He said that he got them back 2 days later and they worked perfectly. He also told me about another guy who had sent his 750IL's front dampers and got them back two days later in perfect working condition.
Still, I was skeptical because the E500's dampers are electronic yet pneumatically simple. The same applies to the electronic Bilstein dampers for the 750IL—it´s as if the factory builds them with the intent of having them easily rebuilt.
Boge-Warner EDC dampers however, are a different story. I´ve heard from a couple of people in this site and elsewhere that it is impossible to refurbish them because their internal workings are intricate and they are made with one solid outer piece. Plus, I figured that if you Old World friends couldn´t have this kind of service carried in Europe or the US, chances were that it also couldn´t be done in Brazil, or so I thought.
The brother of the president of the BMW Car Club in Brazil is an active member of the Alfa Romeo Club and one of his many Alfas is the rare 6-speed all-wheel drive 164 Quadrifoglio. The 164 Quadrifoglio has the exact same Boge-Warner electronic dampers as the M5 with EDC. He told me that they were leaking so he sent them in to the industrial damper factory and got them back a few days later. The problem was that at first when he re-installed them on his Alfa they weren´t working properly. However, he found out that it was actually a problem with the damping control module´s software which was screwy and once that got fixed, his Boges worked perfectly after the rebuild
That was all I needed to hear. I sent my two rear Boges last Thursday night, they arrived at the factory on Friday morning (the factory is 600km away from where I live, so I sent them via overnight air mail). Meanwhile the BMW service center close to my house was friendly enough to let me keep the Beast there on jackstands until the dampers got back. The guys at the damper factory told me over the phone that it would only be a couple of hours worth of work, and that they would be done by Friday afternoon and would arrive on my front doorstep by Saturday morning. I was pretty impressed.
As they said, I received my Boges on Saturday, I called them up to get the company´s account info so I could wire them the payment for the rebuild (this is the best part but I won´t tell you how much I paid for their service yet...) I was also curious about the fact that they were able to rebuild both of them in only a couple of hours. The man I spoke to at the factory was very friendly and told me that all of their machinery is imported from Germany and are extremely similar to the machinery used to manufacture electronic dampers. He told me that even if they did not have the parts necessary to build a certain type of damper, they have a mechanic shop that can re-confection any type of part. He told me that they have a lot of experience with electronic dampers, and that my rebuilt Boges are backed by a one year warranty should there be any type of leak or pressure loss.
He are some pictures of the re-animated Boges (below). Note that they have been repainted, and there are some new soldering marks on the top and bottom of the damper. There´s also a "removable lid" on top of the damper and I think that there´s another screwable fixture close to the bottom of the shock. So basically, I think they cut the damper into three different pieces, rebuilt them entirely on the inside, and welded everything back together. I am happy to say that they work perfectly.
So if anyone of you guys want to give your EDC a rest, send them on a weekend getaway to the tropics, they´ll come back in really good shape!!
By the way, they were rebuilt for 300 dollars plus 30 dollars for the overnight shipping round trip!!
I´ve had a bit of a leak on my left rear EDC shock for the past couple of months. Still, the M5 rode well and S mode could be clearly distinguished from P. I knew that sooner or later however, I would have to buy new ones before they would start leaking catastrophically. In Brazil, the dealership price for the rear EDC dampers is the dollar equivalent of 1200 each. Ouch!!! So, after e-mailing Jacques at BMA Parts in California, he told me that he would order them for me at US$630 each (Still expensive, but much better). Before placing the order however, I spoke to some of the fellow members of the BMW Car Club Brazil about my problem. One owner of an e39 M5 told me about a factory in the south of the country that builds industrial dampers for heavy machinery, pneumatic systems, electric beds for hospitals etc.. He said that they were capable of rebuilding any type of electronic damper.
In fact, he said that he had sent them his father´s 2003 Mercedes E500 front dampers since one of the front wheels had fallen into a large pothole in his farm which broke the pneumatic damper. He said that he got them back 2 days later and they worked perfectly. He also told me about another guy who had sent his 750IL's front dampers and got them back two days later in perfect working condition.
Still, I was skeptical because the E500's dampers are electronic yet pneumatically simple. The same applies to the electronic Bilstein dampers for the 750IL—it´s as if the factory builds them with the intent of having them easily rebuilt.
Boge-Warner EDC dampers however, are a different story. I´ve heard from a couple of people in this site and elsewhere that it is impossible to refurbish them because their internal workings are intricate and they are made with one solid outer piece. Plus, I figured that if you Old World friends couldn´t have this kind of service carried in Europe or the US, chances were that it also couldn´t be done in Brazil, or so I thought.
The brother of the president of the BMW Car Club in Brazil is an active member of the Alfa Romeo Club and one of his many Alfas is the rare 6-speed all-wheel drive 164 Quadrifoglio. The 164 Quadrifoglio has the exact same Boge-Warner electronic dampers as the M5 with EDC. He told me that they were leaking so he sent them in to the industrial damper factory and got them back a few days later. The problem was that at first when he re-installed them on his Alfa they weren´t working properly. However, he found out that it was actually a problem with the damping control module´s software which was screwy and once that got fixed, his Boges worked perfectly after the rebuild
That was all I needed to hear. I sent my two rear Boges last Thursday night, they arrived at the factory on Friday morning (the factory is 600km away from where I live, so I sent them via overnight air mail). Meanwhile the BMW service center close to my house was friendly enough to let me keep the Beast there on jackstands until the dampers got back. The guys at the damper factory told me over the phone that it would only be a couple of hours worth of work, and that they would be done by Friday afternoon and would arrive on my front doorstep by Saturday morning. I was pretty impressed.
As they said, I received my Boges on Saturday, I called them up to get the company´s account info so I could wire them the payment for the rebuild (this is the best part but I won´t tell you how much I paid for their service yet...) I was also curious about the fact that they were able to rebuild both of them in only a couple of hours. The man I spoke to at the factory was very friendly and told me that all of their machinery is imported from Germany and are extremely similar to the machinery used to manufacture electronic dampers. He told me that even if they did not have the parts necessary to build a certain type of damper, they have a mechanic shop that can re-confection any type of part. He told me that they have a lot of experience with electronic dampers, and that my rebuilt Boges are backed by a one year warranty should there be any type of leak or pressure loss.
He are some pictures of the re-animated Boges (below). Note that they have been repainted, and there are some new soldering marks on the top and bottom of the damper. There´s also a "removable lid" on top of the damper and I think that there´s another screwable fixture close to the bottom of the shock. So basically, I think they cut the damper into three different pieces, rebuilt them entirely on the inside, and welded everything back together. I am happy to say that they work perfectly.
So if anyone of you guys want to give your EDC a rest, send them on a weekend getaway to the tropics, they´ll come back in really good shape!!
By the way, they were rebuilt for 300 dollars plus 30 dollars for the overnight shipping round trip!!