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EDC Dampers Rebuilt! Perfect!

18K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  Baddie 
#1 · (Edited)
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!!
 

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#5 ·
:byebye: As per other enquiries, have you got contact name/address/phone details of the company who rebuilt your shocks?
I have a '95 M5 and am in need of both front's rebuilding.
And...as I live in the UK I'm also concerned at the costs involved as they'rebased in Braziland the import duties etc etc. (Again as stressed in one of the replies/questions to you)
Thanks in advance.
 
#6 · (Edited)
A reply to all:

rcalvin and diamedes:

the company is called "Robust Amortecedores" (the word "amortecedores" means "dampers")

Their website is very crappy and is all in Portuguese, but hey, if it helps: http://robust.tripod.com.br/. There´s a link and a section that says "Carros", which means "cars".

They are located in a city called Curitiba, about 500km south of Sao Paulo, or 1000km south of Rio de Janeiro. It's Brazil's sixth largest city. They are located precisely at:

Rua Carlos Argemiro de Camargo, #115 ("Rua" as in "street")
Uberaba (neighbourhood or county)
Curitiba (city)
Brazil
(I don´t have the zip code, but I´ll look for it)

The phone number is +55 (country code) 41 (city code) 278-8395 or 284-5233. I seriously doubt that they speak English though. So either get someone who speaks Portuguese or send me questions and I´ll be happy to re-send it to them.

As for Import duties, since you´re shipping in something that is used and it will leave the country again, I´m pretty sure that there are no applicable import duties. Simply put, if the product has no receipts or sales invoices, customs cannot apply any duties. I´ll double check on that though.

I guess the expensive part would be shipping for you guys, since both shocks weigh 10 kilos. For you to figure out the price, you would have to go to your local post office and tell them the weight, shipping method and destination. In the United States, there´s a link in the USPS website which gives you a pretty good estimate of shipping costs.

Gop-Dogg:

I don´t see why the warranty would be void if outside Brazil. As long as you´re willing to ship it back to Brazil for them to fix it again if they were to leak, I don´t see a problem. I can double check this with them though. Once again, import duties would most probably not apply in this case, I can also double check on this.

After using my car a lot this past weekend, I have noticed that even on "P" mode the car is a bit stiffer than it used to be. It could just be psychological on my part though. The important thing is that there still is a clear difference between "S" and "P".

I´ll check on the pending enquiries and I´ll get back to you guys later today.
 
#7 ·
Hmmm, looks like USPS postage for 44 lbs (estimating 20 kg for all 4 shocks based on Pepsmeister's estimate above) is $154.75 for 4 - 10 day delivery, so double it for total round trip postage. So that's $309.50 shipping + $600 labor ($300 per pair based on Pepsmeister's note) = $909.50 :crying:

However, concidering that one EDC damper costs ~$550 in the US, I suppose this isn't so bad. :confused3

I checked on UPS's website and the shipping charge for 7 - 10 day delivery is over $600!! ouich :eek: This is based on shipping to Curitiba in Paraná state (postal code 81570-100) from Houston, Tx. with a customs/insured value of $3000 (UPS website requires customs value).

Heh, good thing I speak Spanish. I was able to stumble through this website to get the postal code.
 
#9 ·
Front EDC III shocks completely dead on my 95 Touring at 108.000 kms. Rear shocks 50 %. No warning "EDC nicht aktiv" , so a mechanical problem.
Stealers offered new ones for the price of a modest new little Suzuki : € 4000,00 fitting included. Boge-Sachs do not rebuild, as far as I know. Same shocks for the Alfa Romeo 164 4WD Quadrifoglia cost less than half this price , so BMW and not Boge-Sachs, are to blame for this outrageous price.
Found a Belgian breaker, who offered used (87.000kms) units for € 250,00.
Fitted and are working perfectly. Found rear shocks for €200,00 at 6 miles (!!)from my hometown, not yet fitted.I complained many times at the stealer's, including in the warranty-period, about a "clonking "sound coming from the left front wheel area, but they could not find the cause of it. Now I know:
the left front spring was broken in the higher part. Maybe difficult to see from beneath , but still, why did not they think of it. I suspect the spring was already broken when I purchased the car at 32.000kms. That is what you get and can expect, when the first driver of your BMWfactory pre-owned M5 is Harald Grohs, the famous German BMW
and Porsche racing driver. Happily, the new engine was put in place at 18.000 kms, so before I bought the car.
Here is my question for our Brazilian friend Pepsmeister who had his rear shocks rebuilt in the South of Brazil: can they do front shocks as well? Are the front shocks gasdampers? If so, is this job more complicated than rebuilding oilpressure based dampers? I don't dare to buy the Alfa shocks, as long I am not sure that they are exactly the same as the model used on the M5. Anyone sorted this out? Anyone who knows somebody at the Boge-Sachs factory?
Thanks in advance for replying.
Regards
Tjeerd Koelmans
Friesland.
 
#12 ·
Front EDC III shocks completely dead on my 95 Touring at 108.000 kms. Rear shocks 50 %. No warning "EDC nicht aktiv" , so a mechanical problem.
Stealers offered new ones for the price of a modest new little Suzuki : € 4000,00 fitting included. Boge-Sachs do not rebuild, as far as I know. Same shocks for the Alfa Romeo 164 4WD Quadrifoglia cost less than half this price , so BMW and not Boge-Sachs, are to blame for this outrageous price.
Found a Belgian breaker, who offered used (87.000kms) units for € 250,00.
Fitted and are working perfectly. Found rear shocks for €200,00 at 6 miles (!!)from my hometown, not yet fitted.I complained many times at the stealer's, including in the warranty-period, about a "clonking "sound coming from the left front wheel area, but they could not find the cause of it. Now I know:
the left front spring was broken in the higher part. Maybe difficult to see from beneath , but still, why did not they think of it. I suspect the spring was already broken when I purchased the car at 32.000kms. That is what you get and can expect, when the first driver of your BMWfactory pre-owned M5 is Harald Grohs, the famous German BMW
and Porsche racing driver. Happily, the new engine was put in place at 18.000 kms, so before I bought the car.
Here is my question for our Brazilian friend Pepsmeister who had his rear shocks rebuilt in the South of Brazil: can they do front shocks as well? Are the front shocks gasdampers? If so, is this job more complicated than rebuilding oilpressure based dampers? I don't dare to buy the Alfa shocks, as long I am not sure that they are exactly the same as the model used on the M5. Anyone sorted this out? Anyone who knows somebody at the Boge-Sachs factory?
Thanks in advance for replying.
Regards
Tjeerd Koelmans
Friesland.
Hello Tjeerd,

now I found a "dutch" guy it maybe more easy to speak to each other. MY father owns a Avusblue m5 Touring 1994. The front shock absorbers (EDC) are leak. Do you know someone were I can buy 2nd hand EDC shocks or is there also a Dutch comagny who can rebuilt the EDC shocks? (the discussion about the subject was so long I couldn't really figure out whether it was possible or not and what were the costs.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Best regards,
Micha de Gast
 
#10 ·
Hi Tjeerd,

Yes, they can rebuild the front dampers as well. Basically, these guys can rebuild any type of damper. The big problem here is that if you were to ship them over here from Holland, the price of shipping alone would not compensate for this type of service. Also, have you checked prices in Germany or the United States, from what I remember, the prices there are cheaper than the price you got for 4 new ones.

By the way, you had a very good idea: Why not call Boge in Germany and ask them if the 164 Quadrifoglio damper is precisely the same as the one on the M5? If it is, or even if it needs a small adaptation, it would be a great buy given that it is a lot cheaper than what the BMW dealerships charge.

I still cannot believe how there is not a place in Europe where you can rebuild the EDC dampers. The guys here make rebuilding these dampers look easy, and they work perfectly!!

Hope this helps. I´ll be happy to answer any further questions you have.

Cheers!
 
#11 ·
Hello.


Well i dont know if they are the same, but what is sure is that they havent got the same reference at all. I just checked that twice on ZF-Boge-Sachs website and idg into their well serious parts catalogue.....and the reference for :
M5 E34 3.6 rear suspension or even M5-E34 3.8

is definetely different than the one for Alfa 164 quadrisomething.

I've tried all combination possible for all years possible...and not the same reference.

Now...having two different references doesnt mean that the product is different. Maybe Boge references have some codes allocated for different car manufacturers..but the product might still be the same. The most efficient way would be to compare one to an other dismantled on a workbench. But once again the external look might not say a lot either.

Styve
 
#15 ·
Micha.degast and Koelmans,

Glad to see some more dutchies joining here with some more E34 M5s. I have to absolutely recommend you two to talk with SebringNL, he is an expert with any car, but specially M5s. Be sure to send him a PM, since he is a member of this forum!
 
#16 · (Edited)
Micha.degast and Koelmans,

Glad to see some more dutchies joining here with some more E34 M5s. I have to absolutely recommend you two to talk with SebringNL, he is an expert with any car, but specially M5s. Be sure to send him a PM, since he is a member of this forum!

Thanks I'll do that! :typing:
By the way, how do I send a PM?

Regards,
Micha
 
#18 ·
Hi Micha, Just returned from a S-A vacation. A certain M5 Touring owner has a friend in a BMW dealership who is willing to give a big discount on the dampers. I bought all 4 and replaced only the front, as the rear are still well enough. I have also two used rear dampers for sale. Bought from a reliable
person. If not good you get your money back. Send me an Email if you are interested in new or used ones.
 
#19 ·
Interesting topic...., I am from Belgium and own a '95 Avus blau touring, unfortunately with KW coilovers. The KW's are good but I have driven EDCIII nurburgring suspension as well and like the possibility of changing the setting only when required. I might even consider buying all 4 shocks new but ough that price:eek:oohhh:...If someone gets a good price for new, let me know.

Thanks,
Mischa
 
#20 ·
Hi M545i. I'm thinking of buying KW coilovers as a sound alternative to EDC. Can you tell me what your experience has been like? You don't sounds as though they're as good as EDC (which it appears are the same shocks fitted to an Alfa-Romeo!) I'm keen to hear what you have to say as one option for me is to fit 535/540 struts with bilstein inserts.
 
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