A few people have been asking me what's going on with this so I thought I'd update everyone
I was sick to death of this on-going EDC drama so a couple of months ago I started to seriously research a solution. After much searching I found a specialist suspension company who had the ability, but more to the point had the will to help us. These guys have many many years of experience with all manner of road and race suspension, they specialise in rebuilding old Ferrari and Lamborghini shocks amongst other things, and the boss is a good guy which is so important in these situations
Bottom line is that he's willing to help us. He currently has 2 front and 2 rear units in pieces and he's sourcing all of the necessary seals and gas sacs. They have the ability to manufacture their own seals if necessary so he's not anticipating any problems. There's nothing complex in the units and he's quite confident he can turn these around for us. Rebuild units would come totally refurbed, repainted and would be tested on their suspension dyno before being released. This is not just a hydraulics company, this is a bona fide suspension specialist who has all of these facilities in house, blast cabinets, dyno etc etc
The plan is the same as it always was, he'll hold a set of refurbed units in stock, people will buy them from him and pay a deposit which they will get back when they return their own units which will be refurbed for the next person
Target price is £100 per rear leg and £150 per front leg inc. VAT
I should be able to update you again next week. We will need to get him all of the blown units we have as there will be occasions where a solenoid or hardened shaft is too damaged to re-use so he has to salvage parts from another leg. Having said that, they can source the solenoids direct and manufacture their own rods if necessary but it would put the price up dramatically so while there are so many blown units available they might as well be recycled
It's frustrating I know but I can assure that work is being done daily on this. I just spoke to Jon for an update, the focus is firmly on getting these shafts sorted out, Sals unexpected problems have caused a re-think and Jon has 2 sets of fronts that he's hoping to have together by mid next week
Sorry guys, what can I say? The only thing that would cause more shouting would be units sent out that were failing... it's got to be right
Rest assured that I am 100% on this, as soon as I have info then I will post it
It's frustrating I know but I can assure that work is being done daily on this. I just spoke to Jon for an update, the focus is firmly on getting these shafts sorted out, Sals unexpected problems have caused a re-think and Jon has 2 sets of fronts that he's hoping to have together by mid next week
Sorry guys, what can I say? The only thing that would cause more shouting would be units sent out that were failing... it's got to be right
Rest assured that I am 100% on this, as soon as I have info then I will post it
well done to all of you for your perseverance you are all stars not been viewing much just dealing with timing chain/tensioner issues head gasket valve guide wear etc etc !!!:viking::viking::viking::santasmile2:
I'm currently away overseas but as soon as I get back I'll be giving my car to Jon so he can spend as much time as needed.
Sealed EDC dampers from other cars have been successfully rebuilt so I see no reason why these can't. Fact of the matter is that the quality of the dampers being sent in is very poor. The only one that's survived is my new damper which was also rebuilt.
The damper rods and various internal parts which are severely worn out are the cause of the problem from what I can see. New internal parts and rods have been ordered by Jon and this should cure any premature failures on rebuilt units. Time will tell but I am confident.
I'm currently away overseas but as soon as I get back I'll be giving my car to Jon so he can spend as much time as needed.
Sealed EDC dampers from other cars have been successfully rebuilt so I see no reason why these can't. Fact of the matter is that the quality of the dampers being sent in is very poor. The only one that's survived is my new damper which was also rebuilt.
The damper rods and various internal parts which are severely worn out are the cause of the problem from what I can see. New internal parts and rods have been ordered by Jon and this should cure any premature failures on rebuilt units. Time will tell but I am confident.
Picked up another set of dampers on Monday (Thanks to Mike and Jon...again!).
This set has brand new rods, pistons, bushings, bearings and god knows what.
On previous attempts the origional rods were being used. Jon @ Sportsline has reported back that under a special light they could see numerous fractures in all of the old rods and they were also in most cases not straight. This, according to Jon, would not allow any seal to last.
It was nice to see brand new rods this time round and the dampers are near impossible to compress by hand whereas before they were just about compressed by hand.
They are being fitted as we speak, I'll pick up the car in an hour or so and give feedback over the next 10 days (1000 miles).
Drove the car home and initially it felt ok. Started getting worse as I reached home.
This morning It was wallowing all over the place with lots of knocking noises coming from the front suspension. I suspected total failure.
Had a look and there is fresh everywhere so total failure as suspected is true.
The old rebuilt dampers I removed are not leaking at all. There was some difference in the bump and rebound between the two.
I will speak to Jon but this is not going well right now as far as the front dampers are concerned.
I think I will be calling it a day now as I have spent well over £400 in fuel and fitting costs.
The mental hassle of not having my car the way it should be has also taken it's toll now.
I'm not giving up on this in anyway and I'm sure at some point the problem in the rebuilt will be highlighted but I cannot keep changing my dampers. My wheel bearings have been removed 3 times now and I don't know how many more times they are going to like being removed until I have to bare that expense aswell.
I would suggest someone else take my position in the testing now.
I don't mean to let you guys down in anyway, I hope you understand my position.
I really don't think anyone could possibly think you were letting them down over this - kudos for going through as much grief as you already have :cheers:
Still plugging away Sal....! Good stuff. Even better to hear that Mike's guy wants to keep the car, I pressume, to get to the bottom of the front damper issue - got to commend him for that. Clearly he's serious about what he does, putting pride before profit, as you have done as well. Fingers crossed he works it out.
I've had a few long talks with Jon, he's mystified by the problems Sal's having so getting the car up there is the next logical step. My rears continue to perform without fault as do a complete set of 4 legs that Jon has recently done for a dealer so there may be a specific issue with them working on Sal's car. I've asked Jon to do a post in this thread as soon as he gets time to hopefully give a bit more detail
The dampers are apart and it seems as though the totally shagged bump stops had fallen apart and gone down the seals which inturn destroyed them.
I a going to slap the guy who changed my dampers last as he could have pointed out that I only had 1/5th of the bump stops left!
On speaking to Jon he told me the bump stops on these cars are an extremely important part of how the suspension behaves given how huge they are. BMW call them a secondary shock absorber!
So, new dampers are being made (again) with new bump stops.
Jon will drive the car for a while and then I get it back!
Sal as you know I commend your effort's but......bump stops ffs! - on one hand (what's that guy on). On the other...this could be it at last...hope Jon enjoys your car.
My rears are still perfect after several thousand hard miles and although he could rebuild a set, at the moment he just wants to get the fronts working. He has just ordered a scraper seal ring to prevent this situation happening again where the front bump stops haven't been replaced (which perform as a seal too, keeping crap away from the main top seal) and they start to disintegrate and material from them accumulates around the top seal groove causing the seals to fail. He's getting them together as we speak, they should be back on the car soon and then he will test the car himself for a while to see how they perform
This wasn't Sal's fault, it sounds like the guy who fitted them for him screwed up, but it's important for everyone to realise something here, the front units worked perfectly, it was a problem with Sals car which caused them to fail, the inner bump stop rubbers were disintegrating which caused the failure. Exactly the same thing would have happened if he had fitted brand new legs from BMW and used his old bump stop rubbers
As I said in my last post...
so there may be a specific issue with them working on Sal's car
And it's important to remember who the real hero is here, Jon has been slaving away on this project from Day 1. So far he has several hundred hours and many hundreds of pounds invested in making this happen for us all. However frustrated you all are, I can assure you that it doesn't even begin to compare to how frustrated Jon is
When he finally logs in and does a post I think everyone owes him a big 'Thank You' for what he's done for us :cheers:
the problem is that i quite like the EDC thingie, but at that kind of rate, i am inclined to replace the lot with something from Billstein.....
It is just a shame BMW have decided it is acceptable to rip people off to this extent. Sadly this is reflected accross their range of spares, not just M cars.
I certainly wont be buying another BMW, which is a shame really as they have been quite satisfying over the years.
Coming from ou Konstantin, I appreciate that even more.
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