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
I see I'm not the only one having issues trying to get into contact with Jon and use his service to rebuild my fronts as I've a spare non-working set lying around! I've both called and left numerous e-mails however no response...? This doesn't relay confidence in sending my units over from Canada. Aside from having my car bouncing around like some 'pimp'd-out' hydraulic lowrider my options with time are becoming slim and opting for some aftermarket components instead. I would much rather keep things stock however the price from BMW simply does not justify the means. In the meantime I have spoken with TEIN regarding a retrofit for EDC to the EDFC system that they offer however to no avail. I know that Bilstein offers a similar adjustable suspension however not sure if this is feasible for our cars? I'll inquire however. Alternatively, I'll be monitoring this forum once again to see if any progress takes fold or an improvement of service from Sportsline happens?
I appreciate all the members trying to make this work.
This is a real shame.
Such high hopes by all concerned.:sad1:
I have a dozen dampers awaiting rebuild.
With the current 3 month guarantee, I can't risk having them
rebuilt at my own cost & waiting to supply fit to customers so
their vehicles are in & out, not off road waiting for the parts as
appears to have been the case.
There appears to be issues.
I think Reg is a little unhappy, not sure though:hihi:
Unless we hear directly from Sportsline, theres not much more
to be said as it's just conjecture.
Me too have been e-mailing Jon from Sportsline regarding a set of rear EDCs, but no answer from this guy. Too bad!
The least you can except would be "sorry this service has been cancelled" or "you will have to wait for x months until we can take your order".
Around 21 weeks since I placed my order and about 18 weeks since I was told the parts were shipped. I'm disappointed for Mike & Sal as much as myself, all that work and such limited success. Not much fun having a car on jacks for so long and even more frustrating that it appears to be totally based on a lack of attention to the last detail..... reliable shipping !
To me it seemed like a great answer. One lives and one learns.
Has anyone heard from London Mike or Cyrus about the current status of these rebuilds?
London Mike seems to have vanished from the board, but Cyrus hasn't, so maybe he can help. Sal?
There have been a lot of comments about service challenges people have had with this, but no apparent resolution. If this option has fallen over, as it appears to have, it should probably be noted here.
I dont know what has happened to the "EDC rebuild service" but something is wrong for sure. Perhaps Sportsline has their hands full with other more important things than rebuliding EDC-dampers. Since my first contact with Sportsline i havent really heard that much, i was expecting to receive a rebuilding date within reasonable time. Sadly i doesnt seem that i will receive this date, my patience has run out so i have allready ordered brand new dampers/springs for the rear, front will follow within weeks. Its expensive but at the moment it seems to be the only choice...Hopefully someone who knows what has happened will post here so everyone will know wheter this service is still available or not...
First of all, I think one should actually call them and bluntly ask whether they do still provide the service or not, and on what time scale.
Second, and you'll hate me for that, but mmmhh, 540i sport suspension... (sorry could not resist, it has been over 6 months of pure bliss and zero worries for my wife so far with her Touring).
Just called - Jon is still sick however I did ask the receptionist whether the EDC rebuild service is available to which the reply was "Yes". I'll try to call once again tomorrow or the next day... Mark
Establishing contact is only scratching the surface of the problems with Sportsline !
Hi all.
Getting Sportsline to deliver is more difficult than getting them to respond.
It is 5 separate problems you will have to overcome.
1. Accept an order. They're unrepsonsive.
2. Produce the parts. The profit they make doesn't seem to justify them spending the time to do the work, their core business of building specials will always take priority, makes sense really.
3. Commit to shipping the parts. They don't seem to be able to get on the phone/internet and get UKMail/ParcelForce to come and collect the parcel.
4. Getting them to be able to accurately address the parcel.
My first shipment went to Austria instead of Australia, the other 2 shipments they claimed to have sent, are still in postal never-never land ! Meanswhile BMA in California have managed to successfully deliver 8 separate orders to the same address given to Sportsline !
5. They're not smart enough to use a trackable, insured delivery service even when you specifically request and offer to pay for it. So when the 2 shipments they claim to send you go missing, they think you're ripping them off and refuse send any more parts, despite the fact that they have no evidence that the parcel was ever sent !
Once you've got a response from Sportsline, you're troubles are only just beginning !
Not to mention any issues Farrell may have with the technical competency of the solution. I think Cyrus has posted elsewhere that he has or is considering deserting his Sportsline restored shocks in favour of Farrell's Bilstein solution.
I am giving the rebuilt dampers their final evaluation today.
I have complained about the really hard ride they give and I cannot feel any different between P and S mode anymore.
It may well be something to do with my EDC not working correctly but I have been through it with two diagnostic tools and all of the sensors are reading correctly.
I have a late E34 M5 at work which has perfect working EDC on it with a switch.
I will be swapping over my dampers to it and it's dampers over to mine.
Then I shall go for a drive and see what the difference is.
Hopefully, for those who want the rebuilt dampers, the difference on the car with working edc will be nil.
I am going the Bilstein route anyway as it's much more to my liking, I am only testing these dampers as I genuinely want to know if they are working or not and if they are then we can push Jon a little harder and give a viable solution to the owners.
I am going the Bilstein route anyway as it's much more to my liking, I am only testing these dampers as I genuinely want to know if they are working or not and if they are then we can push Jon a little harder and give a viable solution to the owners.
It's a shame this has turned out the way it has. I was hoping to use this in the future
I suppose the only viable solution, for those of us who want EDC, is to fork out for brand new items. Which cost more than what most cars are worth these days.
I just got home from a whole day changing dampers and test driving.
Just a bit of background and summary as to my experience of the rebuild service:
For almost a year now I have been testing the rebuild service. The first few attempts failed due to a problem with bumpstops.
We then got to stage where the dampers were no longer leaking and after considerable useage they are showing no signs of failure.
Sportsline did all of the fitting and supplied new bump rubbers.
The problem was that the dampers were too hard. So hard infact that I could not tell the difference between P and S modes anymore.
I sent them back to have the damping changed but to no avail. I then started looking into my EDC carrying out various tests on Launch and Autologic. Everything seemed to be working without fault codes. The conclusion myself and a very knowledgable board member came to was that my EDC had a problem somewhere.
Until today that is!
A car came into our workshop 2 weeks ago with full working EDC.
I removed the dampers from both my car and the car we have in.
The first thing I noticed was that the other car had completely different bump rubbers to mine. Mine were almost 2 and half times longer!!
This would go a long long way to explain why the hell my car sat so damn high at the front and why the ride was so hard with no difference in P and S modes. I have been riding the bump rubbers all this time!!
The sportsline dampers do still feel a little stiffer than the stock ones but these stock ones I'm comparing them to look very very old.
I decided to test the sealed factory dampers in my car anyway just to see if my EDC was working. It most certainly is working and it was refreshing to have some damping for once and a difference in P and S mode.
I haven't had the chance to test the sportsline rebuilds in the other car because the other car has a broken spring and 2 balljoints are completely finished.
This coming week I will be refitting the sportsline rebuilds to my car again now that I know my EDC works perfectly. This time the correct bump rubbers will be used!
The conclusion so far is that even with serious amounts of abuse the sportslines are standing the test of time in terms of durability.
Had the correct bump rubbers been fitted in the first place by them I would have been able to give the feedback on their actual performance.
I will say that the rebuilds require alot more effort (by hand) to push the damper rod into the damper housing. This suggests to me that the dampers may well be harder than they should be. I may well be proven wrong though as this is not exactly a scientific test of any sort.
If sportsline damping is the same as the BMW dampers then I can honestly say that your all onto a winner here.
Moving onto the rear dampers - Sportsline only change the seals here and the damping is unaffected. London Mike is running these as am I and these are working faultlessly for nearly a year now.
The rears I can confidently say - go for them.
All that messing about and getting depressed over some bump rubbers! To say I am annoyed is an understatement. At the same time I'm happy as I have atleast found that there is nothing wrong with my EDC and testing can resume.
Who removed the original dampers , prior to fitting the reconditioned items ?
Were the original bump stops not cross referenced before the replacements were supplied ?
Amateur night at the Appollo springs to mind ........ an awful shame when so many owners , press and manufacturers have been following this thread with interest and sentiment seems to have turned against EDC recently , especially with the GROUNDBREAKING development of Bilstein dampers and springs of recent times !
As I've been watching this thread from the very beginning because I need some refurbished rears as well, I still do not have the feeling that sportsline is right up there when it comes down to order the stuff including an agreed delivery.
I think I mailed them several times a year ago and then decided to buy the original fronts.
Still I want to give the benefit of the doubt and in having a shot at some refurbished rears.
Isn't possible that someone from sportsline just posts a procedure with name address, contactpersons and expected delivery times so we all know what we can expect?
My car was given to Sportsline. All 4 dampers were rebuilt and changed on their premises.
I don't think it's a case of incompetence here, he ordered the wrong part. He doesn't know these cars. It's a BMW bump rubber but not for an E34 M5 one with EDC.
While I am very much in favour of the Bilstein upgrade (and maybe KW upgrade once I've fitted it), my car retains it's EDC setup. I still don't like it but it's on there until I see this EDC rebuild through. I have spent 10-15000 'horrible' miles in my M5 now and I have had a great deal of patience with it all. I am the only one who is testing and trying to get to the bottom of it all with updates for you guys to read.
I actually appreciate that people may want to retain a factory feature and like the very soft ride P mode gives.
I am not looking for people to thank me for any of this (though they do kindly show their support on here and the PM system). I like being part of this small community and this is my way of contributing towards it like many others contribute towards it in their own way.
While Sportsline have been a bit slack in places I still have to give it to them, they spent a aweful amount of time looking into all of this and spent a large number of hours in development. They have most definately not recovered anywhere near their costs to date.
Visiting Sportsline I get the impression they are a company that are not upto date with dealing directly with the public like many companies in the motorsport /tuning industry.
What is needed is someone inbetween who has the skills to be able to extract the service efficiently from them and to be able to provide a good service to customers. Everyone knows I am in the trade by now but I am not willing to put my name to this until I am completely satisfied with it. At this time I am not convinced the damping rates for the fronts are correct. I am very confident about the life span though and also the rear dampers are a no brainer as far as I am concerned for both 3.6 SLS and 3.8 SLS/EDC.
Thanks, Cyrus! Nice answer. I very willing to order the rears with Sportsline.
Is it still possible to send the old rears and get them back refurbished?
I will call Jon first to make sure he is available.
Once I have an answer we can get things moving again.
I think he really needs to sort Reg out to restore some confidence.
I think it might be a good idea of people who are sending their dampers back could cc me on the emails with any tracking numbers. Any questions can then be sent to me and I can deal with them accordingly.
I will make one thing very clear to those considering this route - understand that this company is upto their eye balls in work. I have seen this myself.
Go into this with the understanding that there may be a small delay.
The fact is that we have nowhere else to go for these rebuilds unless you want to pay BMW a large sum of money (and even then you might have to wait a long time for the parts).
Make sure that when you install the dampers brand new bump rubbers are used and the dampers are allowed to stand upright for the recommended period of time.
Be be a little flexible and make sure your old stuts are sent back in a timely manner and the community as a whole might get somewhere with this.
I will continue to work on the fronts, not promising any results but I'll try.
Lastly but not leastly, please do not forget that I am only a test mule. If this starts working nicely then all remember that it is London Mike who made this possible and put an incredible amount of time in.
I fully appreciate your efforts and sincerely hope that this project is pursued until a satisfactory solution is found .
As mentioned , a great number of different groups are watching with interest and it would be an absolute travesty were the rebuild project to be devalued due to a schoolboy error .
Having been one of the initial members that donated EDC dampers to Leda in a bid to reach a solution to this problem more than 2 years ago , only to see them go out of business , I totally admire your commitment and persistence in relation to this project !
some more testing done so i thought I'd update.
I have tested the rebuilds on a car which had perfectly working EDC dampers. I fitted brand new BMW springs with new bump stops.
I can now feel the difference between P and S mode whereas when the rebuilds were on my car it was like driving a car with racecar dampers. The reason was that the bump stops were 2.5 inches too long!
The damping is slightly stiffer than stock dampers but it's not alot.
I will be visiting Sportline in the coming week or so with both rebuild dampers and a factory unit. They will be put onto the dyno and the bump/rebound will be tested in all 3 control planes.
We will then try to get the damping a little closer to the stock units. Jon thinks the difference may be down to the oil type used by him vs the factory units.
As before, the dampers are still in excellent tact, the seals don't attract loads of dust and crap which is probably the sole reason the factory units fail.
Finally we are getting somewhere.
Stupid f*****g bump stops are the sole reason this whole project has been delayed.
Thought I'd post some positive news on the EDC rebuild service.
Jon has replaced both the front and rear EDC on my car now, we used new top mounts all round, new standard BMW springs at the front and kept the old rear springs as they seemed OK. The front bump stops were replaced with Porsche items that were modified to the correct length, which doesn't sound ideal but as I believe they're better quality I think it's for the better. The rear bump stops were fine so we kept them.
At first I had a knocking from the front left but this turned out to be a loose bolt on the anti-roll bar. Now it's tightened everything is working fine. There's a noted difference between P and S although I agree with Sal that the overall damping seems just a smidgen stiffer than standard. Not a bad thing though.
Overall it feels like a new car! Full report/pics in the next issue of everyone's favourite BMW magazine. And no, I haven't freelanced it out to Total...
That's great to hear...So, basically it sounds like, if you take your vehicle there for the service you'll most likely not have any issues.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
BMW M5 Forum and M6 Forums
3.2M posts
125.8K members
Since 2000
M5Board is the best forum community for information on the BMW M5 E60 (V-10), E39 (V-8), E34 (straight 6), E28, F90 and F10. Discuss performance, specs, reviews and more!