Strut Fitment

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New Orleans
#1
I was wanting to swap out the bilstein Sport struts from my 85 325e to my 86 325es, but it seems as though they are different. I tried inserting the Sport strut in the es strut housing, but it would get stuck half way and not go in, so I figured they were different. I just went on Bav auto's website and found a couple sport struts for the es but I checked the part number and its the same as the struts on the 325e. So I am confused. I don't want to spend $250 for the struts and find that they don't fit my car. Has anyone had this issue before? Thanks,
Brian.
 
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Bay Of Islands, NZ
#2
First let me clarify the language - the "strut" is the entire suspension unit. The wheel and hub bolt on at the bottom and the "strut-top bearing" bolts into the "Strut tower" at the top. The bit inside that moves up and down is your "strut insert" or "damper", or in laymans terms "shock absorber". When off the car with the strut top bearing, spring and damper removed - the bit you have left (that the wheel bolts to) is the strut.

I thought all of the 325's were the same. There are two strut sizes - 51mm and 48mm. The 48mm was common on 320i's and the 51mm was the one for the 325's.

The collar that holds the damper in the strut is specific to the damper too. You buy them from the damper manufacturer. ie Bilstein make collars for their dampers. So, you may be able to fit the dampers in a different strut if you have the correct collar, or you may not depending on whether the damper was designed to fit different struts.

What you will find is, that the entire strut assemblies are interchangeable. So why not fit the springs you want with your bilsteins to the struts the bilsteins fit in, and mount the whole strut on the car you want, and put the rest on the other car?
 
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#3
What you will find is, that the entire strut assemblies are interchangeable. So why not fit the springs you want with your bilsteins to the struts the bilsteins fit in, and mount the whole strut on the car you want, and put the rest on the other car?[/QUOTE]

Yea, sorry about that. I meant the strut inserts.
I was going to swap out the whole strut with the disk brakes, bearings... but the es has ABS and the e doesn't, I might just end up doing that though.
 
Messages
793
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Location
Bay Of Islands, NZ
#4
Oh, OK, so you have an abs sensor and an abs ring on the hub assembly. Not sure about the easiest way of getting around that - I've never had an e30 with ABS.

That makes it slightly more difficult, and I don't have enough experience with the ABS to advise you.
 


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