e32 Jewel rears

Northern Irish plates are wrong, wrong, wrong, no
matter what they're supposed to say. My 840Ci had
"P840 ***" which I thought was really naff - as if
anyone really cared that the number plate said what
the car was! Irish plates just have connotations of
old Granada Scorpios, satellite dishes and Kebab
shops. Each to their own of course.

Anybody who puts an Irish plate on an X5 needs
shooting. £40'000 car, £10 number plate.

As for cheap lowering springs - well my old E32 bus
has a pair of ECP lowering springs on the front
mainly because it had a busted front coil. It sits
about an inch lower on the front which transforms
the way the car feels on the road. I fitted new
dampers at the same time and it firmed up the front
suspension without giving it a horrible hard ride.
Definitely recommended.

No offence on the Irish plate Del, I can appreciate you just wanted something different for your car. I had Irish plates on quite a few cars, seeing as I lived in NI, but as soon as I moved to Scotland and bought a car here, the UK reg stayed. My father tried to get me to register the car on Irish plates, but the thought of driving about with AHZ, CHZ, YJI, or any combination like that just didn't interest me. I suppose I don't give a hoot about my reg number, it's just an identification system to differentiate your car from the one down the road. Horses for courses.

Doive wrote: No offence on the Irish plate Del, I can appreciate you just wanted something different for your car. I had Irish plates on quite a few cars, seeing as I lived in NI, but as soon as I moved to Scotland and bought a car here, the UK reg stayed. My father tried to get me to register the car on Irish plates, but the thought of driving about with AHZ, CHZ, YJI, or any combination like that just didn't interest me. I suppose I don't give a hoot about my reg number, it's just an identification system to differentiate your car from the one down the road. Horses for courses.

No,,,None taken at all Doive. Its all fun on a car worth the same as a poll tax bill why waste money on a cherished plate when you are given one as a pressie for nowt

Edited by Del64

Del64 wrote: Unsprung weight 18" m-parr plus tyre was 1.3Kg "less" than the original td metric with 230/55 x 390. I take it that as they were OEM on the e34 with identical suspension BMW might have an idea that they will work? Still with a 415mm TRX at 17 1/4 " as standard that 3/4 inch makes all the difference

I take it you're referring to the use of 18" M-Parallels on the M5, the suspension of which is a bit different to a cooking E34.

Also, you'll find 415 TRX are actually 16.4" not 17.25".

It has been mentioned several times before that the E34 does not really suit 17" wheels, not just because of weight but because of offset, wheel loadings etc. etc. They wear out front suspension items fast enough as it is with 15" wheels.

Over sized wheels lead to tramlining, poor steering feel & admiration from the more undesirable elements of society.

As a famous engineer once said,"Ye canna change the laws o' physics!".

AndyS wrote: Del64 wrote: Unsprung weight 18" m-parr plus tyre was 1.3Kg "less" than the original td metric with 230/55 x 390. I take it that as they were OEM on the e34 with identical suspension BMW might have an idea that they will work? Still with a 415mm TRX at 17 1/4 " as standard that 3/4 inch makes all the difference I take it you're referring to the use of 18" M-Parallels on the M5, the suspension of which is a bit different to a cooking E34.Also, you'll find 415 TRX are actually 16.4" not 17.25".It has been mentioned several times before that the E34 does not really suit 17" wheels, not just because of weight but because of offset, wheel loadings etc. etc. They wear out front suspension items fast enough as it is with 15" wheels.Over sized wheels lead to tramlining, poor steering feel & admiration from the more undesirable elements of society.As a famous engineer once said,"Ye canna change the laws o' physics!".

Yip I bow to your superior arithmetic the 415's are 16 and 1/3 " dia.
BUT I spent many months researching the suspension detail of the e32 and e34 as part of a project for the 7 series register back in 2003 and it even went as far as Munich.
The suspension of the e32 V12 is tougher than that of the e34 M5 in the bushing rates.
In Germany it has been known to run 19" rims on both e32 and e34 with similar life to a stock 15" (Source being 7er.com)
Anyone who has looked at the construction of even such a simple component as the wheel bearing and more over if you ever tried to remove it! the quality is massive compared to purpose. I have had 17 then 18" rims on for almost four years in Scotland where tarmac seems an option and not had any issues of any kind despite many of the register guys having serious problems whith shimmy and standard wheels.
I would like to be able to get more information on the diameter of a rim the profile of the tyre against wear however as the rolling radius remains static the main increase in tyre width is the rear at 265 on the front it has reduced from 240 to 235 thus decreasing the amount of rubber drag?

Trouble is that as the cars are now so very old there were almost no folks in Munich who were able to discuss and advise on it but the precedent was the e34 M5.

AndyS wrote: Del64 wrote: the precedent was the e34 M5. ... which was beefed up compared to the cooking E34.By using shorter tyre sidewalls you are feeding more stress into the suspension components. That's why the E34 M5 had significantly stronger suspension than a 520.You only have to look at the number of posts & problems people have with the front suspension on their E34's & most are running larger wheel tyre combos than standard.The V12 does use stronger components than standard. The use of E32 V12 components on the E24 Six is quite common. The Six started life on 14" then went to 15" before going on to the TRX disaster of 390 (15.4") & 415's. All this happened without much strengthening of suspension components.My six runs 8x17" on the front which are 1/4" narrower than the TRX with 235/40 tyres (240/45x415). The car steers & rides much better than before. However, the Highline Sixes were considered over-tyred anyway.There's nothing to stop you running 18" or 19" wheels but if BMW thought 17" was optimum for the M5 then that's a good indication.

LMAO perhaps the Saxo crowd shopuld take note 13" to 18" being common.

The information we got from BMW was the M5 borrowed from the V12 as we wanted to know if swapping to M5 upper and lower arms would be stronger they said no, other way around.
my fronts are only 8" wide too but the increase in impact via shorter sidewalls is no worse in fact the ride quality is superior than on the Michelins however this is splitting hairs and thats not my intent.

Three years on 18" rims a year on 17" rims and the wishbones are as good as the day I did it and 8500 miles down the very rutted road.

I feel your comment on the way your six handles and rides is the key. Modern tyre technology is far superior to that which was available when our cars left the factory. As I said above, the car is smoother and softer on Avon ZZ3's than either the Michelin Pilot sport 17"s or the Remould TD's when I collected her from the garage.
BMW though not willing to condone the replacement were of the opinion it would not "significantly alter" the componenet life on the V12 however on M30 and M60 cars it would be slightly different

Yep, sorted Dazz, was lucky that I could get the link off your picture.

Paul

You're absolutely sure that Eibach don't do a spring
kit for the 750i? I'm pretty sure the do (or used to). I
bought a set for my 840Ci when one of the rear coils
broke - because they are TuV approved the main
dealer fitted them without quibble. It needed two
creaking front shocks under warranty so they fitted
the whole set.
You'll find that springs for a 735i or 740i will do the
job anyway - the V12 isn't massively heavier than the
M30 iron block engine or the V8. I found on my old
730i that only the front needs dropping an inch or two
(40mm in my case). The back end was fine.