Unofficialbmw.com

[dale]

I bought my white 92 325ic with 87k miles on it. Did a tbelt job right away, added wheels, tires, and mechanically that's about all I've had to do for the last year (besides oil changes of course).

It's now 8k miles later and have 95k on the odo, and the front suspension is shot. All components are original BMW factory parts, 17 years old.
The ball joints have huge slop in them, the left strut has oil blown out of it and all over the wheel.

Time for suspension rebuild. Since I want to keep that factory sport-suspension ride/handling balance, these are the parts I'm going with:
- Boge Turbo-Gas shocks/struts (these are used off my cabrio parts car)
- factory springs, I cut a coil off the fronts
- Lemforder control arms
- 96-99 E36 M3 control arm bushings, concentric solid rubber
- new factory sway bar ends, front and rear
- new rear shock mounts
- Z3 reinforcement rings for rear shock mounts, 51-71-8-413-359

1992 325ic suspension rebuild part number Pelican Prices (free s/h) as of 05/10/2009

Left Control arm, Lemf 31-12-1-127-725 $119.75
Right Control arm, Lemf 31-12-1-127-726 $119.75
E30 Control arm bushings 31-12-9-058-931 $27.75
96-99 E36 M3 CA bushings 31-12-9-069-035 $37.25 optional
subtotal $276.75
2x of each of the below:
Sway bar links 31-35-1-091-764 $27.75
Boge Struts (cabrio specific) 31-32-1-133-560 $115.25
Boge Struts 325is 31-32-1-135-892 same price as above
Bump stops 31-33-1-124-449 $9
top strut mount 31-33-1-139-452 $35

Steering
Tie rod assem, Lemforder 32-11-1-125-186 $64.75
tie rod boots 32-11-1-127-104 $4
2X clamps for boots 32-13-1-094-100 4.5

Rear
Boge Shocks, 325ic 33-52-1-132-123 $77.25
Boge Shocks, 325is 33-52-1-091-999 same price as above
Shock mounts 33-52-1-132-10 34.25
Rear swaybar links 33-55-1-126-932 $12.75
1x $384.50
2x $769.00

grand total $769 + $276.75 = $1,045.75, ouch!

2x Z3 reinforcement plate 51-71-8-413-359 $15

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This image shows the E46 and Z3 reinforcment plates. I'm going with the Z3 ones as I have them on hand:


These are the Z3 plates I'm installing:


The front sway bar connectors are likely worn out by the time the shocks/struts are done, so replace them also


On the rear, the sway bar connectors get pretty cracked and sloppy after 10+ years, they are pretty cheap, around $12 each, so replace them when doing shocks/struts.



The car: my '92 325ic with 95k miles on the clock.

parts list:
http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E30/Cabrio/USA/325i-M20/LHD/M/1992/january/browse/front_axle/guide_support_spring_pad_attaching_parts/


Front Suspension(part numbers shown are for E36/Z3):


Rear Suspension:

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dale@unofficialbmw.com
sold in 2016
87 325 5spd eta