Quote:
Originally Posted by Badsmerf
I didn't need to compress the spring. Take off the nut when wheel is on the ground. Jack it up, take off the wheel. Then, I was able to compress only the strut by putting my Allen in and compressing it enough to slip the new one in underneath. I just cut the old and pulled it out.
I'm just wondering if the strut should be that easy to compress. Maybe it is my faulty part. You had new struts, how stiff were they? How about the old ones?
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When you loosen the nut in the engine compartment (at the top of the strut) with the wheel on the ground. You are using the X5 as the spring compressor. If you later remove the wheel you have essentially disassembled the strut/spring combo. There are several problems with this procedure…
1 - you still can’t see/inspect the condition of parts number 7 or 8 in the parts diagram (that Philly42 posted)
2 - you can’t be sure that the spring re-seats correctly into part 5 when you let the X5 back down.
In the thread I linked, you can see that the original shock absorber was shorter than the Bilstein replacement. I think that this difference in length was not by design, but rather due to wear. Basically, at rest the old shock was just hanging there. So it didn’t begin absorbing the shock until the wheel had already started upward. In contrast the Bilstein was already under some compression, resisting upward movement even at rest.
In the same thread you can see that the extra length of the Bilstein meant that the flange on part #1 (the strut/shock) was not touching part #4 or the spring when I started tightening the nut at the top of the strut/shock. So if you had to pry the flange down to insert part #4, your struts/shocks are probably “shot”.
I would replace both front struts/shocks and parts number 7, 8 and 10. That’s what I did. And our 2009 X5 35d now drives like a loaner
Funf Dreisig