This z8 came in to have a routine service, suspension upgrade, full exhaust, custom software, intake, big brake kit, and paint correction. Image Unavailable, Please Login
One should be careful with this car.. The front strut towers are very weak.. Ive seen a few hit a decent size pot hole breaking the aluminum strut tower (at the welds)... The part that sucks is that its a full rail and apron replacement. Everything has to come out in order to do the install.. I would really think twice about making the suspension stronger, it may be more stress on the strut tower.. unless this project is to address the tower weakness.. then I stand corrected.. R
That's why I asked...I thought BMW had actually developed a strengthening kit that largely fixed the problem (as long as you got to it before damage). BMW has a lousy structural engineer somewhere in their ranks because they have a similar problem on the Mini Coopers with "mushrooming" strut tower tops.
The performance package (PP) is being installed. It bolts a steel plate over the top of the strut tower and bridges the two strut towers with a piece of steel that is supposed to improve the handling. The handling improvement allowed BMW to get this strut tower fix out there without admitting that there was a design problem. The strut tower damage occurs when the relatively soft original suspension bottoms out from hitting a pot hole or other road obstacle. Dan believes that with the PP installed the longer travel of the K&W shocks and increased stiffness will make this set up better than the PP with the original suspension. Also the original tires on the Z8 were run flats and they definitely contributed to the punch that could be thrown when the suspension bottomed out. Those have been replaced with conventional tires on this car. Phil
Exactly. The soft OEM suspension has a short shock body. This leaves little suspension travel and when hitting hard bumps the shock body slams into the bump stop. This acts like a slide hammer and pushes the shock mounts up. K&W gave us the replacement specs and we have faith between increased spring pressure and longer travel that it will keep the shock from bottoming out.
