2005 E60 535d suspension/wheels/tyres help please.

mickeyboy500

Newbie
Points
6
Location
Southampton, UK
Car
E60 BMW 535d
Just recently joined the forum and I'm looking for some advice and/or suggestions.

Sold my trusty E39 530d with 148k on the clock a couple of months back and bought a 55 plate, 58k miles, Carbon Black E60 535d MSport, chipped, 20" Lenso Alloys, FK Coilovers, PowerFlow Quad Stainless Exhaust plus a few other subtle M5 like mods.

The car looks "the business" and has amazing torque but the ride around town (and even on some "A" roads and motorways) can only be described as "shocking" in every sense of the word. Appreciate that the skinny rubber doesn't exactly help but even so I can't believe how bad it is sometimes. Test drove it before purchasing but didn't really appreciate at the time just how poor the ride was on anything but flat tarmac, it does go around corners rather well though!

Whoever did the suspension/wheel mods either didn't do a very good job or else it was purposely set up for track use, either way these days my preference is more towards comfort than speedy corner hugging.

Having ridden for some distance on all sorts of road variances in a B10 Alpina on 19s recently, the difference between that and mine is just night and day. I have researched that Alpina sell their suspension kits for the E60 plus I have also looked at the BILSTEIN B16 ridecontrol® setup. Initial thinking is to change out the suspension/coilover components and if necessary thereafter put 19s back on the car, but not sure whether I should tackle the wheels/tyres or suspension first.

So my first question is does anyone have any experience or knowledge of either of these two suspension setups?
2nd question would be, are there any other alternatives out there worthy of consideration?
3rd question is who might I go to in the Southampton area who will do a 1st class job including making sure that all of the geometry setup is what it should be?

Looking forward to some knowledgable replies.
 
It's an interesting point you make here because there haven't been many BMWs that don't corner superbly. Even base models on standard suspension and tyres (though tyres should be the best you can buy regardless of whatever car we're discussing).

Try throwing this open in Technical Forum - wheels and tyres section. It'd be nice to find someone with first hand experience.

Good luck - it's an intersting topic and I'd like to see other peoples' thoughts.

My guess is that the performance of the 'standard' Alpina setup is the goal.

Come on folks - someone must have some first hand experience . . . . .
 
Hi and welcome to the site.

Most suspension modifications made by amatures (and some professionals) are done without the knowledge required to do it properly.

I suggest that you borrow a set of standard wheels and tyres to see what difference these make. You may find that the car is transformed :)

If they don't make much difference then someone has made a right hash of the mods.
 
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