The Install – Rears
1) Remove the back seat bottom cushion (pull
UP…hard).
2) There are four plastic nuts that retain the
back cushion. One by each door at the bottom of the cushion and
two behind the armrest in the center:
Outboard side plastic nut
Two plastic nuts located behind rear center arm rest
3) Pop off the top plastic seat
belt covers (gently push and pry from the front – be careful
as the plastic is likely brittle and will shatter easily), slide
the belts around the seat back to get them out of the way, and
remove the middle belt receptacle from the rear cushion (held
in place by a plastic retainer clip).
4) Remove the seat back by lifting UP and OUT.
I chose not to fuss around with the rear parcel shelf, although
you can easily lift it up to gain a few inches of working space
by popping out the visible black retainer clips that are exposed
when removing the seat back.
5) Remove the plastic strut mount cover and
rubber dust boot.
6) Remove the three 13mm nuts that
hold the strut mount/strut assembly in place (note that this is
a ONE month old strut mount – yours might not look so good).
7) The rear seat area should now
look like this:
8) Now that the inside stuff is
prepped, it’s time to raise the back of the car and support
it with jack stands (if using the jacking point on the left side,
be careful not to pinch the steel fuel and brake lines that run
VERY close by that area).
9) Pick a side (Pass side is easier on my 535
since you don’t have to work around the muffler) and remove
the 22mm bolt holding the bottom of the strut to the trailing
arm. If you live in the rust belt, chances are that this bolt
will be well fused in there and you’ll need to saturate
it with some PB blaster.
10) Once the 22mm bolt is out,
push against the strut or use a mallet (or a sledgehammer –
you’re trashing the old insert anyway, right?) to knock
the bottom out of the trailing arm. If yours are rusted beyond
hammering them out, try using a puller. Once it’s out, the
strut and spring will precariously sit there, waiting for you
to pull it out of the car. Take that sucker out.
- From here on out, the procedure’s practically the same
as with the fronts, only easier. There’s no strut housing
collar nut to do. Be sure to adequately compress the
springs! Also, note that the friendly people at Sachs
indicate that the e34 shouldn’t use the
lower spring pad. I installed mine without it, and I haven’t
noticed any noise as of yet. I used the FULL OEM bump stop and
dust cover, versus cutting either component. This has also worked
out fine, probably because the rear stays near stock height.
- Remember to tighten the 22 mm bolts under load. Once again,
I use anti-seize grease (esp on the flange that fits into the
trailing arm) and thread locker on all bolts/nuts.
- Re-installing the rear seat back can be tricky if you haven’t
done it before; carefully line everything up and push it back
and down.
- I’ve found that you may get some interesting noises
for the first few miles after putting everything back together.
I figure that this is just the suspension settling in again.
If you’ve got a noise and it gets worse over time, check
it out as soon as possible!
Get an alignment. Don’t skip
this step. ONLY the fronts can be aligned – the rears have
a fixed toe and camber (dependent on spring and strut height)
that can be altered with offset bushings. If they try to sell
you a “rear” alignment, you’re buying snake
oil!! If you don’t like the idea of having too much negative
camber or toe, you can get camber plates (Kmac, Ireland Engineering)
on the front and modify the rear with bushings, or cut the trailing
arms (or replace with a Dinan set for lowered cars). Tire wear
due to the increased negative camber that results from lowering
is a part of life. According to the Sachs instructions, E34 toe
in should be 18’ +/- 5’; Camber should be -13’
+/- 30’. Pics of the car subsequent to the install…on
a rainy day. Note that these are stock style 5’s on 225/60/15
tires. The rear tires were old, soft, and dry rotted when this
pic was shot, so your car may look better in terms of rear camber
(although mine looks a lot like stock as it is). Finally, note
that the BavAuto springs had about 1 finger width between fender
and tire at the front; the Sachs has about 2.5. I’m told
that, over time, the suspension will settle lower.
Enjoy the nice, better than new ride quality : )
Article
by Whit Lowell
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