E30 Zone

I just recently purchased a 320i Touring and imported it to the US. After getting it here, I discovered that it has a load leveling suspension. In addition, the springs have been swapped to some much shorter springs. The ride height is probably 60-70 mm (2-3 inches) shorter. Here are my questions.

1.) Is there a good description of this system and how it works somewhere? ( I found the one in the Wiki, but I'm hoping for more.)
2.) This car rides HARD. Can I just put stock springs in it and get the normal BMW ride back?

Thanks for your help,

twright wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 24, 2022 3:25 pm

I just recently purchased a 320i Touring and imported it to the US. After getting it here, I discovered that it has a load leveling suspension. In addition, the springs have been swapped to some much shorter springs. The ride height is probably 60-70 mm (2-3 inches) shorter. Here are my questions.

1.) Is there a good description of this system and how it works somewhere? ( I found the one in the Wiki, but I'm hoping for more.)
2.) This car rides HARD. Can I just put stock springs in it and get the normal BMW ride back?

Thanks for your help,

Throw some pictures up please, this would help us enormously.
60 - 70mm drop is MASSIVE
I`m sure any E30 can be brought back to stock and dont limit the pics to just the suspension, the car needs to be shown too mate !!

Mart.

Here's what I have (from realoem.com) :

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpa ... Id=33_0358

Here's some addtional info:

The rear springs look exactly like the stock springs of a 1994 318i Touring !

The front springs are blue and have these numbers on them: E30 V/A and 6008101039G09.


Do you only have to change the front springs on a car equipped with a load leveling device and the rear will match up automatically?

Here's what it looks like:

Does anyone have any info on this system?

At the risk of burying you in other threads to read...

- Have you checked with our brothers & sisters on R3V?

(might be worth sending out a few targeted PMs to those who have posted over there)

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/ ... ion-delete

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/ ... suspension

Yes, I am a regular viewer/poster on R3V. The problem is that R3V is a US based website and the US probably only has about 20 E30 Tourings in it. They were never officially imported into the US.

They have started to trickle into the US, since the rules for importation are easier, if the car is 25 years and older.

I was hoping I would get some more help here.

I have discovered some more information for this load leveling system:

I think it is misnamed. It should be called: Rear Suspension Height Maintenance Device.

It is a system that contains a dual element power steering pump (one pump for the steering and one pump for the suspension) that sends oil to the rear shock absorbers to maintain a height that has been determined by a sensor that is connected to the rear sway bar.

I was able to verify the functionality of my system by raising the rear suspension by about 50 mm, just by making an adjustment to this sway bar sensing device. This means that I can set the rear suspension to any height I want. The front suspension height is set by my choice of front springs. I will be replacing the extremely short ones that I have with some stock ones.

I'm much happier now. I thought I was going to have to replace some expensive suspension components. It looks like all I need are some front springs.

Good result mate
Could you post some pictures of the rear suspension as most of us have never heard or even seen this set up ?

Cheers Mart.

Most of the system is mostly invisible. It has a slightly bigger power steering pump and lines going from it to the shocks. The only real visible components are the accumulators under the spare tire. I'll try to get a picture of them.

martauto wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:03 pm

Could you post some pictures of the rear suspension as most of us have never heard or even seen this set up ?

From what I can see it was an option on later 6-cyl tourings. It seems to be the same system as was used on some of the bigger cars like E32 E34 and E24. It is similar principle to the hydrogas/hydralastic setup on the older Austins like Maxi and Princess, not that was anything to brag about.

Here is a picture of the accumulators and lines that are underneath the spare tire: