Changing the shocks in an E39 M5

Here's how you remove the rear shocks from an E39 M5.

• remove the rear interior lights
• remove the C pillar interior trim
• pop the rear seat cushion up and out
• remove the three headrests (not intuitive, lemme tell you)
• remove two screws holding the rear seat back in, then lift it up and out
• remove four clips along the base of the parcel shelf
• remove the middle headrest bracket
• unbolt the lower attachment points of the three seatbelts
• remove the three child seat anchor points
• pull the rear parcel tray out
• remove two of the rear speaker
• pull back a rubber cover
• remove a rubber cap

Aha! You've uncovered the top of the shock. Undo the three nuts. Now...

• lift the car and remove the rear wheels
• remove the rear caliper from the upright
• disconnect the rear sway bar
• disconnect the rear upper suspension arm
• unbolt the bottom of the shock

Now the shock is free, but you'll have to perform a secret and mysterious 4-dimensional manipulation of the shock to get it out. Once you've swapped the shock over, assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

The best part? If you've installed Koni Sport shocks, you have to do all that again so you can adjust them. Any Miata owner that tells me how hard it is to adjust a set of Illuminas in the rear during the next week is going to get an earful. I can do that in 15 seconds.

It took be 4.5 hours to replace both rear shocks. The vast majority of the work was simply due to the fact that there are to be no visible fasteners in the interior anywhere. I swear modern car makers spend more effort on that than anything else in the whole car.

Anyhow, it's all done. Time to go for a ride and see if the new Konis work better than 98,000 mile stocker Sachs - which have an aluminum body, I was impressed to see.

Hopefully its not this hard on my e46 m3... eek

Keith wrote: Time to go for a ride and see if the new Konis work better than 98,000 mile stocker Sachs - which have an aluminum body, I was impressed to see.

Welcome to e39 ownership sir, you're going to like it here.

The stock sachs on even the basic 6 cylinder e39's have aluminum bodies, they'll also last* 240,000 + miles... or at least they did on my old car. Impressive stuff.

*offer some level of damping and not leak.

Buckhead wrote: Hopefully its not this hard on my e46 m3... eek

No, on an E46 everything is in the trunk or right at the wheel hub. Probably 1/2 hour total.

ansonivan, the M5 boards seem to think the stock Sachs only last about 40-50,000 miles before they're not working. I've always felt this car had bad shocks - it seems to hit the bumpstops pretty hard and floats a bit too much over crests, which would indicate bad damping to me. They were definitely the originals.

Oh, and I can report that a previous owner of my car had kids. I found four Flintstones vitamins under that rear seat. No change, though.

If he had an M5 and kids, neither of which is a low-cost item, I'm not surprised he kept track of spare nickels and quarters and such. Or maybe he tasked them with looking for coins every weekend and called it either "their allowance" or "detailing."

if that is all the rugrats left behind.. you made out. Last car i bought from a guy that had kids had some unidentifiable goop under the backseat that made gorilla glue look like elmers.. I think I needed kerosine to get it out

Janel's Miata always smelled kinda sickly sweet. Once day I pulled out the carpet and found what looked like the remains of a melted Fudgecicle underneath. Some sort of chocolate goo that was mostly but not quite solid. Didn't need kerosene, but it sure was sticky.

My E39 530 has 110k on it original shocks. I got the car with 36k on it and I can tell the shocks now are just not quite what they once were. Maybe I need to replace them too. 4.5 hours dang... that is alot of work, but I can see how getting the interior out is hard.

Oddly enough, a rear shock swap on an E36 takes roughly 15 minutes, most which is spent getting the car up in the air and wheels off.