Hi, advice needed, I have a 55 plate E53 3.0d and the ride quality is awful, it has springs on the front and bags on the rear and driving on normal roads, or as normal as we have in the UK, the ride quality is awful, at times it feels like i'm "offroad" and feel every bump in the road, if the ride quality was better I would keep the vehicle as its in really good condition, any advice please

Morning Ben

Welcome to the Forum

One mans hard ride is another mans sporty ride BMW think we all like sport? So having owned both 4.4 and 4.6 E53 X5's I have developed a view on ride quality based on my aching back. We have a road locally that is like driving on a tarmac ploughed field which I avoid as much as possible

Things that have an effect on ride are:

(1) Tyres from the picture it looks like you are running 19" Staggered wheels which should have 255x55x19 Front and 285x45x19 Rear Tyres can have a big influence on comfort due to side wall stiffness as will the pressure they are run at. Plus they should be Non Runflat type, runflats are renowned for their hard ride due to side walls being stiff enough to carry the cars weight. 

(2) Shock absorber type will make a huge difference your car may be running sport suspension from the factory. If they have stiffened up with age (we all do) then they will jar over lumps and bumps. 

(3) Springs I would think there are options for sport or comfort but I have never checked. You could look at www.realoem.com to see what is available.

(4) Last but not least the seats, two types Sport or Comfort

So first thing I would do is put the Vin number into BMW Vin Decoder it should bring up the original build spec, this will allow you to see if you have the "Sport" or "Comfort" suspension

Wheels 18" will have tyres with a taller side wall so be a softer ride (my 4.6is runs 20" wheels as standard the winter wheels are 18" so I know the difference) Shock Absorbers the difference just replacing with new makes can be amazing, I did this on the 4.4. Replacing shocks with softer bump and rebound should be a possibility.

Bit of a ramble but I hope it helps

Dave

Thanks Greydog, very much appreciated and very knowledgeable think I will start by looking at the shocks before I go down the route of changing wheels but also try the BMW Vin Decoder

I also have a 2005 E53 3.0d, again with steel front springs, and air on the rear. The car also has the 19" wheels and had done about 120000 miles on it like Ben's. I have owned the car for almost ten years now and noticed that the ride has recently deteriorated considerably for no apparent reason, and nothing whatsoever has been altered. If the car had always been like this I, like Ben, would be thinking of getting rid of it. Greydog's interesting and knowledgeable post covers many things but something has happened to my car only over the last few weeks. The only thing that comes to mind is that something has been damaged or affected since I have had to drive down an horrendously bad, potholed farm lane a number of times recently, on which I probably didn't exceed walking pace, if indeed I went that fast. 

I am going to put the car over an inspection pit in the next day or so, just in case anything is visible or obvious. Apart from that, I would certainly appreciate any help at all with this issue.

John

Morning John

Welcome to the Forum

Don't ignore suspension bushes I spend quite a lot of time driving on farm tracks during the shooting season. I have learned from experience that suspension bushes last around 80k max, they then start to become hard or worse start to break up. I change the bushes between 60/80k front and rear, shocks at 100/150k. The 4.4 and my current E70 are springs front air rear the 4.6 was air all round. The 4.4 ran 19" staggered wheels the 4.6is and E70 both run 20" staggered sets (still got a spare set of type 87 4.6is wheels in the shed)

The E70 I changed the bushes front and rear at 75k (I have a home made bearing press uses a bottle jack) BMW in their wisdom fitted a pair of  sponge/fibre pads above and below the front top mounts after changing the bushes and still having clunky suspension I investigated these and found one side completly disintergrated the other side looking really thin. I changed just the upper set and wow what a difference 

Changing bushes there are complete kits available (Arms and Bushes) for ront and rear which are not that expensive obviously bushes alone are cheaper but you do need a press. Tip I learned that the rear on the 4.6 bolts were so rusted it was qicker to buy new a cut the old ones off. Did the same with the E70 while your in there change the Rose Joint bottom of the rear hub and get a 4 wheel alignment done 

Hope this helps

Dave