Shock absorber

Shock absorbers will experience wear & tear over time. Worn out shock absorbers will often leak fluid—and can present symptoms such as reduced dampening, bad handling and stability, and uneven tyre wear.

Shock absorbers dampen the motion of a vehicle’s springs as they compress and rebound over uneven surfaces. This prevents excessive bouncing, improves ride comfort—and is crucial for ensuring that the tyres maintain contact with the road for consistent handling and braking.

Most BMWs use shock absorbers in combination with a separately positioned coil spring or pneumatic spring.

Some BMWs use rear struts instead of the shock absorber/spring configuration. Depending on the model & suspension package these struts can be either coil spring or air.

Each model generation will have a few different types of shock absorber—for the different suspension packages (standard, sport, VDC)—but there can be other factors.

The best way to determine fitment compatibility of a shock absorber is to match the BMW part numbers from the catalogue. This can be done by decoding your vehicle’s VIN in a BMW EPC (electronic part catalogue.)

If you don’t have access to an EPC, provide our team with your vehicle’s 17-digit VIN—and we’ll check our stock for a compatible match.

There is low-interchangeability of shock absorbers between models. Typically you will only see interchangeability between sister models (F30 3 Series to F32 4 Series, etc.)