Installing Eibach front sway on a 540i, need opinions

[whiteghost1]

I'm installing the Eibach sway and am facing a delimna, please tell me what you would do.......

I was going to drop the front subframe to change the upper oil pan gasket.
Now that the oil leak which I suspected from the upper oil pan is not nearly as big as I thought (it was the front crank seal), I could get away with just lowering the front subframe a few inches instead of dropping it to the ground - to install the front sway.

The upper oil pan seeps oil albeit very very minor; I already have bought the upper pan gasket previous.

If you were me would you go the extra mile(s) & change the upper oil pan gasket whilst swapping swaybars, or live with a little bit of oil 'sweating'?

[JimLev]

If you have the time, access to a lift, and a second car I'd change the gasket.
I did the front sway on a friends 540 last fall. We did have a lift to use. I posted pics here of it.
We dropped the subframe about 6" by completely unbolt it. We needed to pry the front loose from its alignment pins. After that it was a piece of cake to swap bars, as the back of the subframe dropped about 6" which gave us plenty of room to easily remove the bar.
Have fun getting the steering box unbolted, ugh.
What do you have for the rear bar?

[whiteghost1]

In the process of doing it right now, going for the upper oil pan gaskets and Eibach install. The upper oil pan sweating my stay the same for the life of the car or it may get worse. I look at this car as a keeper for a while yet, so I might as well change the gasket. Since 90% of the work for the upper oil pan is for the front bar install, might as well change it; I am super anal bout my cars which doesn't help.

An unrelated thing worth mentioning for M62tu guys is - that a lot of timing guide bits were found in the oil pump pickup!
This is AFTER I changed the timing guides a few months back + that I removed whatever guide bits I could see (and I looked EVERYWHERE) + that I already cleaned the oil pickup when my timing guides failed initially.
There was so much in there that it was surprising that I had any oil pressure; just food for thought if you've had you' guides replaced. Might be worth dropping the pan and checking next oil change.

JL - already running the matching 18mm? Eibach rear bar, but I am always wanting more

[JimLev]

I've got the rear 18mm bar and the M5 front bar that I put in on my back a bunch of years ago.
One of these days I'll put the matching Eibach front bar in.

[philly98540]

Where do you think all those bits were hiding? Strange since you cleaned everything during the initial repair.Also, please post your impressions of the Eibach front bar once you get it in and tested. Do bumps on one side of car cause the whole font end to shudder, etc. I agree on you doing the gasket now since your in there.

[whiteghost1]

Not a friggen clue, maybe the guide bits floated around in the upper 1/2 of the motor only to drain or fall back down into the sump eventually??



The improvements with both Eibach sways installed are reminiscent of when I added Dinan sways to my 7. And that is that the front end of the car feels like it lost 3-400 lbs increasing agility, dramatically less sway in the corners (obviously), and that the turn-in response is quicker.

I can honestly say that I've never had any negative side effects from installing larger sways in all of my vehicles