Suspension help

[Kingy]

o/

My Z4 needs some suspension work doing, but I'm not sure if I should be looking to get more done than is needed right away while the garage has got the car on the ramp etc?

I'm told that the front wishbones and rear bushes have play, and need replacing. I figure that if the front wishbones needs doing, then why don't the rears? Same point regarding the front bushes if the rears need replacing?

Trouble is, I've never know anything about suspension, and this only gets worse when people start talking about shocks, dampers and struts (somebody told me that these are the same thing?) and springs?

Basically, the car has done 90k now, and I don't often get time to get work done on it, so if there's anything obvious that's worth doing without breaking the bank, then it'd be good to do it. Nobody I've spoken to so far seems to understand what I'm talking about though... (

I'd like the handling to be good, but I don't really want to compromise on ride quality as I do 30k year. Having the OEM components refreshed seemed like a good starting point before I started thinking about ARBs etc...

Can anyone join the dots together to draw a pretty picture I can understand please?

 

[Kingy]

if youre really not up on it, why bother with after market?

just get on the eurocarparts site and get OEM bilstein replacements?

I'm not looking at aftermarket, (unless I eventually consider an ARB kit) I just wanted to know if the front wishbones need replacing, is it not likely that the reas will need doing too? And if the rear bushes need replacing, wouldn't it be a good idea to replace the fronts? Or doesn't it work like that?

I just figured that the more stuff that was replaced, the better the ride / handling was likely to be, and I could get it done more quickly, instead of having to take it back in 10k to get the other bit done...

Is a shock absorber the same thing as a damper?