The Shock/Strut Thread

[AWF87M2]

well... that escalated quickly lol. Anyways, back to the topic. I now have my springs on for 2000 miles and 3.5 months and tbh I only experience the rear suspension bottoming out when I carry two passengers in the back while going over speed bumps at roughly 30 miles an hour. I was going to go with e36 bump stops for the rear but I really did not see the point for it. On the e92 m3, many people run shaved guide supports+e36 bump stops for the front to allow for more travel and they leave the rear bump stops untrimmed.

[PrematureApex]

35 or 28? Mine will bottom out pretty violently at high speed on expansion joints/buckets/etc. that are common up here in the north east.

[kychungkevin]

Getting close!!

[AWF87M2]

S drive 2.8i, I'm running 275/35/19 tires in the rear and it rarely bottoms out. Even when lowered, the X1 still sits relatively high compared to the e92 m3.

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

35 or 28? Mine will bottom out pretty violently at high speed on expansion joints/buckets/etc. that are common up here in the north east.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by tw4life

S drive 2.8i, I'm running 275/35/19 tires in the rear and it rarely bottoms out. Even when lowered, the X1 still sits relatively high compared to the e92 m3.

Sure, but we have a taller strut body and not nearly as much spring rate as the M3.

Tire size doesn't have much to do with it, besides some added compliance in the sidewall if you're taller (I'm 255/40-18)

That's good to know then. The difference in weight between the 35 and 28 isn't that much, so hopefully the shock and perhaps a bit of bumpstop trim will be enough to get me to a point of no bottoming out.

If you have an s drive, and 19 in wheels, I trust you live in an area with much better roads compared to some of us.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by kychungkevin

Getting close!!

Where did you order from?

That H&Rs, the bushings, and rear shocks?

Edit: You got the B12 kit?

Is all of it in, or just the rears?

Confirm that they're B6s and not B8s???!!

[AWF87M2]

I live in socal and the roads here are below subpar. Actually the weight between the 2.8i and 3.5i can be as much as 400 pounds, since the 3.5i comes standard with pano sunroof.My car is a pretty basic slicktop (aka no sunroof) m sport s drive 2.8i with lightning and power front seats as the only options and it weighed in at only 3550 lbs with 1/4 tank of gas when I was on stock 225/45/18 tires. The panoramic sunroof on the X1 weighs roughly 130 lbs, which was information that I got from a Bmw genius representative.

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Sure, but we have a taller strut body and not nearly as much spring rate as the M3.

Tire size doesn't have much to do with it, besides some added compliance in the sidewall if you're taller (I'm 255/40-18)

That's good to know then. The difference in weight between the 35 and 28 isn't that much, so hopefully the shock and perhaps a bit of bumpstop trim will be enough to get me to a point of no bottoming out.

If you have an s drive, and 19 in wheels, I trust you live in an area with much better roads compared to some of us.

[kychungkevin]

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Where did you order from?

That H&Rs, the bushings, and rear shocks?

Edit: You got the B12 kit?

Is all of it in, or just the rears?

Confirm that they're B6s and not B8s???!!

I ordered from the ebay seller nh-tuning_de; it's a shop in Brandenburg Germany. I tired to order within US but nobody have it so I took the risk. Took almost a month to gets here (NH shipped out fast but DHL-USPS shipping did not help) and the package seem opened; could be the US custom?
Anyway it's all in with 4 Eibach's Springs and 4 B6 shocks. Also the Whiteline bushing is in. Waiting for the M3 sway and will be install on Sept 4th!

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by kychungkevin

I ordered from the ebay seller nh-tuning_de; it's a shop in Brandenburg Germany. I tired to order within US but nobody have it so I took the risk. Took almost a month to gets here (NH shipped out fast but DHL-USPS shipping did not help) and the package seem opened; could be the US custom?
Anyway it's all in with 4 Eibach's Springs and 4 B6 shocks. Also the Whiteline bushing is in. Waiting for the M3 sway and will be install on Sept 4th!

Awesome, that makes me feel better. Interested to hear about the Pro-kit springs vs. the H&R. Maybe the prokit's are a bit higher?

[kychungkevin]

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Awesome, that makes me feel better. Interested to hear about the Pro-kit springs vs. the H&R. Maybe the prokit's are a bit higher?

What make you feel better? Pro kit drop 30mm both front and back it is about the same as H&R but usually Eibach rate is softer than H&R, well see.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by kychungkevin

What make you feel better? Pro kit drop 30mm both front and back it is about the same as H&R but usually Eibach rate is softer than H&R, well see.

The fact that they're B6s vs. B8s. Really don't want to be in a position where the B6 bodies are too long given the lowered height to work.

[PrematureApex]

Update: Threw the B6(HD) rears on yesterday morning. Took about an hour start to finish. It was too much of an effort to remove the stock shock (and even more difficult to install the new ones) without unbolting the lower arm again, so I went ahead and dropped it.

Before the install, I checked the travel of the stock setup. Sure enough, it appears the car sits on the (albeit long) bumpstops all of the time with the H&Rs, or at least extremely close to it. That being said, it is somewhat typically of BMW to use the bumpstops for much, if not all of the suspension travel.

Anyway, I went ahead and trimmed off the first segment of bumpstop which the dust shield normally is fixed to. It's maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch tall. I might have done more, but I don't think I could have attached to dust shield to the next segment up, so I decide to start small.

Anyway, after a short drive through the city, I was unable to get the rear of the car to bottom out. So at least initially, things are looking good.

As with all high pressure gas shocks, there's maybe a 1/4" raise in the ride height, so there's some more rake in the car's stance, and the car sits off the stops.

Hoping the fronts are here sooner rather than later!

I'll report back after further test drives.

If you live in areas with better roads, or don't do a lot of high speed driving, you could very well get away without touching the bumpstops. But the car still needs shocks though. Still can't get over how people could say these springs are fine on stock shocks. Noticeably underdamped.

[fw_fw]

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Update: Threw the B6(HD) rears on yesterday morning. Took about an hour start to finish. It was too much of an effort to remove the stock shock (and even more difficult to install the new ones) without unbolting the lower arm again, so I went ahead and dropped it.

Before the install, I checked the travel of the stock setup. Sure enough, it appears the car sits on the (albeit long) bumpstops all of the time with the H&Rs, or at least extremely close to it. That being said, it is somewhat typically of BMW to use the bumpstops for much, if not all of the suspension travel.

Anyway, I went ahead and trimmed off the first segment of bumpstop which the dust shield normally is fixed to. It's maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch tall. I might have done more, but I don't think I could have attached to dust shield to the next segment up, so I decide to start small.

Anyway, after a short drive through the city, I was unable to get the rear of the car to bottom out. So at least initially, things are looking good.

As with all high pressure gas shocks, there's maybe a 1/4" raise in the ride height, so there's some more rake in the car's stance, and the car sits off the stops.

Hoping the fronts are here sooner rather than later!

I'll report back after further test drives.

If you live in areas with better roads, or don't do a lot of high speed driving, you could very well get away without touching the bumpstops. But the car still needs shocks though. Still can't get over how people could say these springs are fine on stock shocks. Noticeably underdamped.

So we are sitting on the bumpstops with the H&R springs and stock shocks...wow. That can't be good long term. Did you happen to take any pics?

Well, compared to the stock combo the overall ride does improve with the H&R & stock combo, just in certain extreme bumps does it become noticeable that something is not quite right. So depending on the roads in your area you may not notice.

Another thing to add to the to-do list, looks like I may be doing shocks before I upgrade wheels.....

Keep us updated.....

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by fw_fw

So we are sitting on the bumpstops with the H&R springs and stock shocks...wow. That can't be good long term. Did you happen to take any pics?

Well, compared to the stock combo the overall ride does improve with the H&R & stock combo, just in certain extreme bumps does it become noticeable that something is not quite right. So depending on the roads in your area you may not notice.

Another thing to add to the to-do list, looks like I may be doing shocks before I upgrade wheels.....

Keep us updated.....

It's not "necessarily" bad, some cars come from the factory riding on the bump stops, or fractions of an inch off of them. They're a designed part of the suspension, factored into the overall spring rate of the car. The stock stop is like 3-4" long...so a good bit of travel through its compression. The issue is, do you have enough travel/spring rate/compression dampening to stop from bottoming out the suspension on big compressive events.

Originally Posted by fw_fw

Well, compared to the stock combo the overall ride does improve with the H&R & stock combo, just in certain extreme bumps does it become noticeable that something is not quite right. So depending on the roads in your area you may not notice.
.

IMHO, it's only better in a couple aspects, and worse in a number of others. Over small bumps/regular imperfections, yes the H&Rs are more compliant in the first part of their travel. But even though impact harshness is down over some imperfections, the suspension is still way underdamped...oscillating far too much and feeling generally unsettled.

While you might not complain about harshness on smoother roads, even my wife brought up on her own about adding good shocks after driving the car for a week, commenting on the added rocking horse/bouncing symptoms. Simply put, bottoming out aside, there's too much spring rate there for the OE shocks to handle.

Normally, I love running good dampers on stock springs for a daily driver but went with springs on this car because I really think it changes its character. I shouldn't have been so cheap. Good shocks/struts, IMHO, should be perhaps the first suspension mod on any car, regardless of the springs you decide to run.

[fw_fw]

All good points Apex, unfortunately at the time I bought and had the H&R installed the only game in town was the stock shocks or go all out with coilovers, which I didn't want to do. Others had posted positive results, so I went the H&R way. Have I regretted the H&R? Not in the least, still a great improvement over the stock setup in 90% of the driving I do. The bouncing symptoms are there, but fortunately there are very few spots around here that bring it out. But when it bounces....watch out! B6s will be my next mod for the X1....

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by fw_fw

All good points Apex, unfortunately at the time I bought and had the H&R installed the only game in town was the stock shocks or go all out with coilovers, which I didn't want to do. Others had posted positive results, so I went the H&R way. Have I regretted the H&R? Not in the least, still a great improvement over the stock setup in 90% of the driving I do. The bouncing symptoms are there, but fortunately there are very few spots around here that bring it out. But when it bounces....watch out! B6s will be my next mod for the X1....

Haha, I hear you. No regrets either. Honestly, I'd run them over stock even if we couldn't get any shocks, at least until the stockers really wore out.

I've had KWs on a few of my cars in the past, but from what I was seeing, if you went that route, you were going much lower than I wanted to ride-height wise, without an option to adjust it back up.

I'd love something with standard size 2.5" Eibach, etc. springs where we could set everything up to our liking.

IMHO...someone should just made a cheap sleeve kit so any E90 coilover/strut could easily be fit.

[PrematureApex]

OK, just snapped some pics...it's bad. There's maybe a 1/4" of free play prior to being into the stop, even with trimming the stop.

Obviously, even on stock springs, the car used the bump stops pretty regularly.

Stop at the top...



Stop at the bottom...



The bit I trimmed...





Can anyone reach between the tire and fender of their stock car and move the bump stop up and down to see how much travel there is stock? Pics would be great!

[PrematureApex]

When they arrive, I'll most likely pull apart the front struts and trim the internal bump stops the first time around. Don't want to do this job a third time around...

Procedure will probably be similar to this, for those who wish to try it as well...

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...mod-99244.html

[fw_fw]

Doing a little light reading on the interwebs today about bumpstops and the E90 platform, most recommendation are to not cut the bumpstops when lowering the car as it changes the progressive combined spring rates, instead to use a shorter bumpstop from other BMWs, i.e. E36 M3 Front and E85 Z4 Rear. Since the sleeves seem to be the biggest difference between E9X and E84 it may also work for us. Here is one of the many threads:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=614778

[andybmr]

Hello! Just wondering according to turner motorsport Bilstein HD are meant for stock springs? Are they good to with the H&R lowering springs? Got my H&R but deciding if i should use stock shocks or just buy bilstein pro kit. Does the pro kit come with sport shocks or HD shocks. Thanks for your input.

[fw_fw]

Originally Posted by andybmr

Hello! Just wondering according to turner motorsport Bilstein HD are meant for stock springs? Are they good to with the H&R lowering springs? Got my H&R but deciding if i should use stock shocks or just buy bilstein pro kit. Does the pro kit come with sport shocks or HD shocks. Thanks for your input.

If you read the thread above, you will see that the Bilstein Pro Kit comes with HD (B6) shocks, and includes lowering springs, albeit not H&R.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by fw_fw

Doing a little light reading on the interwebs today about bumpstops and the E90 platform, most recommendation are to not cut the bumpstops when lowering the car as it changes the progressive combined spring rates, instead to use a shorter bumpstop from other BMWs, i.e. E36 M3 Front and E85 Z4 Rear. Since the sleeves seem to be the biggest difference between E9X and E84 it may also work for us. Here is one of the many threads:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=614778

Yup, not too worried about it though. I have E85 rear stops that I played with on my 135. They are stiffer all over vs. the stock X1 stops. You don't lose any progression switching to them, quite the opposite.