ST coilover not going low enough

I recently installed ST coilovers on my 04 330i. I've set the front to the lowest setting, but it doesn't even close the wheel gap, albeit it's close. I've checked to make sure the struts went in all the way in to their seats. I'm using OE strut mounts. I wonder if ST's are not designed to work with them, but having searched the forum i found nothing to that effect. I also checked out others setups on here and it seems that people are dropping the front lower than what i have been able to do. I'm perplexed, any ideas?

What size are your wheels?

I'm running miro's 111 in 18 X 8.5 in the front and 9.5 rear

Stupid question, the adjuster is spun all the way down right?

Correct. I tried going the other way btw.

Post a picture?

I just got my ST coils today.

You could always remove the bumpstops and helper springs.

But I'm confused, the advertised max drop for the front is 2.8 inches. That gets close to slammed in my book.

They go fairly low, something is wrong here. Not sure what OP, sorry. I know you stated it was properly seated in the strut hat but I'd double check.

Here's a pic. Warning! The car is dirty. I guess I'll be going over the installation again

Had the same problem with my KONI adjustables. Took it apart again and realized the bottom of the struts on both sides weren't seated in the collar properly. There should be a little knob sticking out from the strut that slides into a groove on the collar. Turn the strut so the knob fits into the groove and push the collar all the way up the strut until it stops. That fixed my problem and lowered the car another entire inch for me.

This is your problem, trust me

the only thing i may not have done by the book, come to think of it, is i didn't tighten the sway bar under preload, but i don't see how that can affect the height adjustment of the coilover

adb1028, i've had that problem with prior strut installations and tried to make sure that didn't occur this time. I will recheck it once again though.

Here's my thread when I solved the problem

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...278&highlight=

I checked it out thanks. I'll inspect mine later this week, make sure they're in there properly.

You should be a good bit lower than that with ST's all the way down.

Originally Posted by adb1028

Had the same problem with my KONI adjustables. Took it apart again and realized the bottom of the struts on both sides weren't seated in the collar properly. There should be a little knob sticking out from the strut that slides into a groove on the collar. Turn the strut so the knob fits into the groove and push the collar all the way up the strut until it stops. That fixed my problem and lowered the car another entire inch for me.

This is your problem, trust me

I think this is your problem

I just checked if the little nipple is in the crack of the strut collar, and it is. I made sure that the strut is all the way in the collar. So that doesn't seem to be my problem. In fact, on the ST struts that nipple is quite a bit longer than on other struts i've seen, so that it wouldn't be possible to fit the strut in the collar snugly with the nipple not aligned with the crack. At this point i'm gonna take the spring off the struts and see if there's anything wrong with the bump stops, or any other internals. This thing is driving me bananas!

Here's a pic of the front coil while wheel is raised off the ground. For some reason I'm not seeing the bump stop. I guess it's hidden by the top spring. Any one have a pic of the front coil on the vehicle?

The bump stop is most likely underneath the helper spring. I'm wondering it is so compressed though, since you say the wheel is off the ground.



Not installed obviously, but this should help you figure out why you can't see it:

Yeah, if I don't find anything wrong, I'm taking out the helpers

That looks pretty much the same height my car is at while at the lowest setting on BC BR Coilovers too.

Your helper spring is collapsed and you say the wheel is in the air .... How the hell could they design the coilover like that ?

Anyway, at this point you must remove the helper spring as its not doing anything, I mean there is no load on it and its fully collapsed