Stance 325xi Wagon

Ooooh i see. altogether, your setup is looking good. im actually about to pick up a set of 17x9.5 all around lol. planning on 225's and im on my lowest setting of my coilovers at the moment.

Looks good. Cant go wrong with alpine white.

I like the turn you took with this project. I agree with the guy who said keep the ambers. It's a nice contrast to the all white.

May I suggest using vinyl to black out those chrome window trims though?

blacking out the window trims would definitely be something I would like to so. Right now they don't bother me much but I think the car would benefit from that. I was thinking possibly plasti-dip for those since it could easily be removed when it's time to sell the car. I also don't mind the amber on the front but the amber on the rear taillights KILLS me! I absolutely hate it. I just can't decide if I hate it more then I hate blacked out taillights on non black cars. An all red taillight would be ideal.

Originally Posted by sambo_eddo

blacking out the window trims would definitely be something I would like to so. Right now they don't bother me much but I think the car would benefit from that. I was thinking possibly plasti-dip for those since it could easily be removed when it's time to sell the car. I also don't mind the amber on the front but the amber on the rear taillights KILLS me! I absolutely hate it. I just can't decide if I hate it more then I hate blacked out taillights on non black cars. An all red taillight would be ideal.

I agree. Plastidip would be hard to get onto jus the window trims.. much of a hassle. vinyls pretty easy to work with too. find Red clear red tail lights!

^ I've never worked with plastic dip, but vinyl works good. Hit up Don Nguyen, he has a good selection of different vinyl.

I was interested to see what the xxr's looked like.

Just bought a 02' 325 Xit and guess what? It's getting the same treatment. My big question. How does it drive. No retarded remarks PLEASE. I drive a highly tuned Honda S2000 for track days. On the street I want to drive the speed limit and in something that will help me keep my license. (Just sold My 2010 stage 3 STI not stanced or lowered street monster and well Ill let you know if I get to keep my license next year) regardless I sold that and bought the Xit I need a car that's comfortable, stylish, and dead sexy. All the people making rude hurtful comments can at least take some comfort knowing that I love the car as much as you love yours. Hell an M3 has a pretty sweet stance from the factory.

So, How does it drive?
Did you have to strengthen anything?
Has anyone run V3's and cranked them down to soft?

Enter sarcasm,
Has the whole suspension completely fallen apart?
Did the car need to be crushed after it failed a VI?
Did you nail some cute blond in the back seat on that fine German leather?
Did she comment on how sexy your car looks now!

My CV boots are toast already so they will be changed, stretched, and clamped as per recommendations. Ill be using the same 8.5" or 9" X 18" and I was going to use the KW V3's to try and get a softer ride out of it. The V1's have fixed shock settings (as I'm sure you all know) I might try lighter springs. I know I won't have much in the way of suspension travel. Don't really need it in my neighbourhood. Roads are all new and smooth. The 325 Xit is a slug so it better look cool or why the fudge am I driving it?


Pics will be up shortly.

Oh yeah car looks good too. Nice job, blazed the trail for others to follow.

Thanks

Previous owners pictures - bought the car sight unseen for $7000 CND

Now the fun begins - Hint the wheels might be Burnt Candy Orange

Well I no longer have the wagon. As usual, I made on payment on it and something else came through the dealership here that I HAD TO HAVE! Back tot he topic at hand though, the car rode great IMO. I have had many a lowered car and none of them rode a nice as this one. Was it alot stiffer then stock? Yes. Could you have a drink in the cupholder and not blast it out all over the interior over big bumps? Yes I could. It wasn't nearly as harsh as several people claimed it would be. The first trip out on the V1's I was happier then a pig in **** because of how stiff it wasn't. It felt very simliar to the new Infiniti G37 suspension. I personally wouldn't see a need for v3's unless you were tracking and specifically needed to adjust the shocks, but just an appearance purpose only the v1's were PLENTY soft to cruise on. Here is a pic of how she ended up just before swapping it out.

Originally Posted by sambo_eddo

Are the V1s on the lowest setting

They were close but about 1/4" to 3/8" up from the very lowest you could thread the collars down. My only complaint with the V1'S and I do not know if the other versions are like this or not, but with the way the rear lower control arm is designed it's virtually impossible to get the spanner wrench onto the collar notches and turn it up or down. I just ended up pulling the entire spring and collar out whenever I needed to dial in or adjust the height.

The only reason the V3's were proposed was to soften the ride over the V1's. KW told me that the spring rate is the same but the shock can be made considerably softer and shouldn't be bouncy.

What did you do to strengthen anything? Is this something I need to tend to? This is never going to be a car that gets driven very hard. But I don't want to risk the frame of the car in anyway and it may see a little spirited driving once in a while..

The 18x8.5 or 9" et25 wheels seem pretty hard to find. Can you point me in the direction of something that would use that size and offset. Should I stay away from spacers? It's too bad I didn't do this earlyer I would have nabed those wheels from you.

XXR Offers wheels in those sizes and plenty of different offsets. They are cheap wheels but I've had quite a few sets and I definitely don't "grandma drive" my cars. I drive them "spiritedly" but use my brain as well. I didn't feel any bouncing with the v1's if I was above about 2mph. I'd maybe feel a very slight bounce over small bumps at a creeping idle speed. I didn't strengthen anything besides hose clamping the front boots. I had the car in the air probably once a week checking for grease and after a couple months I still hadn't seen any coming out. I know some guys were advising to add strut tower bracing etc.. I suppose I cannot speak for the long run since I only owned mine in it's lowered state for about 3 months. I personally think BMW makes a much more solid chassis car then say a Honda or Toyota and if every 16yr old out there can slam their civic to the bumpstops and drive it for years that way without the struts pushing through the towers, I would certainly HOPE a BMW could. That's just my opinion and as you can see from earlier in the thread plenty of people felt otherwise and flamed.

Yeah, it was sad to read this thread. I am new to BMW's and new to this forum and wasn't expecting the reaction I saw over one person's preference in automobile style. I could say a lot of the same silly things about a 1000 whp Horsepower Freaks car. 1000hp, and RWD anything is silly especially on the street with anything less than R Compound tires. But people do it, hell if I could get away with it and had the money to burn I would too. I'm sure the people on this board would condone that. What people don't understand is we're all in the same boat. We're all here because we love our cars and enjoy the power of the community when it comes to understanding them and modifying them. I'm no engineer but maybe someone here is and with his help I can make my car better for me. Thanks for your help! Would anyone else like to chime in regarding the long-term effects and precautions/mods I should make to keep the cars integrity. Anyone else have wheel suggestions?

What else did you change out other than just adding the coil overs? Camber plates? It looks like your alignment was spot on so tire wear should not be a concern. I am planning on daily driving this car and want it reliable and safe.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-inch-XXR-...-/290780477226

So the consensus is these would fit? Without much in the way of fender rolling?

Those should fit just fine. I literally didn't do anything besides bolt on the coilovers and wheels. I had the car aligned and had the fortunate situation of being able to stand next to the guy (friend) as he was aligning it on a Hunter lift. He dialed everything in as best as he could. The toe went spot on, the caster was spot on and the camber obviously remained a couple degrees negative even at it's max out. Apparently the ergonomics ended up being pretty damn spot on for an autocross car or something along those lines even though that wasn't neccessarily what I needed. I had no spacers, no camber plates and no fender rolling/puling. You could go even wider on the wheels if it wasn't for the front strut housing. I tried the lime green 10" wide wheels and they were about 1/4" too wide and rubbed the strut housing. I'd venture to guess if you went a tad lower offset like 20 or so, 9.5" wide wheel and got a very mild fender roll you'd have an even more flush look then mine was.