Xi Lowering / Have Your Cake & Eat It Too

5 years later and we finally find out the secret sauce is from a pickup truck.

Originally Posted by EvaJuli

5 years later and we finally find out the secret sauce is from a pickup truck.

i know very disappointing. maybe the idea came from the first e46fanatics effort: this is just wrong

There is honestly no "secret" other than those kept. The insanely ridiculous mentality that someone told me this or that, but I can't tell you lunacy that tried to replicate some corporate "trade secret"... Well... Is just about the silliest thing I've seen in a very long time!

Something in all my years of working on cars, engines, etc., I've never seen before. Now approaching 4 decades.

As a matter of fact, the "sharing" or distribution of information/communication is partly the entire concept of the "internet"... The old bulletin board days, just wow! Anyways, no secrets, measure the length of the stock suspension, length of travel, match mounts, and whoola! What others have done before, then share with you, just economises your efforts and saves you from suffering the same pitfalls as those who have gone before . I tune my engine on a different platform and the "community" is much more forthright. That is a benefit to all others without personal gain other than recognition and thanks.

Maybe now that the person to who all secrets were promised to is obviously out of the game, those who have experience and information will share more readily to the benefit of others. Lol

Well, TireRack came through, my springs and shocks are on their way I'm excited to get moving

Question for those with adjustable Koni's: Where should I set the initial adjustment? This is a semi-daily driver, on potholed DC roads, so while I want half-decent handling I don't want it at the expense of a teeth-jarring ride - which was the reason for choosing Koni / Eibach vs the various alternatives.

I divide the sweep of the Koni's into 180 degree increments. From full soft I believe you get 5 sweeps of 180 degrees. I'd suggest setting you Koni's at a setting of "1", meaning 180 degrees from full soft. Drive it for a week, then turn them to "4". My hunch is you'll want them somewhere around "2"-"3". You can fine tune to smaller changes, but these are good starting points. When I used the Koni sport shocks with B&G springs, which are fairly equivalent to the Eibachs, I noticed excess body roll at the end of a turn. Turns out the springs were overpowering the shocks, and I fixed this by increasing the stiffness of the shock.

I was wondering if there is a stiffer spring made by BMW that would work on an Xi with Koni's. Or does Eibach offer multiple springs for an Xi. That would give you some options for your handling specs.
dlm ny country

Originally Posted by dlmrun2002

I was wondering if there is a stiffer spring made by BMW that would work on an Xi with Koni's. Or does Eibach offer multiple springs for an Xi. That would give you some options for your handling specs.
dlm ny country

http://www.koni-na.com/en-US/NorthAm...port-(Yellow)/

What are the best springs to match my KONIs?
One of the great advantages of KONI adjustable shocks is that there is no specific spring for matching optimum performance. Instead you can adjust your KONIs to match your springs. Most performance springs have a higher spring rate than the vehicle's original springs. Since the shock controls the motion of the spring, increased spring rates require more rebound damping for control and that is one of the reasons why KONIs are rebound adjustable (and some are double adjustable). Using higher rate springs with OE or soft shocks will very quickly overcome and wear out the shocks. The KONI adjustment range is typically about 100% (twice as firm at the full firm settings at the full soft setting) to allow for proper damping of OE springs and high rate performance springs.

koni website says their adjustable shocks will work with both regular and lowering springs. i think that leaves it open for experimentation.. eibach pro kit and h&r sport are obvious first and second choices because they were designed specifically for the E46 AWD, but then there the some E46 RWD springs that may work?

personally i would like to try springs from the M3 in all three chassis (E36, E46, E90) but i am not sure which are going to work. i would love to hear if anyone has already tried those.

Originally Posted by wfx32

http://www.koni-na.com/en-US/NorthAm...port-(Yellow)/



koni website says their adjustable shocks will work with both regular and lowering springs. i think that leaves it open for experimentation.. eibach pro kit and h&r sport are obvious first and second choices because they were designed specifically for the E46 AWD, but then there the some E46 RWD springs that may work?

personally i would like to try springs from the M3 in all three chassis (E36, E46, E90) but i am not sure which are going to work. i would love to hear if anyone has already tried those.

That is what I'm thinking too. Good to know about Koni adjustables can be "semi-tuned" to different springs(rates).

dlm ny country

Man this is frustrating. I have all the parts sitting in boxes except the SUFT015 spring seats.

Ordered a pair from Bekkers, order still says "pending" on their website three weeks later, can't get through to a person on the phone and they're not responding to emails or voicemails.

Just heard back from supersport.de today that they're not available.

Thankfully ... I found some on eBay UK. Should be with me next week, and then at long last it's suspension time!


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Originally Posted by Jimmy_B

Man this is frustrating. I have all the parts sitting in boxes except the SUFT015 spring seats.

Ordered a pair from Bekkers, order still says "pending" on their website three weeks later, can't get through to a person on the phone and they're not responding to emails or voicemails.

Originally Posted by [email protected]

The two most common possibilities is the front shocks either aren't seated correctly in the steering knuckle/spindle or the springs aren't sitting properly on the spring seats. The lower seat on this car has two places where it looks like the spring could sit and if put on the wrong one it changes the ride height significantly. The instinctive point to line up the end of the spring on the seat for most mechanics is wrong and makes the car sit nose-high.

||||


yeah i've been there.. i finally ordered SUFT015 from supremepower.com but i had to call them because not listed on the website. and i installed with the stock springs, but the springs were not aligned correctly on the bottom (see picture above). hence a bit too high in the front. credit to [email protected] there (bavauto blog). i am going to reinstall the front springs next week and the car should be perfectly level.

*edit: just to be clear .. my issue is with the installation of the bottom spring seats (stock spring pads 31331096664 in the picture don't line up with the end of the spring), not the top spring seats (SUFT015 replacing stock 31326769667).

And so it begins ...

Out with the old ...





... and in with the new ...

And ... it's back. Only had a 10 mile drive home so far but all I can say is - wow. The car is completely transformed.

Going in for an alignment tomorrow, and another in a few hundred miles when it's settled a little. But for now I'm delighted. Broke, but delighted.

Originally Posted by Jimmy_B

And ... it's back. Only had a 10 mile drive home so far but all I can say is - wow. The car is completely transformed.

Going in for an alignment tomorrow, and another in a few hundred miles when it's settled a little. But for now I'm delighted. Broke, but delighted.

What did you do to it?

I have kwv1s and full front and rear suspension refresh kits from fcp.


Just been lazy about installing bc pinch bolts are snapped.

Also been thinking of selling but it outcome is as good as you make it sound ill keep it bc i also have a 330 motor with 80k into it.


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What did you do to it?

IDK which struts and springs but I can see new control arms, inner ball joints and centered late model e36 M3 bushings.

Originally Posted by jmo69

IDK which struts and springs but I can see new control arms, inner ball joints and centered late model e36 M3 bushings.

Good eye, jmo ... bushings came pre-pressed into the lollipops from TheFly on here.

Basically went for the full monty ... the basis was FCP's "10 piece control arm kit" up front and their "comprehensive bushing kit" out back, plus a few other parts here and there.

Struts / springs are Koni / Eibach, with the obligatory drop hats. Now that the ride height has settled a little it's pretty much where I'd want it; higher than the previous Dinan setup but lower than stock.