[rkcruiser]

I’m getting ready to buy a used f36 428 x grand coupe. I love the style and trying to just get my head on straight. I’m trying to just lower it for a good stance that’s an everyday driver and rims to compliment. I’ve been away from bmw for a while and really need some help with direction. Pics and suggestions would be much appreciated.

[cfm56d7b]

What year is the vehicle?

The Suspension forum has many threads discussing three main options:

- Lowering springs with stock shocks
- Lowering springs with aftermarket shocks
- Coilovers

What's your budget for the suspension upgrade?

[rkcruiser]

2015. I’m trying to spend to much. I’ll take a look at the threads and see what I can find. But if you have a suggestion? Would love the direcction!

[BuefordTjustice]

My suggestion is coilovers. You're going to spend 8-900 on a spring/shock setup that wasn't designed for eachother and the drop my not look like you wanted it to or ride extremely harsh. Get a set of KW's and don't look back.

[RM7]

If it has active suspension, you can buy ACS springs for it and get the Dinan shockware. If not, you are kinda screwed because you'll be over-powering your dampers with lowering springs. The issue here is that BMW never made an "aggressive suspension" X-drive, in fact, the X-drive is "lifted" compared to the non-x-drive models. I also added dinan sway-bars to help with the excessive body-roll. With good tires, I really liked how my mods turned out, but it was sad that it was the way the car should have came from the factory. Your other realistic option is coil-overs, because you can match the damping rate to the springs. There weren't a lot of aftermarket suspension parts made for the 4-series x-drive GC, so I had to wait and wait for some of these parts to become available. Maybe there are more now. I'd only buy the lowering springs from Dinan and ACS, the other companies offering them don't seem to tune them to your cars exact configuration (engine, x-drive, etc.) which means you may encounter bottoming and damage issues from something that is a "one-size-fits-all" product.

Since you haven't bought it yet, I'd heavily consider the above. I spent a lot of money making the suspension do what I felt it should have done out of the factory, that means maybe you'd be better off buying something else, maybe a new 430 non-x-drive GC or 340, Jag equivalent, or other. Since you live in Ohio, some winter tires would do you just as well as any x-drive model.

[rkcruiser]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

If it has active suspension, you can buy ACS springs for it and get the Dinan shockware. If not, you are kinda screwed because you'll be over-powering your dampers with lowering springs. The issue here is that BMW never made an "aggressive suspension" X-drive, in fact, the X-drive is "lifted" compared to the non-x-drive models. I also added dinan sway-bars to help with the excessive body-roll. With good tires, I really liked how my mods turned out, but it was sad that it was the way the car should have came from the factory. Your other realistic option is coil-overs, because you can match the damping rate to the springs. There weren't a lot of aftermarket suspension parts made for the 4-series x-drive GC, so I had to wait and wait for some of these parts to become available. Maybe there are more now. I'd only buy the lowering springs from Dinan and ACS, the other companies offering them don't seem to tune them to your cars exact configuration (engine, x-drive, etc.) which means you may encounter bottoming and damage issues from something that is a "one-size-fits-all" product.

Since you haven't bought it yet, I'd heavily consider the above. I spent a lot of money making the suspension do what I felt it should have done out of the factory, that means maybe you'd be better off buying something else, maybe a new 430 non-x-drive GC or 340, Jag equivalent, or other. Since you live in Ohio, some winter tires would do you just as well as any x-drive model.

Thanks James. I do understand what your saying and thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I’ll look into it more and take your advice as a starting point and go from there. As far as active suspension I don’t think it has it but I’m going to check.

[BigJack75]

Wow!!! Great info from James. Glad I went with active suspension and rwd.

[cfm56d7b]

If you are still exploring xDrive equipped vehicle, KW offers KW Street Comfort coilovers.

https://www.kwsuspensions.com/produc...coilovers.html

I had these coilovers on 2013 BMW 335i xDrive sedan. Highly recommended.

[rkcruiser]

So yes I pulled the trigger. I’m very happy with it. Trying to figure out how to put pictures up. Says files are to big need to dial down resolution. But it’s white 328 I xdrive. Not fully loaded or anything. But I’m happy with the purchase. Got it with 32k+ on the odometer for 25k out the door. Wish it had the cameras but the car is small enough that I can live without. The heated steering wheel is what I’m really happy with.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by rkcruiser

The heated steering wheel is what I’m really happy with.

Right? Those are so nice.

[rkcruiser]

[QUOTE=JamesNoBrakes;23908833]If it has active suspension, you can buy ACS springs for it and get the Dinan shockware. If not, you are kinda screwed because you'll be over-powering your dampers with lowering springs. The issue here is that BMW never made an "aggressive suspension" X-drive, in fact, the X-drive is "lifted" compared to the non-x-drive models. I also added dinan sway-bars to help with the excessive body-roll. With good tires, I really liked how my mods turned out, but it was sad that it was the way the car should have came from the factory. Your other realistic option is coil-overs, because you can match the damping rate to the springs. There weren't a lot of aftermarket suspension parts made for the 4-series x-drive GC, so I had to wait and wait for some of these parts to become available. Maybe there are more now. I'd only buy the lowering springs from Dinan and ACS, the other companies offering them don't seem to tune them to your cars exact configuration (engine, x-drive, etc.) which means you may encounter bottoming and damage issues from something that is a "one-size-fits-all" product.

Since you haven't bought it yet, I'd heavily consider the above. I spent a lot of money making the suspension do what I felt it should have done out of the factory, that means maybe you'd be better off buying something else, maybe a new 430 non-x-drive GC or 340, Jag equivalent, or other. Since you live in Ohio, some winter tires would do you just as well as any x

I would like it to look even all the way around and sit just above the tire. Suggestions on how much of a drop I’m looking for front and rears

[RM7]

[QUOTE=rkcruiser;23994591]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

If it has active suspension, you can buy ACS springs for it and get the Dinan shockware. If not, you are kinda screwed because you'll be over-powering your dampers with lowering springs. The issue here is that BMW never made an "aggressive suspension" X-drive, in fact, the X-drive is "lifted" compared to the non-x-drive models. I also added dinan sway-bars to help with the excessive body-roll. With good tires, I really liked how my mods turned out, but it was sad that it was the way the car should have came from the factory. Your other realistic option is coil-overs, because you can match the damping rate to the springs. There weren't a lot of aftermarket suspension parts made for the 4-series x-drive GC, so I had to wait and wait for some of these parts to become available. Maybe there are more now. I'd only buy the lowering springs from Dinan and ACS, the other companies offering them don't seem to tune them to your cars exact configuration (engine, x-drive, etc.) which means you may encounter bottoming and damage issues from something that is a "one-size-fits-all" product.

Since you haven't bought it yet, I'd heavily consider the above. I spent a lot of money making the suspension do what I felt it should have done out of the factory, that means maybe you'd be better off buying something else, maybe a new 430 non-x-drive GC or 340, Jag equivalent, or other. Since you live in Ohio, some winter tires would do you just as well as any x

I would like it to look even all the way around and sit just above the tire. Suggestions on how much of a drop I’m looking for front and rears

I know that the x-drive components raise the front end, so the front always has more wheel-gap than the rear on the x-drive, but the car is still raked with the ACS springs, so IMO it's not a big deal that one is a little higher. If you want the tires to be exactly level with the top of the wells, you bought the wrong car IMO. There's no way you'll do that without compromising handling, unless you get coil overs that are intended to run on so little suspension travel.

[rkcruiser]

[QUOTE=JamesNoBrakes;23997650]

Originally Posted by rkcruiser

I know that the x-drive components raise the front end, so the front always has more wheel-gap than the rear on the x-drive, but the car is still raked with the ACS springs, so IMO it's not a big deal that one is a little higher. If you want the tires to be exactly level with the top of the wells, you bought the wrong car IMO. There's no way you'll do that without compromising handling, unless you get coil overs that are intended to run on so little suspension travel.

Can you give advice on exactly what I’m looking for as far as purchasing? If you can give me at least a couple of options cheap and middle and expensive. But done rite. I want to make sure I I choose what best for what I’m after . Which is a nice look without breaking the bank.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by rkcruiser

Can you give advice on exactly what I’m looking for as far as purchasing? If you can give me at least a couple of options cheap and middle and expensive. But done rite. I want to make sure I I choose what best for what I’m after . Which is a nice look without breaking the bank.

There are plenty of resources on this site if you do some searches. Things have likely changed since I modded mine, so there may be other products available that I'm just not even aware of. The reason I went with ACS springs was because they appeared to be correctly designed for the exact model I had, in other words it wasn't a one-size-fits-all approach where they don't vary the spring rate based on 4cyl vs 6cyl, convertable vs couple vs grand coupe vs x-drive, etc. The part numbers for the ACS springs were all different for these different models, unlike some aftermarket springs that were the same part numbers for all. Dinan takes a similar approach and only produces springs for cars they tune and test at their location, which is why they haven't done (to my knowledge" an x-drive gran coupe, because no one had brought one by for them to tune. ACS, much closer to the source in Germany, did, I just had to find a distributor that would import them. Tag motorsports did it for me. Of course, I also ran the swaybars and the Dinan shockware, which increased the damping rates. At the very least, I would say that increasing the damping rates is critical with any lowering spring, otherwise you lose function and handling performance. The other way to do this is coil overs, again, I'm not sure if anyone is making them for this car or not. They do both lowering and then increase the damping rate in one product, usually increasing the damping quality significantly too, but for a price.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Congrats