[TonyTheTurtle]

I just got myself an F30 (xDrive) and the first thing I want to do is get some coilovers for it, coming from a 2002 325ci with sport suspension, this car feels like a complete boat and I am ready to upgrade.

I have been looking at the Bilstein B14 setup that goes for around $1k.
There is also someone selling used H&R street coilovers with (claimed 500 miles) for around $400, the new set of The H&Rs seem to go for over $1k so I have been debating about snagging them as people seem to be happy with them as well.

Here's the listing to the H&R setup for sale, wondering if any of you had any input on these or if I should just stay away from used coilovers:
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...0190329233841/
(Listing says it is for F32, but after some looking it seems that F30s and F32s can interchange coilovers.)

If I should go the Bilstein route, are there any suggestions as to where to get them from and if I should wait for some black Friday deals as they are just around the corner. Thanks for any input!

[cfm56d7b]

Almost all coilovers lower the suspension. Do you have a need to preserve OEM suspension height?

[TonyTheTurtle]

After waiting to see if there were any special sales or discounts for Black Friday/the holiday season (There weren't), I decided to pull the trigger on the Bilstein B14s and it was the best decision I could have made. The car is lowered to my preference, and i can easily adjust it if I wanted.

Driving with these new coilovers is a completely different experience and I could not be happier, it is planted when taking turns, and during acceleration of hard braking.

In my opinion the b14s are great for daily driving, it may be a bit bouncy on rough roads but it's not bad at all. Of course it all comes down to preference and I feel like I made the perfect choice for me.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by TonyTheTurtle

After waiting to see if there were any special sales or discounts for Black Friday/the holiday season (There weren't), I decided to pull the trigger on the Bilstein B14s and it was the best decision I could have made. The car is lowered to my preference, and i can easily adjust it if I wanted.

Driving with these new coilovers is a completely different experience and I could not be happier, it is planted when taking turns, and during acceleration of hard braking.

In my opinion the b14s are great for daily driving, it may be a bit bouncy on rough roads but it's not bad at all. Of course it all comes down to preference and I feel like I made the perfect choice for me.

Congrats! How much did you end up lowering? Photos please!

[thatBimmerBloke]

Originally Posted by johnung

Congrats! How much did you end up lowering? Photos please!

+1
I'm considering these for my 435ix, got a quote of $1950 including tax from my indy shop. Includes B14, front and rear shock/strut mounts by Lemforder(without BMW branding), some rear auxiliary damper (33 53 6 865 647) which looks like bump stops and 6hrs of labor which also includes 4 wheel alignment. I'll probably wait for it to get a bit warm, 30mm minimum drop is worrying me a bit.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

+1
I'm considering these for my 435ix, got a quote of $1950 including tax from my indy shop. Includes B14, front and rear shock/strut mounts by Lemforder(without BMW branding), some rear auxiliary damper (33 53 6 865 647) which looks like bump stops and 6hrs of labor which also includes 4 wheel alignment. I'll probably wait for it to get a bit warm, 30mm minimum drop is worrying me a bit.

In case this helps...

I have a 335i xDrive that I lowered with Eibach Springs (Front 0.8", Rear 0.6") and paired with Koni Special Active Shocks.

In general unless they are for racing, guys with street cars consider coilovers for their adjustability. They want to be able to fine tune to obtain the exact wheel gap look whether it's a chassis dropped on its tires or something in between.

There are many different coilovers on the market with various ranges of adjustment. Why consider a coilover where you may not want to go under the minimum adjustment of 1.2"? That would negate all of the extra money being spent for coilovers that won't really be adjusted much, if at all?

Maybe consider alternative coilovers with a different adjustment range or separate springs and shocks that cost much less.

Hope this helps!

[kobluna]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

+1
I'm considering these for my 435ix, got a quote of $1950 including tax from my indy shop. Includes B14, front and rear shock/strut mounts by Lemforder(without BMW branding), some rear auxiliary damper (33 53 6 865 647) which looks like bump stops and 6hrs of labor which also includes 4 wheel alignment. I'll probably wait for it to get a bit warm, 30mm minimum drop is worrying me a bit.

I'm also considering coilovers since my stock suspension setup is too bouncy for my liking. But I don't want to lower it too much because I need that clearance in winter.

So currently my best bet is to go deep into my pockets and go with the B16 comforts. The comfort variant of B16's offers 10-30mm lowering which is perfect range for me. And because the damping is adjustable I can make it soft(er) when needed. Only downside of B16 is the price which is double compared to B14's

[thatBimmerBloke]

Originally Posted by johnung

In case this helps...

I have a 335i xDrive that I lowered with Eibach Springs (Front 0.8", Rear 0.6") and paired with Koni Special Active Shocks.

In general unless they are for racing, guys with street cars consider coilovers for their adjustability. They want to be able to fine tune to obtain the exact wheel gap look whether it's a chassis dropped on its tires or something in between.

There are many different coilovers on the market with various ranges of adjustment. Why consider a coilover where you may not want to go under the minimum adjustment of 1.2"? That would negate all of the extra money being spent for coilovers that won't really be adjusted much, if at all?

Maybe consider alternative coilovers with a different adjustment range or separate springs and shocks that cost much less.

Hope this helps!

Thanks John, I tried to find your thread about Koni Special Active Shocks but couldn't find anything, have you posted yout thoughts/review about the setup anywhere? I was considering B12 kit or Koni yellows + Eibach but both Koni and Bilstein B8s are out of stock. Finally made up my mind on B14 as it's just 10mm lower than B12 kit and have read some nice reviews about it, I'll have to do some measuring of my girlfriend's driveway as there's a slope on entering her garage, if the 30mm drop will survive that then I'll go for the B14, her Civic Type R with stock height clears that slope easily and that cars is lower than my F32 xDrive.

Originally Posted by kobluna

I'm also considering coilovers since my stock suspension setup is too bouncy for my liking. But I don't want to lower it too much because I need that clearance in winter.

So currently my best bet is to go deep into my pockets and go with the B16 comforts. The comfort variant of B16's offers 10-30mm lowering which is perfect range for me. And because the damping is adjustable I can make it soft(er) when needed. Only downside of B16 is the price which is double compared to B14's

Are you sure about that? Last I read B16 has the same drop as B14, i.e. lowering of approximately 30-50mm.I just checked and it's the same for a RWD car also, B14 might work for you, half the price The stock suspension is not as it should be, body roll on cornering is bad.

[digistil]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

Are you sure about that? Last I read B16 has the same drop as B14, i.e. lowering of approximately 30-50mm.I just checked and it's the same for a RWD car also, B14 might work for you, half the price The stock suspension is not as it should be, body roll on cornering is bad.

Not kobluna, but he's correct. The B16 actually comes in two variants (one sport and one comfort), and the one he referenced with the 30-50mm drop range is the comfort variant. I believe the sport variant starts at 50mm, but not positive.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

Thanks John, I tried to find your thread about Koni Special Active Shocks but couldn't find anything, have you posted yout thoughts/review about the setup anywhere? I was considering B12 kit or Koni yellows + Eibach but both Koni and Bilstein B8s are out of stock. Finally made up my mind on B14 as it's just 10mm lower than B12 kit and have read some nice reviews about it, I'll have to do some measuring of my girlfriend's driveway as there's a slope on entering her garage, if the 30mm drop will survive that then I'll go for the B14, her Civic Type R with stock height clears that slope easily and that cars is lower than my F32 xDrive.

Are you sure about that? Last I read B16 has the same drop as B14, i.e. lowering of approximately 30-50mm.I just checked and it's the same for a RWD car also, B14 might work for you, half the price The stock suspension is not as it should be, body roll on cornering is bad.

HaHa, you know what they say...if your girlfriend has the wrong slope, it may be time to find a new one!

I've actually posted a lot on Eibach and Koni Special Actives. I have a difficult time searching for my own posts, at least on the BimmerPost phone app. I'd like to list a bunch of links rather than write stuff again from scratch.

Retailers being out of stock gets frustrating if you decide on something and can't buy it right away. It's caused me to learn way more about the parts distribution system than I wanted to know. But it has helped me to track down parts even when many retailers have told me that they can't get them. You can call 10 retailers but if they are all buying from the same distributor who is out of stock then you will hear that from them all. A few jerks will take your money/order to lock you into buying from them but they aren't getting it any sooner.

Often the manufacturer will give you better, more detailed availability information or give you a list of distributors/retailers who they sell to. More than once I've found a part with a 4-6 week wait sitting on a different distributors shelf so I received it the next day.

Sometimes distributors give preference in filling orders to retailers who do more business with them or who placed orders with them sooner. So the manufacturer is actually shipping product consistently but retailers who aren't high on that priority list are telling you that they are not. I worked in an industry with a similar distribution system so I've been lucky to know who and what questions to ask to ascertain a more accurate status on part availability and my best way of obtaining the part that I want.

Bilstein often does have shortages. I spoke to them and they confided that the OEM business is much bigger to them. They have expensive penalty clauses in their contracts with auto manufacturers to supply them with parts for new car assembly lines. That leads to sporadic production of aftermarket parts which is a smaller less profitable business for them. They just don't care if there is a shortage of B16 kits for months since they have to ship tens of thousands of assembly line parts without fail.

I'm kinda surprised that you want to drop your car in the range of 30mm-50mm, seeing that you have an xDrive in Wisconsin running Blizzaks so it's probably your daily driver. I assume you have standard, rather than adaptive shocks.

I got the chance to do a snow test last winter when we got a flash snow storm so I had plenty of unplowed parking lot to play in. My car was lowered on Eibach (F0.8"/R0.6"), Koni Special Active Shocks and on that day stock Pirelli runflat all season tires in 225/45-18.

Conditions were perfect with 6" of new heavy snow with gradual drifts in the parking lot. My goal was to see how high of snow that I could drive in before getting stuck. This is after the Xdrive had already been mildly lowered with the Eibachs. I drove around in the new snow and went into gradually increasing drifts until I got stuck. Then I carefully backed out to free myself. Love that xDrive!

My conclusion was that 6" was about the limit on the All Season runflats. For this winter I've mounted Michelin X-ICE Xi3 so maybe the car could handle higher snow now. But I'm sure it can handle six inches of unplowed snow.

We had a flash morning snow/ice situation the other day and I was driving it it before it could be plowed or melt several hours later when temperatures rose. Cars all around me had difficulty. Some were standing still with front or rear driven wheels just spinning on the ice. Some like an idiot driving a Corvette had to be helped/pushed off the road by other drivers who got out of their cars. The Xdrive with the Xi3's was amazing. It drove like the road was dry.

I stopped at an empty parking lot to do a bunch of driving and donuts on the snow/ice combo. It was awesome! This is my first set ever of dedicated winter tires and I'm loving them. I've got them broken in now. On days when the temperatures drop, 20 degrees Fahrenheit is the lowest so far, the tire compound actually drives like its softer and more supple. I'm used to All Seasons feeling harder as temperatures drop.

Koni North America did testing with the Eibach springs on an xDrive before they released Koni Special Actives in the US. I may have had the first set installed in NA, based on distribution stuff I wrote above.

I considered all of the suspension options that you did. Mine is a daily driver that I share with my wife. We loved the car but hated the body roll and teeth rattling over rough roads. The constant thump, thump, thump over road expansion joints made me want to lose my mind. It was not a car that we could enjoy on a trip because it was just rough.

I didn't want a heavily modded suspension to control body roll. Been there, done that. Plus any mods like that just make harshness even worse. Combine that with desire not to lower too much and get outside the range of xDrive suspension geometry.

KoniSA/Eibach really work well together as advertised. Great handling on curves with the first valve in the Konis, and yet the second valve works on a different frequency so it smooths out rough roads amazingly. Koni developed this technology with McLaren and it works!

The Eibachs are only 10% stiffer than stock springs so they add control but not harshness. Added benefit is that Eibachs lower the front more to lessen the BMW reverse rake of xDrive where the front tire gap is greater.

Note: Koni literature says that KoniSA's for xDrive are only to be used with stock height springs. Well, in Koni-speak they consider the mild drop of the Eibach's to be stock height. As I said they tested and approved the combination. They just word it poorly and it's something that retailers blindly state to potential customers. It was all confirmed to me by KoniNA technical staff who also told me that stock bump stops work perfectly with them. I have almost two years on this combination and they've been great.

Eibach and Koni Yellow work fine. Koni Yellow have manual damper adjustment which I would take if my only other option was Bilstein which are factory set (except for B16s) and could potentially be harsher than desired. KoniSA's and Koni Yellows overlap with KoniSA's able to provide great comfort on harsh roads. Farkle! has an awesome post with traps discussing them all.

Bilstein also has Bilstein-speak so even though they say B6 for stock height springs and B8 for lowered, they consider mild springs like Eibachs (F0.8"/R0.6") in the category of stock height. So Eibach/B6 would work for your car. This is very helpful for those with xDrive and BMW Adaptive Suspension. They can still lower with Eibach springs and replace shocks when needed with Bilstein B6 Damptronic.

Sway bars are the way to control body roll on any car. You just don't hear much about sways on F3x platform because upgrading sway bars is labor expensive to remove a lot of stuff to get to them, and not easy to do yourself without a lift. I chose to spend my money on upgrading to H&R sway bars rather than coilovers, in addition to the Eibach/KoniSA's.

I've had H&R sway kits on other cars and am impressed with their engineering and quality. Sway bar sizes have to be carefully balanced between front and rear or the wrong amount over understeer or oversteer can be introduced, dramatically alerting the handing of the car in usually a bad way.

Hope this helps!

[thatBimmerBloke]

Originally Posted by johnung

HaHa, you know what they say...if your girlfriend has the wrong slope, it may be time to find a new one!

.........

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot John, I'm afraid changing the girlfriend is not an option but we will get a new place in a year or two If I go with B14 then probably I'll have it at highest setting i.e 30mm drop to help in winters and with bad roads, no way I'm going below 35mm.

I do not have adaptive suspension so I'll be swapping both springs and shocks right away. KoniSA with Eibach springs looks like a good option, I did a quick search but couldn't find the shocks for my car, I'll look again. The springs you used are 5-22 or 6-22?

Given the shortage of Bilstein shocks, in case I need a replacement later on then I might have to wait for a long time. Do Konis also generally have a shortage like this?

My last option is again B14, 30mm doesn't seem like a huge drop and I know someone from Wisconsin who had B14 on his daily 335ix and only had to say good stuff about the setup. But again I'll have to do some driveway slope car clearance measuring On the other hand 335ix dropped 30mm is still about 15-17mm higher than 435ix dropped 30mm, as there is about .7" of difference in ground clearance

[FaRKle!]

If you guys are having trouble finding German products (Eibach, Bilstein, H&R) I recommend shooting Andreas Schade (andreas.schade@gmx.de) an email. He's a German eBay seller I've bought stuff from, and has been able to get me things in short supply in the US market. His prices are also generally better than US resellers, even after shipping. I got my H&R sway bar set delivered in less than a week!

Also, for Bilstein B14/16 you can swap the springs out to adjust height too. For the rear you can drop in normal 60mm coilover springs, and the front can also use 60mm coilover springs with an adapter plate (like the one Millway sells).

[johnung]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

Thanks a lot John, I'm afraid changing the girlfriend is not an option but we will get a new place in a year or two If I go with B14 then probably I'll have it at highest setting i.e 30mm drop to help in winters and with bad roads, no way I'm going below 35mm.

I do not have adaptive suspension so I'll be swapping both springs and shocks right away. KoniSA with Eibach springs looks like a good option, I did a quick search but couldn't find the shocks for my car, I'll look again. The springs you used are 5-22 or 6-22?

Given the shortage of Bilstein shocks, in case I need a replacement later on then I might have to wait for a long time. Do Konis also generally have a shortage like this?

My last option is again B14, 30mm doesn't seem like a huge drop and I know someone from Wisconsin who had B14 on his daily 335ix and only had to say good stuff about the setup. But again I'll have to do some driveway slope car clearance measuring On the other hand 335ix dropped 30mm is still about 15-17mm higher than 435ix dropped 30mm, as there is about .7" of difference in ground clearance

Whew! Good to hear. Was concerned about your girlfriend because as we all know...

A CAR GUY'S LIST OF PRIORITIES
1) My Car(s)
2) Please see #1

My Eibach part number is (-06). Eibach shows a different part number for your F32 435i xDrive. Please see photo of information that I just obtained for your car from the Eibach US website in California.

From what I've seen the KoniSA's have been readily available since summer of 2018. Koni has a North American HQ in the US so communication and information was readily available whenever I needed it.

I just checked KoniNA website and saw no shocks at all listed for F32 xDrive which seems very odd so I sent an email to a contact at Koni. I'll let you know what I hear back.

I've heard guys say that there is a factory height difference between xDrive 335 vs xDrive 435. I'm curious so I'll need to actually measure mine again and publish. I'd like to get others 435i xDrive measurements to compare.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

If you guys are having trouble finding German products (Eibach, Bilstein, H&R) I recommend shooting Andreas Schade (andreas.schade@gmx.de) an email. He's a German eBay seller I've bought stuff from, and has been able to get me things in short supply in the US market. His prices are also generally better than US resellers, even after shipping. I got my H&R sway bar set delivered in less than a week!

Also, for Bilstein B14/16 you can swap the springs out to adjust height too. For the rear you can drop in normal 60mm coilover springs, and the front can also use 60mm coilover springs with an adapter plate (like the one Millway sells).

Good stuff! Thanks!

[thatBimmerBloke]

Originally Posted by johnung

Whew! Good to hear. Was concerned about your girlfriend because as we all know...

A CAR GUY'S LIST OF PRIORITIES
1) My Car(s)
2) Please see #1

My Eibach part number is (-06). Eibach shows a different part number for your F32 435i xDrive. Please see photo of information that I just obtained for your car from the Eibach US website in California.

From what I've seen the KoniSA's have been readily available since summer of 2018. Koni has a North American HQ in the US so communication and information was readily available whenever I needed it.

I just checked KoniNA website and saw no shocks at all listed for F32 xDrive which seems very odd so I sent an email to a contact at Koni. I'll let you know what I hear back.

I've heard guys say that there is a factory height difference between xDrive 335 vs xDrive 435. I'm curious so I'll need to actually measure mine again and publish. I'd like to get others 435i xDrive measurements to compare.

haha, it's she who made me aware of a lot of things, she has owned BMW and Mini before the current Type R and knows more about cars than I do I'm sure she's a better driver too, lol, I don't have a ton of experience behind the wheel, started driving actively just 4 years ago, I was more into motorcycles before.

Thanks for all the suggestions, really appreciate it and please let me know when you hear back from your contact, even I tried Koni-na website but couldn't find anything, called them and the guy was out for lunch. It feels like Eibach paired with a good set of shocks/struts will work best for me and will also be good in snow, it has been snowing since early morning. I switched to dedicated summer and winter setup few months back, Blizzaks are amazing in snow, I feel way more confident now.

I will measure my car's ground clearance and let you know the actual number, I had a 328 xDrive before and the 435 does feel lower, even the suspension feels better with a bit lesser body roll, might be the added weight making it feel more planted.

EDIT/UPDATE: Spoke with someone at Koni-NA and he said they have nothing for F32 xDrive

[thatBimmerBloke]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

If you guys are having trouble finding German products (Eibach, Bilstein, H&R) I recommend shooting Andreas Schade (andreas.schade@gmx.de) an email. He's a German eBay seller I've bought stuff from, and has been able to get me things in short supply in the US market. His prices are also generally better than US resellers, even after shipping. I got my H&R sway bar set delivered in less than a week!

Also, for Bilstein B14/16 you can swap the springs out to adjust height too. For the rear you can drop in normal 60mm coilover springs, and the front can also use 60mm coilover springs with an adapter plate (like the one Millway sells).

Thanks, I must've missed this post earlier, I'll email the guy right away.

johnung So I did some measuring, the lowest point of front jack point is 5.75 inches from the ground, seems like the lowest point of the car's underbody. Matches with online specs out there claiming 5.7" ground clearance for F32 xDrive, judging by that the F30 xDrive should be .7" higher.
Also measured the clearance on the slope going down into the garage, only place that really concerns me, the slope is pretty steep and kinda sudden, at the extreme points in the middle I still could squeeze in 4 fingers i.e. about 70mm, let's say 60mm to be safe, the B14 drop is 30mm at highest setting so I'm sure I should be fine. Honestly, 30mm doesn't seem extreme at all, less than 2 fingers. Given the shortage of B8s and B6s, alone with nothing from Koni for F32 xDrive it feels like B14 is my only option. Only other option I was contemplating is KW street comfort, but I've read B14 gives you better handling and the car feels more stable in comparison, none of that is too concrete though. Plus KW is $600 more.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by thatBimmerBloke

Thanks, I must've missed this post earlier, I'll email the guy right away.

johnung So I did some measuring, the lowest point of front jack point is 5.75 inches from the ground, seems like the lowest point of the car's underbody. Matches with online specs out there claiming 5.7" ground clearance for F32 xDrive, judging by that the F30 xDrive should be .7" higher.
Also measured the clearance on the slope going down into the garage, only place that really concerns me, the slope is pretty steep and kinda sudden, at the extreme points in the middle I still could squeeze in 4 fingers i.e. about 70mm, let's say 60mm to be safe, the B14 drop is 30mm at highest setting so I'm sure I should be fine. Honestly, 30mm doesn't seem extreme at all, less than 2 fingers. Given the shortage of B8s and B6s, alone with nothing from Koni for F32 xDrive it feels like B14 is my only option. Only other option I was contemplating is KW street comfort, but I've read B14 gives you better handling and the car feels more stable in comparison, none of that is too concrete though. Plus KW is $600 more.

Yeah, check with the guy from Germany. Doesn't appear that Koni has anything for F32 which seems strange. Also most of the common retailers use Turn14. Try TireRack since they are a separate huge distributor with warehouses so they may have a part that the others do not.

[zole2112]

I live in Wisconsin, I dropped my 335i xDrive about an inchish. Running Blizzaks and my car eats up the snow, I blow by everybody. I have a 200 ft long driveway that doesn't get plowed for several days and I've blown right through up to 10" of snow this winter. I say go big or go home... I went big and never looked back!

I installed the CATuned https://catuned.com/catuned-coilovers-f30-system on mine

[TonyTheTurtle]

Originally Posted by johnung

Congrats! How much did you end up lowering? Photos please!

Sorry about the long wait, Here are the photos of the drop.

335i xDrive on Bilstein b14: lowest setting.

First picture is the before (i didn't take much more before pics)

I was hoping I'd get a bigger drop but overall I am happy because I don't have to worry about clearances and it feels much more sporty to drive.

[Logicoeur]

Originally Posted by TonyTheTurtle

Sorry about the long wait, Here are the photos of the drop.

335i xDrive on Bilstein b14: lowest setting.

First picture is the before (i didn't take much more before pics)

I was hoping I'd get a bigger drop but overall I am happy because I don't have to worry about clearances and it feels much more sporty to drive.

Really that's the lowest setting for the perches front and rear?! That's great actually. I wonder if the shocks are still in their sweet spot as far as stroke. Can you measure the middle of the wheel arches to the ground?

[andino]

Originally Posted by Logicoeur

Really that's the lowest setting for the perches front and rear?! That's great actually. I wonder if the shocks are still in their sweet spot as far as stroke. Can you measure the middle of the wheel arches to the ground?

They're not in the sweet spot. I obliterated my bump stops on the lowest ride height up front in on my b14s. Had to put in new ones when i installed my custom springs.