[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Lowering springs seems to be a common mod and a big area of discussion amongst the E9X owners so just to help people out and summarise:

Eibach Springs (prokit) - progressive spring rate. Generally accepted to be slightly more comfortable than HR. People usually experience a drop of ~30mm.
Eibach prokit have a spring rate front/rear of 148 lb/in and 456 lb/in respectively.
Compared to stock E90 Sports rates front/rear of 145 lb/in and 460 lb/in.
So they are very similarly weighted however offer a drop of 10-15mm more than the Msport height.

HR Springs - linear spring rate. Generally accepted to handle slightly better than Eibach. People usually experience a drop of ~30-35mm.

I installed a set of Eibach springs on playwithonehand's car... the below pics show Eibach VS standard non Msport.

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

As you can see, lowered looks 1000x better. Maybe even 10,000x better.

And some pics during the install:

[sbce90]

Nice. How long did it take?

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

lol, it took a while but can be done a lot faster next time seeing as the first one is always a learning curve + def going to use power tools next time I did this all by hand and as much as I love a good workout, power tools will most certainly be employed next time.

[playwithonehand]

I want to say BIG thanks to bmroxm5/Stuart @ BMR Autowerkes who did a fabulous job on my 3series.

The process was easy as i drop off the car and came back after work to witness how much better my baby looked!
Before i had OMFG massive gap and now shes lowered, definitely getting lot of love and respect!
Was at Fasttech today and greated by "Nice ride, you lower it, looks good mate"?
Also when I park next to 3series, you can tell how much better mine looks.

I was quite suprised no degrade on ride quality.
I was prepare to greet the harshness and uncomfortableness from the Eibach but it wasn't there. It ride just like a stock car but one downside i felt was slightly floaty feeling i think that was due to stock shock which had been experience by other forumer too.

Now the apart from the look, the other thing that was bloody awesome was how much the handling improved during cornering.
I was able to go around run about @xx speed which i couldn't achieve before. The handle just felt so responsive and some how steering felt lighter as well.
I been asking around as most people said the spring will not help increase the turning diameter but i swear before i had to do 3point turn to do a U turn in a road that i drive daily but after Eibach i was about to get it around in one go.

Overall Stuart did an awesome job and i strongly recommend anyone who need any mechanic needs to give him a call.

[johnca]

well done and nice job

[Ninjaoz]

Where did you get your Eibach springs? I'm looking to replace the OEM springs too.

Nice work!! How difficult was it install? Don't you need to do wheel alignments as well?

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Originally Posted by Ninja333

Where did you get your Eibach springs? I'm looking to replace the OEM springs too.

Nice work!! How difficult was it install? Don't you need to do wheel alignments as well?

Springs came from an eibach distributor in the uk for ~$350 from memory.

'difficult' is a relative term, there's nothing overly technical about this however you need some special equipment, a bit of know how and some pucker factor.

As for wheel alignment after my e92 was lowered I didn't get an alignment and didn't notice any difference so as long the springs are 'seated' correctly I can't see how it will affect alignment too much..

[V8888V]

Kudos! ...... tempted.....

[ABC99G]

Originally Posted by bmroxm5

Springs came from an eibach distributor in the uk for ~$350 from memory.

'difficult' is a relative term, there's nothing overly technical about this however you need some special equipment, a bit of know how and some pucker factor.

As for wheel alignment after my e92 was lowered I didn't get an alignment and didn't notice any difference so as long the springs are 'seated' correctly I can't see how it will affect alignment too much..

I did this recently changing from H & R race to stock Msport springs.
The main difficulties I had were getting the bolt back into the rear lower arm.
The DIY shows pictures of removing either the inboard bolt or the outboard bolt. My advice would be to remove the inboard bolt as I could not get the outboard bolt back in. Getting the inboard one in is tricky as well and I found I had to jack up the lower arm from under the shock mount and then also jack up at the bolt point. (you will need 2 jacks)
With the fronts I used a spring compressor from Super Cheap. I would recommend that you try and get a better quality one as these are crap.
Removing the shorter H & R spring was easy enough, but I found the spring compressor could not grab enough of the longer Msport spring to compress it enough to install it. It was a lot of fiddling and readjusting (very tiring) but I got it to work eventually. Maybe it would be easier to remove the entire strut as it is possible to scratch the guard with the studs protruding from the top of the strut top hat.

[johnnydad]

Love the thread, love Eibach's.

Interested to note that PWOH's car doesn't look any lower than my pre-LCI M-sport, although that's on 17's. The spring rates, as bmroxm5 notes, are only slightly different also.

What shocks would be best to look at to match with these gents? And would there be much point swapping M-sport springs for Eibach's?

[playwithonehand]

Originally Posted by johnnydad

Love the thread, love Eibach's.

Interested to note that PWOH's car doesn't look any lower than my pre-LCI M-sport, although that's on 17's. The spring rates, as bmroxm5 notes, are only slightly different also.

What shocks would be best to look at to match with these gents? And would there be much point swapping M-sport springs for Eibach's?

Hey Johnny

If you look at the before pic you will see my massive ass gap is bigger than normal cars.

From Msport to Eibach you will only get additional 15mm drop.
I am thinking to match these with Koni FSD or Yellow.
QLD did a drop from Msport with H&R so you can check his before/after pic.

[Ninjaoz]

Originally Posted by johnnydad

Interested to note that PWOH's car doesn't look any lower than my pre-LCI M-sport, although that's on 17's. The spring rates, as bmroxm5 notes, are only slightly different also.

agreed - it looks like there are still a bit of gaps between the wheel arches, pretty similar to OEM Msports springs.

[pcockley]

My msport 335 with 19's looks about the same height as pwoh bit less gap between the wheel and arch.

[playwithonehand]

Originally Posted by Ninja333

agreed - it looks like there are still a bit of gaps between the wheel arches, pretty similar to OEM Msports springs.

Its 15mm difference between Msport and Eibach and its slightly better but huge difference from stock. If you want more drop H&R offer better drop at 35mm but will compromise the ride. Coilover is another solution.

Originally Posted by pcockley

My msport 335 with 19's looks about the same height as pwoh bit less gap between the wheel and arch.

Isn't 19 tyre higher than 18 thus less gap?
PWOH is a good way to call me. "PWOH DIESEL"

[Ninjaoz]

given you've only fitted them on yesterday, it might gets slightly lower once the springs are "settled".

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

as mentioned above the move from Msport to Eibach springs will only be ~10mm, 15mm if you're lucky.

If you want to drop it slightly more an extra 5-10mm, swap out the rubber seat for a lowering perch which gives you more drop.

Best shocks for these are Koni FSD by far. Very comfortable on the road, very decent handling.

The angle of the pics above looking up into the wheel arch exaggerate the fender gap... when taken side on or looking down the gap looks a lot less, those pics were just to demonstrate the drop from stock.

Using the highly scientific "how many fingers method" you can get 1 fat finger or 1.5 normal fingers in between the tyre and guard.

[BM1144]

This thread pushed me over the edge. Ordered my pro kit yesterday!

[playwithonehand]

Originally Posted by Alan1144

This thread pushed me over the edge. Ordered my pro kit yesterday!

Congrats Alan!
You won't be disappointed mate.

Tirerack had a awesome review testing between, stock, Eibach and H&R.
http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/t...ch_hr_rd_b.jsp

At the end i decided on Eibach due to the harsh ride issue multipal people been experience with H&R. Though H&R do give me 5mm lower than Eibach and provide slightly better handling. But as a day to day driver Eibach has much superior ride comfort.

Soon you will have to look into invest a better shock.
Currently i am tossing between the 3, Koni FSD, Yellow or Eibach pro Damper.

[BM1144]

Can't wait to get them in! I'll do a before and after shot! I'm on standard type 161's atm.[QUOTE=playwithonehand;10435555]

Originally Posted by Alan1144

This thread pushed me over the edge. Ordered my pro kit yesterday!

Congrats Alan!
You won't be disappointed mate.

Tirerack had a awesome review testing between, stock, Eibach and H

[tandtran]

is it worth replacing the m sports springs with Eibach ones?

[kedz112]

Hey Stu, would re-setting the original spring be any good, or is it better to just replace them, can you pm what your charge for the Eibach(installed).