[Zee32]

I ordered Koni yellow and will be pairing them with H&R sport springs for my 08 335xi coupe 19 inch wheels. I have read through several threads on the settings and have the following questions

Which setting will be the most comfortable and or comparable to OEM - Full soft, front and rear? Or is full soft super bumpy and worse than OEM.

The roads out here are not the best so I would like a comfortable ride.

What would you suggest?

[feuer]

I suggest Koni FSD not yellow sport and certainly not H&R lowering springs if you want conform. But since you already made purchase set the adjusters toward full soft JUST not full soft because the valves will get stuck , or full hard for that matter. I don't know why you say soft will be bumpy ? Anything other than soft setting will make the ride a lot harsher that stock when you pair them with lowering springs.

[Zee32]

Originally Posted by feuer

I suggest Koni FSD not yellow sport and certainly not H&R lowering springs if you want conform. But since you already made purchase set the adjusters toward full soft JUST not full soft because the valves will get stuck , or full hard for that matter. I don't know why you say soft will be bumpy ? Anything other than soft setting will make the ride a lot harsher that stock when you pair them with lowering springs.

As of now my ride sucks, because my stock struts are paired with h&r sport. I couldn't go with FSD because the ride height would increase again and my low profile 19 inch wheels would look ugly :/

So I'm guessing keep them at half a turn from full soft from rear and front?

[feuer]

Originally Posted by zack32

As of now my ride sucks, because my stock struts are paired with h&r sport. I couldn't go with FSD because the ride height would increase again and my low profile 19 inch wheels would look ugly :/

So I'm guessing keep them at half a turn from full soft from rear and front?

Why would FSD increase the ride height? The strut body is the same...

[mike-y]

I think he means that the FSDs are best used at stock height. I remember reading that FSD's are not recommended with H&Rs and are best used with stock springs at stock height. Though many use them with the eibach lowering springs, but those springs are very close to the stock spring rates.

Either way, the koni sports are only adjustable in rebound, not bump/compression. Adjusting the rebound won't change how initial impacts feel a whole lot, but it will change how the car behaves while going over the bumps.

full soft will allow for more (and quicker) up/down motions. it may feel a bit more compliant in situations, because it allows the car to move/roll more.

Setting the shocks to the stiffer setting slows down and limits the up/down motion, so the car will feel more planted and more stable.

In my experience, running the shocks at full soft produced too much body movement for me, especially coming off bumps, where the front of the car would rise up too quickly off dips/bumps and make the car feel unstable.

I'd start with the shocks at about half way and drive it for a few days to see how it feels, then adjust up or down from there. One person's setting isn't right for everyone, and your particular car's weight will also affect how the settings feel.

[mmmnot]

I have the same setup as OP and I have my struts 1/4 away from full firm and it's far from rough - however, I guess it's all contextual.

[Zee32]

Originally Posted by feuer

Why would FSD increase the ride height? The strut body is the same...

Sorry didn't elaborate, but Mike is right. I read on many places that FSD are best paired with stock springs and not H&R sport springs. Hence never considered FSD's as an alternate to the yellows.

[sunny]

I have same setup.
I didnt know it was going to be so low though
but the ride isnt that bad.
Try 1full turn for the rear and 1 1/4 for the front.
That should give it a pretty good ride for the street.
And for tire pressure, air up at night so you can get COLD setting of 34 psi all the way around.
Start with these setting and change as you need to.
Even with h&r sport you are going to scrape everywhere.
Also get a good m3 alignment setting if you have m3
Control arms.

[Zee32]

Originally Posted by sunny

I have same setup.
I didnt know it was going to be so low though
but the ride isnt that bad.
Try 1full turn for the rear and 1 1/4 for the front.
That should give it a pretty good ride for the street.
And for tire pressure, air up at night so you can get COLD setting of 34 psi all the way around.
Start with these setting and change as you need to.
Even with h&r sport you are going to scrape everywhere.
Also get a good m3 alignment setting if you have m3
Control arms.

How does the ride compare to the stock? I'm planning to get it installed next weekend, but want to avoid going again for readjustment; hence the thread.

Currently i have h&r sport with stock struts, won't the ride height remain the same even with the yellows? I haven't had scraping problem for the time I have owned the car yet.

My control arms are stock, do you recommend I get them replaced too, if so, why?

[sunny]

one of my upper control arm started leaking so I replaced all of them with m3 control arms.
control arm is up to you if you want it or not, you feel little more of everything(road imperfection, bumps) on your steering wheel but the upside is that it feels more direct and quicker steering.

same like you I wanted a good street setting so I don't have to remove the strut to adjust.
I started with 3/4 turn front and 3/4 rear but I kept increasing the front until I like it and I ended up with 1 1/4 in front.
seemed like anything less than 1 turn on the front made front end bounce to much. my rear has little too much up and down motion at 3/4 turn so I do need to increase rebound to 1 turn from full soft.

[John_01]

EDIT: After playing with my shock settings I discovered my rear shocks were not set where I thought they were.. OMG!

1.0 turns from full soft on the rear is actually pretty firm. That could be used a trackday setting.
0.75 turns on the rear is a performance biased setup. (That is what I actually used on the track)
For good ride quality the rears should be set to 0.5 turns from full soft.
Note: I am using the Koni yellow front, and TCK version externally adjustable rear shocks.

For a comfort setting: I have mine set to 0.5 turns rear, and 0.75 turns front.
For a Performance biased street/sport setting: I suggest 0.75 turns rear, and 1.25 ~ 1.5 turns front.

[driverman]

I recently called Koni and asked them about the yellows. They told me the softest setting is designed to approximate the stock setup. I don't remember if that applied to the Sports package or not.