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The $350 dollar coilover thread
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02-15-2013, 10:39 AM | #68 |
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02-15-2013, 10:41 AM | #69 |
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02-15-2013, 10:45 AM | #70 |
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Look at the Koni FSD. They offer better performance than OEM shocks/struts, but are also designed for comfort. I believe you can use OEM springs with the FSDs (you will probably want to upgrade to the OEM sport springs, though), or you can use Eibach springs which will be better. Eibach springs are lowering springs, but I believe the drop is the most conservative of all lowering springs.
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02-15-2013, 11:00 AM | #71 | |
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02-15-2013, 11:13 AM | #72 |
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Listen, OP, I'm all for cheaper solutions myself, but I can't say I'd cut corners if my safety were involved. I'm supportive of you taking this daring leap of being the first to put cheap (yes, they're in fact cheap) coilovers on your E9X, but please (and God forbid) if your coils fail on you and (again, God forbid) do some damage to your vehicle, own up to it and post it for the community to see. You'll undoubtedly get flooded with "I told you so" posts, but people need to see the result of cheap suspension mixed with a little bad judgement.
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02-15-2013, 11:13 AM | #73 | |
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02-15-2013, 11:28 AM | #74 |
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adding to the post above. just make sure that if you have a sedan ,get sedan sport springs . coupe sport springs are shorter for rear and will make the car look like it got junk in the trunk
going with koni fsd with zsp springs is a great option. it will absorb bumps better than oem yet sharper handleing. service life is around 40-50k miles and koni can be rebuilt. there is a reason why you dont see many koni products on for sale section and if they do show up, they get sold rather quickly. if you havent got rid of your run flat tires, that will change your comfort level day n night
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02-15-2013, 12:22 PM | #75 |
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A simple search would have answered your own question...he went with Megan. A huge step up indeed lol budget
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02-15-2013, 01:54 PM | #76 | |
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2. Its not like im aiming for potholes. Yes i do live in new york and the roads do suck. so if anything its a more of a stress test for them. 3. allignment shouldnt be more then 100-120. Which is what i would need if I do any suspension mod. So you cant really say that. In terms of comfort im sure springs and struts will be better and may last longer, but its much more expensive, most are non adjustable and some say its still bouncy, thus people moving onto coils. 4. ahh, another person jumping to conclusions. What do you take me for? lol yeah im just gunna slam my car bro, rub and scrap everywhere cause its cool. No, im going to set it to a reasonable equal height. i have a slight incline on my driveway i need to get up. I like to have my tires intact also. Ill try to post pics on highest and lowest setting. people like to see how low coils can go. people are talking about dude safety man. why do you guys think im going to do 100 mph, hit a bump, coil "breaks", and somehow I crash. what world do you live in? people drive with blown struts all the time. it doesnt make the car any more undriveable. yeah maybe you shouldnt take corners fast but by no means does it make your car just stranded. i dont mind the hate at all. its expected. I told everyone that ill tell people what happens. I have no reason to hide it. Ill tell you if the ride is donkey shit, ill tell you if something breaks, ill tell who ever what ever they want to know. For some people it may be pretty cool if these last, give a decent ride, and can lower your car to your liking. you can tell me how bad these are going to be and how much danger im putting myself in, but ill take the risk. same risk of running over a nail on the highway without rft. wesleys picture is so construed. absolutely no info just a picture of a broken coilover and a crashed car. anything can break when you hit a severe pothole... Last edited by idrift4wd; 02-15-2013 at 05:42 PM.. |
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02-15-2013, 02:26 PM | #77 | |
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Enjoy your new coilovers. Hopefully they are of better quality than other low-cost options. Let us know how everything works out. |
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02-15-2013, 03:55 PM | #80 |
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OP thanks for being the guinea pig on these
Nice to see information that can actually be useful to others in the future being posted on the boards Looking forward to hearing more Tooty Fruity: Hahahaha, your hilarious bro. You should have a e90post podcast
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02-15-2013, 04:25 PM | #81 | |
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I really don't like the internal valving design of Koni FSD's and personally think they are a bit of a marketing product. The theory sounds ok, but to obtain the ride comfort the damping is compromised in respect that the rebound damping in my opinion is too soft. I've used Koni yellows and Eibach springs before on an E91and with the Koni's damping set at the midway position, the ride comfort was excellent. Really, really nice, on our bumpy roads! Another advantage of the yellows is the ability to tailor the setup to your preference. If you fit the FSD's and find them underdamped, you're buggered, with the yellows, you can adjust until you're happy. The yellows have also been around a long time and are a reliable well proven design which will last years. Again, if after say 5 years the damping softens slightly, you can re-adjust back to how it was. |
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02-15-2013, 05:43 PM | #82 | |
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02-15-2013, 06:02 PM | #83 | |
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You should also corner balance your car when you get it aligned. Coilovers are a precision tool and should be tuned to the car. |
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02-15-2013, 06:50 PM | #84 | |
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02-15-2013, 07:36 PM | #85 |
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Here's where I have a beef with the whole premise.
A full set of decent sport springs cost ~$200. A full set of decent direct replacement dampers cost ~$400. To me, a reasonable expectation for a height adjustable only "coil-over" should, at the bare minimum, cost around $600 for any manufacturer to have a reasonable expectation to make a very slim profit. So logically speaking, a $350 SET of coil-overs that has any reasonable expectations of being even remotely "quality?" Either said manufacturer is selling the parts at a loss, or some, in fact, A LOT of corners are cut. While I don't work in procurement, I have worked on the manufacturing side of the automotive aftermarket industry. Just the MATERIAL alone, for a full set of coil-over like this, would likely be in the $80-$100 range. That means, you add in cost of manufacturing and engineering, there's no way in HELL any respectable, fully functional, decently built coil-over should EVER cost $350. So I suspect, where they cut corners to bring the price down to $350 AND still manage to make a very slim profit, is on engineering, manufacturing, and material. There's a reason why, despite Eibach making probably 90% of all springs sold in the world, it still cost $120-$150 for a simple set of lowering springs. The metallurgy in the alloy used for springs are very specific, to allow it tensile strength without being TOO brittle. Again, while I'm not a chemist or a metallurgist, I can tell you without looking it up, controlled metallurgy like that does not come CHEAP. Sure, you can probably smelt some recycled iron to make the springs for a lot cheaper than say, what Eibach pays for...But do you REALLY think it's going to survive thousands, neigh, hundreds of thousands of stretching and compressing DAILY? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you somewhere in Brooklyn. Then there's the dampers. Let me just tell you this. When the company I was looking for was looking to purchase a suspension company, I did some research and talked to a bunch of damper engineers. The science that goes into how to build a damper is freakishly complex. There's FLUID DYNAMICS involved. If you ever have a chance to see a set of shocks cut open, you'll be shocked at how complicated the valving is on the shock piston. Here's just a small sample of one SINGLE part of what goes into a shock piston: It is a work of art, and not something you can just cobble together. So without some real engineering cost that goes into a set of dampers, it is impossible for me to fathom anyone being able to cobble together a set of dampers to mate to some random springs, and package it for sale for $350 and have it be a viable product. But that's not the real beef I have here. The REAL beef, is someone like OP is probably going to put the suspension on his/her car, and probably has little to NO idea what good suspension is suppose to feel like compared to a bad suspension. Heck, I'll bet he's going to come back here and rave about how his $350 suspension was so much better than stock, how his car is now "slammed" and rides so much better, where in fact he's in no way qualified to make assessment of that sort. Then people are going to say, hey, wait a minute, so-and-so spent $350 for their coil-overs, maybe I should buy it and try it too...Next thing you know, the spring snaps while traveling at 75 mph on a busy highway, killing the poor soul who bought poorly engineered, poorly manufactured, using inferior material suspension based on the OP's unqualified "review" of his $350 coil-over. Honestly. Anyone here who would think any user buying a $350 coil-over has any real idea what they're doing and is qualified to assess the quality of said coil-over...Well, there's a sucker born every minute I guess. I'm going to give y'all a little analogy. Imagine someone who's dated ugly chicks all his life, having had NO IDEA what real hotness looks like, and all of a sudden Fatsy O'Donnell asks him out for a date and puts out. "Hot damn," he thought, "that was the BEST night of my life and I'm going to go tell everyone Fatsy is the hottest woman I know." Meanwhile, he has no idea Fatsy is actually a tranny. Are you REALLY going to be taking advice from someone like this, or should you be taking advice from, oh, I dunno, someone like John Mayer who's bedded some of the HOTTEST looking women on this planet? (Actually, never mind. I just scrolled through Mayer's list of conquests and came across the dreaded Armenian Whore.)
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02-15-2013, 08:03 PM | #86 |
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^ OK
LOL, ive been in many cars with suspension, spring only, springs and struts, coilovers. hell my brother has a wrx with tein coil w/edfc. i know what a crappy ride is. ive had rides in members cars with kw's, h&r cup kits, stock sport etc.. i can only compare these to my stock suspension because i know how my stock suspension feels like everyday. How exactly do you know how these are? To just disqualify your whole statement.... If i said these were 1000 dollars you wouldnt be saying anything. if you wrote all that to tell me the ride quality is not going to be good then i feel bad for you. to comfort some. 60 kits shipped zero issues. 3 group buys. a couple threads on bimmerforums. all good there. http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1633293 Last edited by idrift4wd; 02-15-2013 at 08:25 PM.. |
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02-15-2013, 08:34 PM | #87 | ||
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02-15-2013, 08:36 PM | #88 | |
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I'm excited to hear a review now. If figured that, at best, you'd only be able to compare these to your stock suspension (as you mentioned), but given that you've had experience with other cars/suspension setups I'm sure you won't be bias in your review. Good luck with the install! |
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