[ajsalida]

Another tiny update here. After installing the D2's rear, I felt two things going on. One was there was more weight on the front. Quite noticeable. Other thing was rear felt a little jittery, underdamped. These are related of course.

The first thing caused what seemed to be the previous nice neutral to oversteer balance to shift to more of a pronounced feeling of weight shifting onto outside front tire in a corner, back stepping out quickly and too much. Felt like a bit too much rear bar IOW. The jittery rear made this transition happen too fast.

So what I did was get a front UUC bar, check the thread on UUC bars for 335xi, post #48:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532951

Then I cranked the rear konis up to 1 full turn off soft, they had been at 1/2. Everything is nailed down really nicely at both ends now. Not harsh, just firm and supple with very little roll. Front bar is a necessity IMHO, you shouldn't do a big rear bar alone.

However! Now that I can get more aggressive with the car it is bottoming and scraping the nose (!) on some bumps. This may push me into swapping out the front Eibachs for some D6's. If I do this I will also go to OEM ZSP bump stops, which are a little taller than the e36 M3 stops I have in now. This would be an experiment. Winter is coming fast here and I do not want to be nose heavy and bottoming out.

So yeah car is really handling well now, well enough that I can go out and mess it up.

BTW I cannot imagine going through this without having some adjustment capability in the shocks. I enjoy this sort of thing I can see how it might drive other people crazy. Keep in mind no one really knows yet how to do the XI right it seems. A lot of issues form the heavier front end, the taller front struts, an the awful OEM starting point make this a challenge.

edit: BTW I used the procedure developed by critical05 (I think), where you do not have to remove the shocks completely. You take out the carpet in the trunk, jack up the rear and remove wheels, undo the mount, drop it down, remove stops etc off shaft of the shock, and adjust it on the car. Was pretty easy. Biggest pain is that trunk area carpet.

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

.

edit: BTW I used the procedure developed by critical05 (I think), where you do not have to remove the shocks completely. You take out the carpet in the trunk, jack up the rear and remove wheels, undo the mount, drop it down, remove stops etc off shaft of the shock, and adjust it on the car. Was pretty easy. Biggest pain is that trunk area carpet.

Looked up some info online from Bavauto and saw that there is no need to pull the entire lining out of the trunk. Remove the two front plastic push tabs, fold the side carpeting/molding back. Voila!

Of course, the PITA part now is the adjusting the Konis, which as you noted was almost just easier by taking them out completely

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

Looked up some info online from Bavauto and saw that there is no need to pull the entire lining out of the trunk. Remove the two front plastic push tabs, fold the side carpeting/molding back. Voila!

Of course, the PITA part now is the adjusting the Konis, which as you noted was almost just easier by taking them out completely

I could see that on a sedan where you have rear doors. The e92, hard (for me) to comfortably get to anything back there near the shock towers unless you crawl inside the trunk from the back. So I just took the panels all the way out and put the trunk floor back in to have something to lie on while working. e92 also has some cargo tie down latch cover gizmos there that are torx that need to come out before the front of the side panels can be removed, not sure about e90.

Either way it is not difficult just time consuming. My E36 M3 I was so sick of doing this I have cut holes into the carpet and insulation above the shock towers to avoid this R&R BS (it is even worse on that car, rear deck speakers have to come out too), also for a rear strut bar. Do not want to hack up the e92 carpet yet, but I will if I end up with some top-adjust shocks.

[Runner340]

I’ve been watching this thread for some time and chose the Eibach Pro/Koni Yellow Adjustable with M3/Z4 bump stop setup for my IX 6 months ago and I'm reluctantly switching back to the stock IX springs. The front Eibach's just bottom out too easy on our roads in the Northeast. When I switched to the 17's for winter, the issue is worse than with the 18's (both RFT's). I'm afraid I'm going to damage the car one of these days, particularly in the frost heave/pot hole season. Do stiffer sway bars help this? Just seems the Eibach pros are too soft and should be firmer to compensate for the reduced ride height. Way back on my 318ti with Bilstein/HR springs and sway bars, I never had the bottoming issues I have with this car. The HR springs were firmer and a little lower but it handled our roads much better.

[v1nc86]

I'm also thinking about switching back to the stock xi shocks/springs.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by runner999

I’ve been watching this thread for some time and chose the Eibach Pro/Koni Yellow Adjustable with M3/Z4 bump stop setup for my IX 6 months ago and I'm reluctantly switching back to the stock IX springs. The front Eibach's just bottom out too easy on our roads in the Northeast. When I switched to the 17's for winter, the issue is worse than with the 18's (both RFT's). I'm afraid I'm going to damage the car one of these days, particularly in the frost heave/pot hole season. Do stiffer sway bars help this? Just seems the Eibach pros are too soft and should be firmer to compensate for the reduced ride height. Way back on my 318ti with Bilstein/HR springs and sway bars, I never had the bottoming issues I have with this car. The HR springs were firmer and a little lower but it handled our roads much better.

I think you have 2 or maybe 3 problems. One the RFT's have to go. Worst tire ever. Cold makes them ever harder, like bricks.

Next the Eibachs are pretty soft for the drop they give on the Xi. Remember they are not made for the XI, and the rear will always sit too low WRT front. As discussed in this thread, i ZSP springs give you a little more ride height at approx same spring rate, plus you can swap F/R codes to get more level front rear. Reports on H&R is they are pretty harsh. No direct experience though.

Last I do not know what you set your Konis at. Remember rebound damping controls rate of weight transfer F/R, side side, and corner corner (low piston speed damping) as well as rate of wheel rebound (higher speed speed damping). Too little rebound is as bad as too much in either of these areas but unless you go to very expensive shocks you cannot adjust separately.

WRT that sway bars helped my car out a lot, limiting asymmetric wheel travel and weight transfer side side.

So if it were me I would get rid of RFT's first, then try some combo of ZSP springs and keep the Konis. Then tune with the konis. OEM shocks are horrible. Another thing you could try is keep the Konis and try the OEM springs, though they are very stiff. You will not get a better shock in this price range, not even close.

Sway bars I'd leave alone until spring and not do until the other stuff is sorted out.

OEM XI suspension is terrible, you may have forgotten how bad it is. I live up in the mountains in semi-rural CO, on a dirt road, was bottoming out all the time on stock staggered 18" RFT's and stock suspension. I still bottom out every so often, but nowhere near as much as OEM and not as hard. OEM literally felt like something was always broken or left out, worst suspension ever conceived by BMW.

[Runner340]

Originally Posted by v1nc86

I'm also thinking about switching back to the stock xi shocks/springs.

I'll keep the Koni's on my car. I think the Koni's are a better shock than the stock shocks.

Am I the only one who is experiencing the occasional bottoming out issue with the Koni yellow's/Eibach Pro setup on the IX? Mind you, this is not the expected bottoming out from holes in the road. I'm talking about some expansion joints entering over passes, back road bumps etc.. Particularly when there is a quick dip that transitions to a small bump. There are a few near me that I ride may bicycle over and are barely detectable. Driving over them at 25-30 mph in my car is a gut wrenching experience.

[ajsalida]

It is the RFT's. No compliance built into the sidewalls at all. Think about what needs to be there to not collapse without air in it.

[Runner340]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

I think you have 2 or maybe 3 problems. One the RFT's have to go. Worst tire ever. Cold makes them ever harder, like bricks.

Next the Eibachs are pretty soft for the drop they give on the Xi. Remember they are not made for the XI, and the rear will always sit too low WRT front. As discussed in this thread, i ZSP springs give you a little more ride height at approx same spring rate, plus you can swap F/R codes to get more level front rear. Reports on H&R is they are pretty harsh. No direct experience though.

Last I do not know what you set your Konis at. Remember rebound damping controls rate of weight transfer F/R, side side, and corner corner (low piston speed damping) as well as rate of wheel rebound (higher speed speed damping). Too little rebound is as bad as too much in either of these areas but unless you go to very expensive shocks you cannot adjust separately.

WRT that sway bars helped my car out a lot, limiting asymmetric wheel travel and weight transfer side side.

So if it were me I would get rid of RFT's first, then try some combo of ZSP springs and keep the Konis. Then tune with the konis. OEM shocks are horrible. Another thing you could try is keep the Konis and try the OEM springs, though they are very stiff. You will not get a better shock in this price range, not even close.

Sway bars I'd leave alone until spring and not do until the other stuff is sorted out.

OEM XI suspension is terrible, you may have forgotten how bad it is. I live up in the mountains in semi-rural CO, on a dirt road, was bottoming out all the time on stock staggered 18" RFT's and stock suspension. I still bottom out every so often, but nowhere near as much as OEM and not as hard. OEM literally felt like something was always broken or left out, worst suspension ever conceived by BMW.

The RFT's are an issue I know. Unfortunitly BMW in their infinite wisdom didn’t provision a space for a spare in the trunk well and I use the space an added spare would take.

I have the Koni’s set to the standard recommended 1 full turn up front and ½ turn in back. The ride height front/rear IMO looks level on my car to perhaps a very slight rake in the rear. The ZSP spring route is an expensive experiment to find the right D# at over $100 a pop new. Less used. The rear Eibach’s have been perfect, just the fronts are the problem. So perhaps a set of ZSP’s in the front only could work if the ride height is decent..

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by runner999

The RFT's are an issue I know. Unfortunitly BMW in their infinite wisdom didn’t provision a space for a spare in the trunk well and I use the space an added spare would take.

I have the Koni’s set to the standard recommended 1 full turn up front and ½ turn in back. The ride height front/rear IMO looks level on my car to perhaps a very slight rake in the rear. The ZSP spring route is an expensive experiment to find the right D# at over $100 a pop new. Less used. The rear Eibach’s have been perfect, just the fronts are the problem. So perhaps a set of ZSP’s in the front only could work if the ride height is decent..

Car looks nice. There is nothing you can do to the suspension that will cure the RFT's. They are that bad. They are bad with the stock suspension. They would be worse/unbearable with a lowered/stiffer suspension or similar changes.

All I can suggest is maybe someone near you can swap non RFT tires/wheels for a day and let you evaluate. All the suspension tweaks discussed here are mainly for XI people who have already ditched the RFT's, and are messing with fine tuning good ride/handling compromises on lowered cars.

You may consider going back to stock springs on the konis and see if that helps. I would not mess with any further mods. On the spare, a space saver fits in there with a lot of room, the other choice is a tire plug kit and mini compressor. I ran with the latter then got the spare kit.

BTW a set of ZSP springs used is more like $100 or less for all 4, no one would buy them new. Good luck let us know what you do.

[Runner340]

Thanks for the advise. I picked up a BMW space saver spare and jack last summer from a craigslist seller with thought of replacing the winter all season 17's when they wore out. I also have a plug kit and compressor. I'll ask Santa to put some DWS's under the tree.

[thegrinchboy]

Agreed with AJSalida. The RFT is your biggest issue. I am in southern NH and I had the Koni w/ Eibach's. My 335xi never bottomed out on this set up but it was lower than I liked, therefore I changed over to ZSP springs. One thing to keep in the mind is that the ZSP seems to be softer than the stock XI springs as well. Currently I am on 1.25 turn from full soft in front and 1 turn from full soft in rear. Given your RFT set up, I would recommend dialing back your fronts to 1/2 turn from full soft as a start to soften up the ride and to better match front and rear.

[SLOWER]

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

Here are a couple of quick pics.

The first being Eibach Pro.The second is ZSP D6/D5 (F/R)

Difficult to tell from the pictures, but as measured, the overall difference is about 1" clearance/height gained from Eibach Pro to ZSP.

This is a great thread and I think it just talked me out of installing the Eibach Pro Kit sitting in my garage.

My car is an E90 335xi, MSport, Premium, auto, nav with 18" wheels. I think I want to go with the ZSP springs instead of the Eibach. I would use Bilstein sport struts.

thegrinchboy, what options does your car have? I think if we are similar I might go D6/D5 if you think that pairing is still appropriate. I saw your other post about the Dinan springs, so wondering if you would recommend the D6/D5 to me or not?

Thanks guys, I think you may have just saved me a big disappointment.

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by SLOWER

This is a great thread and I think it just talked me out of installing the Eibach Pro Kit sitting in my garage.

My car is an E90 335xi, MSport, Premium, auto, nav with 18" wheels. I think I want to go with the ZSP springs instead of the Eibach. I would use Bilstein sport struts.

thegrinchboy, what options does your car have? I think if we are similar I might go D6/D5 if you think that pairing is still appropriate. I saw your other post about the Dinan springs, so wondering if you would recommend the D6/D5 to me or not?

Thanks guys, I think you may have just saved me a big disappointment.

My car is a 2011 E90 xDrive, 6MT with MSPORT, Premium, Nav, etc. as well. I liked the ZSP for comfort, but not for more spirited driving, as they were progressive springs, e.g. going into a corner hard, the springs felt softer than I would like until they load up, then everything is fine. For a drop/stances perspective, the ZSP was great. Not too low, got rid of the rake, etc.

The Dinan springs paired with Koni Yellow gives me the handling that I like , but with less drop and brought back the rake. I was up at Sugarbush, VT skiing this past weekend and with the Konis set at 1/3 (or 1/2 way to full firm, I forget) and UUC F/R sways, the car handled the frost heaves and potholes pretty well.

The Eibach w/Koni was a good combo, but were just too low for my taste. Of course everything is subjective.

Honestly, if I was going to do this again, I would seriously consider adjustable coilovers as I tend to like a firmer, planted ride, along with some height for the winter time.

Since you are in MA, PM me as I am in S. NH and work in MA. I can take you for a drive in my car with the current Koni/Dinan setup if you want.

[Runner340]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Car looks nice. There is nothing you can do to the suspension that will cure the RFT's. They are that bad. They are bad with the stock suspension. They would be worse/unbearable with a lowered/stiffer suspension or similar changes.

All I can suggest is maybe someone near you can swap non RFT tires/wheels for a day and let you evaluate. All the suspension tweaks discussed here are mainly for XI people who have already ditched the RFT's, and are messing with fine tuning good ride/handling compromises on lowered cars.

You may consider going back to stock springs on the konis and see if that helps. I would not mess with any further mods. On the spare, a space saver fits in there with a lot of room, the other choice is a tire plug kit and mini compressor. I ran with the latter then got the spare kit.

BTW a set of ZSP springs used is more like $100 or less for all 4, no one would buy them new. Good luck let us know what you do.

Just a long overdue follow-up. I ran NRF winter snows this winter and it did make a substantial difference. Still would bottom out once in the while but the roads were/are really bad in the Massachusetts from the rough winter.

[SLOWER]

Originally Posted by runner999

Just a long overdue follow-up. I ran NRF winter snows this winter and it did make a substantial difference. Still would bottom out once in the while but the roads were/are really bad in the Massachusetts from the rough winter.

Did you end up keeping the Eibach/Koni setup on your car? Do you have any more pics from the side showing your heights?

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by SLOWER

Did you end up keeping the Eibach/Koni setup on your car? Do you have any more pics from the side showing your heights?

FYI. I just updated the other thread with a quick comparison of the 3 different springs that you asked about.

[stashtrey]

Greetinga fellas.

Need some advice.

335xi e90. Been on koni yellows with H&R sport springs for about a year. Late last year I got tired of the super dump in the rear and bought the adjustable rear perches with swift thrust sheets and OEM bearings for the rear along with Swift 60mm springs.

I pulled the rear apart and installed that setup....leaving the front alone AA I didn't mind the drop up front.

Now...I have terrible crash and came to find that the original installer didn't use shorter bump stops. I cut them a bit but I still get that cringe when I see even the slightest bump or hole. Very frustrating.

So....my thoughts are this:

I have e36 m3 bump stops for the front. Find a shop and install those and see how it rides.


Or....

Get then HP koni front coilover conversion kit and have that set up and hopefully be dialed. Then toss in some camber/caster plates to help the alignment.

Any thoughts? I love the way the car sits bit the front setup needs help!!

[E92SC]

so just to confirm, H&R "i" springs will work on a e92 335xi on stock struts?

[Antetokounmpo]

Originally Posted by E92SC

so just to confirm, H&R "i" springs will work on a e92 335xi on stock struts?

Yes for a few thousand miles until the stock struts blow. Do it right the first time and get bilsteins or konis.

[E92SC]

konis all day, but would the h&r i springs create less rake then the xi specified springs?

[.Limitless]

I'm on Eibach sportline "I" springs, a little bit of rake but nothing too extreme. My front dropped like 3 fingers and my rears only dropped maybe 1 though lol, I'm at 1 finger gap front and 1.5 finger gap rear now. Stock struts