[rothwem]

I put Bilstein HDs on my wagon with stock springs. The new strut mounts really raised the ride height though, it looks pretty funny, like an "Allroad" version of the E91. They needed to be changed though, at 84000 miles the old ones were compressed a solid half inch and the bearings had a ton of play in them.

Who cares though, it drives awesome, and it hasn't even been aligned yet. Who knows, maybe at some point I'll put some Eibachs to drop the front a bit, but I'm not too worried about it at the moment.

[n55jb4]

Kudos for having balls to raise it when everyone is dropping it

[DaZuc]

Is the reverse rake because of bike or that's just how the car sits?

Looks a smidge funny, but probably great for what you need it for.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by DaZuc

Is the reverse rake because of bike or that's just how the car sits?

Looks a smidge funny, but probably great for what you need it for.

I think its just how it sits. The bike and rack are probably under 50 pounds total.

[Rocklicker]

I replaced all my mounts when installing Koni FSDs (except the front coil rubber pads), and mine now sits like this too, with just a hint of backward rake. Interestingly my headlights badly overcompensated and pointed at the ground, had to crank the screw to get them back up.

[WJMSprtXDrive]

I installed the Bilstein B6 HD shocks/struts also on stock spring. I was 95% satisfied with the stock suspension setup except for some floating/rocking at speed through long corners or sweepers. Issue resolved after install!!! But as you mentioned it did raise my ride height a little. At this point I am so happy with the cars handling that I don't really mind it.

[WJMSprtXDrive]

Originally Posted by Rocklicker

I replaced all my mounts when installing Koni FSDs (except the front coil rubber pads), and mine now sits like this too, with just a hint of backward rake. Interestingly my headlights badly overcompensated and pointed at the ground, had to crank the screw to get them back up.

I did notice my headlights pointing too low also. How did you adjust them to the correct level?

[Rocklicker]

There is a plastic screw that affects the vertical tilt of the entire housing. It's kinda hard to describe where it is but it is readily accessible from the engine compartment. It's a funky nut that only accepts the "Phillips" located in your trunk (because it's not really a Phillips IIRC). I believe counterclockwise is up.
Can't help much more than that because I'm on a phone, search this site for "re-aim headlights" for a DIY

[Rocklicker]

There is a plastic screw that affects the vertical tilt of the entire housing. It's kinda hard to describe where it is but it is readily accessible from the engine compartment. It's a funky nut that only accepts the "Phillips" located in your trunk (because it's not really a Phillips IIRC). I believe counterclockwise is up.
Can't help much more than that because I'm on a phone, search this site for "re-aim headlights" for a DIY

[rothwem]

Well dang, I took the car in for an alignment, and the best they could give me for camber up front is -0.5°, so it pushes a little bit now at the limit.

I might have to get some shorter springs and/or dinan camber plates now.

[Greyfox]

Well, I'm getting ready (buying the last few pieces) to put B6's on all four corners and finish up replacing all the bushings in the rear end... I'll post picks when I do.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

Well, I'm getting ready (buying the last few pieces) to put B6's on all four corners and finish up replacing all the bushings in the rear end... I'll post picks when I do.

Good deal. Make sure to buy some strut mounts, your OEM ones are almost definitely dead if they're the originals from 2007. The amount of play in the strut bearings blew my mind when I pulled my shocks off.

BTW, the xDrive struts are a pain in the ass to change, since the spring has so few coils. I had to put the spring compressors on the top spring seat to get the spring compressed enough. This adds a step though, since you'll want to replace the rubber isolators that sit on the spring seats, so you have to loosen the spring compressors to get the spring seat off, then compress them again to get them back on the new strut.

Also, the Bilstein top nut is a 7/8" or 22mm, while the OEM is a 21mm or 13/16" nut. A thin-wall O2 sensor wrench works well to get the top nut back on the Bilsteins, but I just used a cheap 7/8" deep socket and some massive 1 foot long channel locks (should have used a pipe wrench in hindsight) to torque the top nut on. I scarred the crap out of the socket, but I wasn't too worried about it, and I was able to get a surprising amount of torque on it.

[Rocklicker]

Yeah changing out the front SUCKS on XI
Granted it was my first Macpherson job ever, not a good starting point. Like anything I'm sure experience would have made it suck less.

I also went with the janky nut tightening method, but my channel locks weren't a foot long. As a result, I clearly didn't get up to the 45 (?) lb*ft. of torque because my nut backed off after a couple weeks. Took 4 hours to diagnose where the sound was coming from, because it only clunked on lift and the cabin's noise dampening made the sound incredibly non-directional. I redid it with the same tools and some blue loctite, but if I were doing it again I would buy or fabricate the correct open-slot socket.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by Rocklicker

Yeah changing out the front SUCKS on XI
Granted it was my first Macpherson job ever, not a good starting point. Like anything I'm sure experience would have made it suck less.

I also went with the janky nut tightening method, but my channel locks weren't a foot long. As a result, I clearly didn't get up to the 45 (?) lb*ft. of torque because my nut backed off after a couple weeks. Took 4 hours to diagnose where the sound was coming from, because it only clunked on lift and the cabin's noise dampening made the sound incredibly non-directional. I redid it with the same tools and some blue loctite, but if I were doing it again I would buy or fabricate the correct open-slot socket.

Oof yea, I'll have to keep an eye on that. I got them damn tight, but obviously I couldn't get a torque number for giant channel locks. If it starts making noise I'll know what the deal is.

[hugyourewoks]

I like this higher look a lot! I'm going to get the HDs for my e91. I've teetered between the Bilstein B4 OEM quality for price, and the B6 for higher overall quality. I'm not a race car BMW driver (I like to stomp the gas occasionally, but I drive a heavy wagon, c'mon). The slight off road ability appeals to my outdoor self. Honestly, if I could lift the wagon 1 to 1.5 inches I would be perfectly happy.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by hugyourewoks

I like this higher look a lot! I'm going to get the HDs for my e91. I've teetered between the Bilstein B4 OEM quality for price, and the B6 for higher overall quality. I'm not a race car BMW driver (I like to stomp the gas occasionally, but I drive a heavy wagon, c'mon). The slight off road ability appeals to my outdoor self. Honestly, if I could lift the wagon 1 to 1.5 inches I would be perfectly happy.

I kinda wonder if the X1 springs would fit on the E91. That might be a neat look.

[jwebb335xi]

Originally Posted by rothwem

Well dang, I took the car in for an alignment, and the best they could give me for camber up front is -0.5°, so it pushes a little bit now at the limit.

I might have to get some shorter springs and/or dinan camber plates now.

With fixed Dinan plates you can get another -0.5*

I planned to do that last summer but ran out of good weather. It's on my agenda for this summer..

[boro92]

Don't go dinan if your car is already raised in the front. All the dinans do is add stack height--effectively raising your front even further by another 1/2 inch or so. You are best served with something like a vorshlag or tck camber plate --where the stack height is the same or in some cases, even less than the stock upper mounts. Fwiw I have bilsteins and stock xi springs with vorshlag plates and my car isn't raised. If anything it is lower

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by boro92

Don't go dinan if your car is already raised in the front. All the dinans do is add stack height--effectively raising your front even further by another 1/2 inch or so. You are best served with something like a vorshlag or tck camber plate --where the stack height is the same or in some cases, even less than the stock upper mounts. Fwiw I have bilsteins and stock xi springs with vorshlag plates and my car isn't raised. If anything it is lower

Yea, I considered the Dinan's, and then decided against them for that reason. I had considered the Vorshlag's, but decided against them due to NVH concerns. I'd really like to ride in a car with actual camber plates to gauge how bad it is.

For now, I'm just going to deal with the understeer, but I'm not sure how much longer I can take it. I drove a 177k mile 2005 325i the other day, and despite the automatic trans, blown shocks, worn bushings and a steering rack with terrible on-center play, I tossed it onto an exit ramp and was like, "dang, this thing handles better than my car!"

[boro92]

Alignment can fix that--even in the absence of plates. Playing with toe will loosen up the car a great deal! That said, I hear you on nvh. Fwiw the vorshlag ones do add noise, but you cannot hear it unless the radio is off. As well, there is no added v or h.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by boro92

Alignment can fix that--even in the absence of plates. Playing with toe will loosen up the car a great deal! That said, I hear you on nvh. Fwiw the vorshlag ones do add noise, but you cannot hear it unless the radio is off. As well, there is no added v or h.

I'm already running 0 toe on the front and a 16th in on the back. I'm hesitant to go much more than that, its already less stable on the freeway than it was.

I might try decreasing the rear camber though, if that's possible. I looked at the alignment sheet, and I'm running -1.5° in the back. I suspect that the combo of -1.5R/-0.5F is at least partly to blame.

[boro92]

And also consider the tire pressures. What's recommended from BMW is only going to make the push worse. Your alignment sounds good if the rear toe is total toe, rather than toe per side. I actually run toe out for the front end and that works wonders. Rear camber is -1.1 and the car is as loose as I desire. Will rotate as you transition weight on the nose quite a lot. The car even lifts the inside rear (with bilsteins). No off power push at all, but certainly will push on power. Not much u can do about that with awd and open diff