[Cyn-BMW]

A little background: I’ve owned 7 cars before I bought this 2011 BMW 328i Coupe. I’ve put suspension on all those cars. All lowered 1” with springs or coilovers, with sway bars front and rear and either adjustable struts/shocks, or again, adjustable coilovers. I’ve always been really happy with my setups. At 55 years old, I really don’t want to lower this car. I’d do a 10mm drop, but that’s it. This car is already fairly low for a stock setup. I don’t want to be scraping it all over the place. And honestly, there’s something that I don’t like about BMWs that are lowered a lot. It just doesn’t look good to me. Plus, the transition from the street into my driveway is pretty steep. I don’t mind a stiff ride. As all my other cars have been on the stiff side. I like to run stiff suspension and use a smaller diameter wheel. Which means a higher profile tire. On my Cooper S, I’m running 15” wheels, and I like it. I just put 17s on this BMW. So, one question is, what are my options? Would a spring company make me a set of custom springs? And, what are you guys doing to get adjustability in the shocks for the rear. Can you drill a hole in the inner liner in the trunk and run a cable adjuster in there? And, what if I just installed a sway bar set, to start with, until I can afford the rest? Hotchkis has a Sport front/rear kit that I have my eye on. Thanks for any advice!

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Hotchkis...M-Car-Set.html

[Haideezy]

From what I've gathered through reading though a bunch of suspension post on this forum the Yellow performance springs and Koni yellows seem to be the go to if you don't want too low of a ride and prefer a stiffer spring rate. Eibach front and rear sway bars along with m3 control arms also seem to be the other go to suspension bits.

Like you I want a firmer ride and do not want to go any lower than my current ride height with ZSP springs. I actually want the ride height to be a tad bit taller for a little bit extra suspension travel. I want something that has just the right amount of spring rate for the street and maybe one or two track events a year.

However, there aren't too many full coilover options out there that have the spring rate I want with a lifetime warranty on the shock/strut w/out going over a $1500 budget. So I'm in the process of piecing together a suspension setup with Koni Yellows and Ground Control linear coilover springs 300#F/600#R. Both Ground control and TCKline make the coilover adapters to run these springs with Koni Yellow shocks/struts (which have lifetime warranty and can be revalved at a later time if I wanted to go that route).

P.S. this is probably something you can build in stages if your on a budget. First, new Koni Yellows w/ new F+R mounts on stock springs. Then buy the conversion bits and pieces when ever your budget allows. Koni Yellow + GC coilover springs have been around for awhile and I've used that same setup in the past on several different platforms and loved them.

I don't want to fork out $400-$450 for their adjustable camber/castor plates, so I'm working on figuring out a front strut mount solution to run these coilover springs. This would pretty much be a budget version of TC Klines single adjustable setup minus the adjustable strut mount and custom valving. If I catch some of the items needed to build this kit on sale it'll pretty much cost around $1400 to build (that's including new front strut mounts and new rear upper/lower shock mounts.

I'll be starting a suspension build thread with this setup in the next week, so keep an eye out for it.

[Cyn-BMW]

Originally Posted by Haideezy

From what I've gathered through reading though a bunch of suspension post on this forum the Yellow performance springs and Koni yellows seem to be the go to if you don't want too low of a ride and prefer a stiffer spring rate. Eibach front and rear sway bars along with m3 control arms also seem to be the other go to suspension bits.

Like you I want a firmer ride and do not want to go any lower than my current ride height with ZSP springs. I actually want the ride height to be a tad bit taller for a little bit extra suspension travel. I want something that has just the right amount of spring rate for the street and maybe one or two track events a year.

However, there aren't too many full coilover options out there that have the spring rate I want with a lifetime warranty on the shock/strut w/out going over a $1500 budget. So I'm in the process of piecing together a suspension setup with Koni Yellows and Ground Control linear coilover springs 300#F/600#R. Both Ground control and TCKline make the coilover adapters to run these springs with Koni Yellow shocks/struts (which have lifetime warranty and can be revalved at a later time if I wanted to go that route).

P.S. this is probably something you can build in stages if your on a budget. First, new Koni Yellows w/ new F+R mounts on stock springs. Then buy the conversion bits and pieces when ever your budget allows. Koni Yellow + GC coilover springs have been around for awhile and I've used that same setup in the past on several different platforms and loved them.

I don't want to fork out $400-$450 for their adjustable camber/castor plates, so I'm working on figuring out a front strut mount solution to run these coilover springs. This would pretty much be a budget version of TC Klines single adjustable setup minus the adjustable strut mount and custom valving. If I catch some of the items needed to build this kit on sale it'll pretty much cost around $1400 to build (that's including new front strut mounts and new rear upper/lower shock mounts.

I'll be starting a suspension build thread with this setup in the next week, so keep an eye out for it.

Thank you for all that info!

[Cyn-BMW]

Oh shoot, I just read about the Koni yellows. To adjust the rear, they have to be taken off. That’s a no go for me. I want something where I can get out, and adjust all four corners and be on my way.

[Haideezy]

Originally Posted by Cyn-BMW

Oh shoot, I just read about the Koni yellows. To adjust the rear, they have to be taken off. That’s a no go for me. I want something where I can get out, and adjust all four corners and be on my way.

I'll be leaving mines on a suitable setting for the street and will only be adjusting for a track event, so not really a big deal for me. All I care about is the warranty lol.

[Cyn-BMW]

Originally Posted by Haideezy

I'll be leaving mines on a suitable setting for the street and will only be adjusting for a track event, so not really a big deal for me. All I care about is the warranty lol.

Yeah, I get that. I really like quick adjustability. There are hundreds of miles of canyon roads where I live. So, it’s nice to use the soft setting for daily driving and stiffen the shocks up for canyon work. And, I can use the adjustments for fine tuning the balance. I have BC coilovers on my Mini, with Swift springs and H-Sport Comp adjustable sway bars. I really like the setup and I have 80,000 miles on that with no problems. I may have to do the same to my BMW and just except the fact that it’ll have to be lowered.

[streetpro]

I would sign for Koni Sport too, as I have just used them on our C-klasse touring Mercedes (series suspension, rear shocks were too soft) to leave them in the factory street setting - the result is exactly the same drop force but much higher rebound force (drive is pretty much the same quality but the "floating" feeling is gone).
So, you may adjust the fronts easily in 1 minute and the rear leave in the middle spot for a decent sporty ride.
This way I was happy back in days of running e36 M3 coupe - setting the front to full stiffness really enhanced the road feeling, no matter that rear has been the same.

[tlow98]

You can get rear top-adjustable units - they just cost more. Check out TC Kline's website. They sell them for our chassis. About $250 each iirc.

I would look for a set of Dinan Springs + Koni dampers. There's a reason why Dinan cars get the best reviews. They do a ton of research and they're also very OE+. Just mimic Dinan's setup and source your own parts - you'll pay less and get a ton of value.

Another vote for Koni yellows. Love them on our E91.

[Piano_Black]

Would you recommend the DINAN HIGH PERFORMANCE ADJUSTABLE COIL-OVER SUSPENSION SYSTEM?

[Cyn-BMW]

Originally Posted by tlow98

You can get rear top-adjustable units - they just cost more. Check out TC Kline's website. They sell them for our chassis. About $250 each iirc.

I would look for a set of Dinan Springs + Koni dampers. There's a reason why Dinan cars get the best reviews. They do a ton of research and they're also very OE+. Just mimic Dinan's setup and source your own parts - you'll pay less and get a ton of value.

Another vote for Koni yellows. Love them on our E91.

Thanks for that. Yes, they are expensive.

[Haideezy]

Originally Posted by Piano_Black

Would you recommend the DINAN HIGH PERFORMANCE ADJUSTABLE COIL-OVER SUSPENSION SYSTEM?

For that price there are so many other options.

[Piano_Black]

Yes I’ve heard but are they any good though? Would like to know what’s the verdict on them.