[S65Hunter]

I'll make this as short as possible.

2008 e93 328i-
Bilstein B8
H&R sport springs
M3 Control arms
Cusco front strut bar
White line subframe inserts
Rouge engineering trans mounts
DIY semi sold motor mounts
18" apex ARC8

Basically this car rides like complete shit. A large factor in that is how terrible the roads are here in Dallas. I wish that wasn't the case because this car handles amazingly on the twisty roads. I took a girl out the other night and it was embarrassing, I could tell she hated how badly it rode. Also, this is my dd for now and I want something a little less harsh. Here are my ideas, tell me what option you think is best.

Option 1-

Replace H&R springs with Dinan performance springs

Option 2-

KW street comfort

Option 3-

What ever you suspension gurus recommend.

[ppointer]

How old are the shocks? Could they be worn out? What about your tires?

You could revert back to an m-sport spec: stock m-sport springs, B4's. Just don't ignore tires as a source of harshness.

[S65Hunter]

I purchased all the shocks/struts brand new and installed on 2019. Yes the tires make it rougher (Falken azenis rt660) but it still rode terribly when I had all seasons.

[dmatre]

The B8s are the source of your pain.

They are great at speed, but will bust a kidney around town.

Swap 'EM out for B4's or Koni Yellows and you'll love your car again.

[S65Hunter]

I may have to try that out. I'm really tempted to go with the KW street comforts....but I don't particularly want to spend $1800 if I don't have to.

[TyroneShoelaces]

I just ordered some B4's to replace my B6's xi struts that I'm running in my rwd car. (Drivetrain swap) Mine rides pretty crappy too. I'm not sure if I messed up the rear install or what. I'd buy some kushy coilovers but the price right now is a deal breaker for me. I'll let you know if it gets better.

[KhaosKid]

Ride quality is extremely subjective. One mans "firm, but not crashy/harsh" is another mans "crashy / intolerable/ harsh".
That being said, I believe two or three things make the most impact on ride quality, in this order (my opinion):
1. Available suspension travel
2. Dampers that are able to control the spring motion
3. Firmness of the spring, aka "spring rate"
4. Run-flat tires (makes even a decently soft setup feel crashy/harsh over potholes and bad roads)

**NOTE: this is assuming you don't have any completely cracked/worn out control arm bushings - if any of these are bad, fixing them with a replacement will make a massive difference in terms of ride quality, and should be done for alignment/ tire wear purposes anyways to save you money in the long run.

So if you want to improve the ride quality, you need to change some or all of those things to go in the direction of more comfort. The worse the quality/condition of the roads that you drive on on a daily basis are , the more aggressive you want to be with these fixes.

I think with h and r sports, you may be riding on the bump stops, which means if you drive in a big city, every few seconds you and your passengers will feel a crashy sensation as the springs compress, and cause the shocks to hit the bump stops, aka "bottoming out".

Bottoming out is really bad for ride quality. Its your shock/strut body ramming into the body of the car, with the hard rubber bump stop acting as a buffer. Increasing available suspension travel even one inch will improve this drastically, as that one inch may be the difference between bottoming out and not. Increasing travel will have the most effect on comfort. As long as you aren't hitting the bump stops, the ride will be fairly good.

Next and almost as important, or maybe as important, is dampers. As long as they are not blown, and are still able to control the springs movement you're good. As far as I know bilstein last a while so I doubt they are bad, but who knows. If you bottom out one too many times, the shocks can and will go bad EVENTUALLY. Driving slower on bad roads will make your dampers/shocks last longer.

Finally, spring rate. I feel this makes the least impact and would only address this if the other two things didn't make enough of a difference.

KW street comforts are really good for comfort from what I have heard. If you can afford those, those will allow you to have an adjustable and still nice and low ride height (no or minimal wheel gap), and the adjustability means if the ride is bad because of bottoming out on bad roads, you can simply raise the ride height.

Otherwise, you can do stuff in steps. If your dampers are not blown, try going back to sport package springs for the added ride height. And then go from there. If you can afford street comforts, I think those are the gold standard, but definitely not necessary.

[E92only]

Originally Posted by KhaosKid

Ride quality is extremely subjective. One mans "firm, but not crashy/harsh" is another mans "crashy / intolerable/ harsh".
That being said, I believe two or three things make the most impact on ride quality, in this order (my opinion):
1. Available suspension travel
2. Dampers that are able to control the spring motion
3. Firmness of the spring, aka "spring rate"
4. Run-flat tires (makes even a decently soft setup feel crashy/harsh over potholes and bad roads)

**NOTE: this is assuming you don't have any completely cracked/worn out control arm bushings - if any of these are bad, fixing them with a replacement will make a massive difference in terms of ride quality, and should be done for alignment/ tire wear purposes anyways to save you money in the long run.

So if you want to improve the ride quality, you need to change some or all of those things to go in the direction of more comfort. The worse the quality/condition of the roads that you drive on on a daily basis are , the more aggressive you want to be with these fixes.

I think with h and r sports, you may be riding on the bump stops, which means if you drive in a big city, every few seconds you and your passengers will feel a crashy sensation as the springs compress, and cause the shocks to hit the bump stops, aka "bottoming out".

Bottoming out is really bad for ride quality. Its your shock/strut body ramming into the body of the car, with the hard rubber bump stop acting as a buffer. Increasing available suspension travel even one inch will improve this drastically, as that one inch may be the difference between bottoming out and not. Increasing travel will have the most effect on comfort. As long as you aren't hitting the bump stops, the ride will be fairly good.

Next and almost as important, or maybe as important, is dampers. As long as they are not blown, and are still able to control the springs movement you're good. As far as I know bilstein last a while so I doubt they are bad, but who knows. If you bottom out one too many times, the shocks can and will go bad EVENTUALLY. Driving slower on bad roads will make your dampers/shocks last longer.

Finally, spring rate. I feel this makes the least impact and would only address this if the other two things didn't make enough of a difference.

KW street comforts are really good for comfort from what I have heard. If you can afford those, those will allow you to have an adjustable and still nice and low ride height (no or minimal wheel gap), and the adjustability means if the ride is bad because of bottoming out on bad roads, you can simply raise the ride height.

Otherwise, you can do stuff in steps. If your dampers are not blown, try going back to sport package springs for the added ride height. And then go from there. If you can afford street comforts, I think those are the gold standard, but definitely not necessary.

Can someone please recommend which bump stops to get? OEM part #?

[dmatre]

Originally Posted by TyroneShoelaces

I just ordered some B4's to replace my B6's xi struts that I'm running in my rwd car. (Drivetrain swap) Mine rides pretty crappy too. I'm not sure if I messed up the rear install or what. I'd buy some kushy coilovers but the price right now is a deal breaker for me. I'll let you know if it gets better.

It will definitely get better.

We installed B6's on a '99 Volvo S90 (E-Class equivalent), and the ride was fine on the highway, but downright annoying around town.

Had B6's on a 2004 Audi S4 as well - horrible around town, fine on the highway.

We recently installed B4's on the wife's 2014 W212 E-Class, and the ride is perfect - a bit firmer than stock, but not harsh at all.

I think you'll be pleased.

[TyroneShoelaces]

Originally Posted by dmatre

It will definitely get better.

We installed B6's on a '99 Volvo S90 (E-Class equivalent), and the ride was fine on the highway, but downright annoying around town.

Had B6's on a 2004 Audi S4 as well - horrible around town, fine on the highway.

We recently installed B4's on the wife's 2014 W212 E-Class, and the ride is perfect - a bit firmer than stock, but not harsh at all.

I think you'll be pleased.

Honestly my fronts don't seem too bad, but my rear I have a clunking and slamming, which is where things should be good vs the front. In the front I'm running the Xi struts which realistically are too short to run in a rwd front suspension but the drop is good. The rears should be fine as the rear of an awd car is the same as a rwd car. All my control arms are new within 10k miles and the B6's are within that range as well.

I likely hosed up the install but visually everything looks good. I had some confusion about the bilstein shock assembly stackup and install, maybe I duffed it up. I'm also running the sedan spring in my wagon. For $320 I can put all new B4 shocks and struts and sell the Xi B6's and take some time enjoy the kushy ride and decide if I can live with the wheel gap. Our roads are good here in central FL so the B6's or B8's should be fine, but the right B6 kit is $1k. I'll buy coilovers or a different setup before spending that coin.

[S65Hunter]

So I think I'll pull the trigger and get the Adjustable Koni Yellows. What all do I need to buy with it? I'm going to order new Spring shims for front and rear and strut mounts. What bump stops should I go with? Like I said I'm coming from B8s which have built in bump stops.

[dmatre]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

So I think I'll pull the trigger and get the Adjustable Koni Yellows. What all do I need to buy with it? I'm going to order new Spring shims for front and rear and strut mounts. What bump stops should I go with? Like I said I'm coming from B8s which have built in bump stops.

Are you purchasing struts (Front) and shocks (Rear)? Or just shocks?

FCP Euro has:

Rear: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...rear-e9xrsmkit

Or: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...kit-e9xrsmkit1

Front: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...ce-35120377kt1 (Have to check the link, and purchase everything other than the struts themselves)

[S65Hunter]

Shocks and struts, but it was my understanding that most people run E36 M3 front bump stops and Z4M rear bump stops. From what I've seen, it seems you need the whole bump stop assembly, but the part numbers I was given are for just the bump stop itself

[dmatre]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

Shocks and struts, but it was my understanding that most people run E36 M3 front bump stops and Z4M rear bump stops. From what I've seen, it seems you need the whole bump stop assembly, but the part numbers I was given are for just the bump stop itself

Bump stops are available separately. Both front & rear.

When I did mine (Koni Yellow also), I used the normal E90 bump stops as listed in the links. No complaints at all.

If you click on 'What does this include', you can find the full parts breakdown.

[rothwem]

I think its probably too late, but I've found that the key to happiness with the Bilsteins was to ditch the bumpstops that come with the rears and use the stock BMW bumpstops. The rear bumpstops are just way too hard.

[S65Hunter]

I went ahead and purxhe5the e36 M3 front bump stops and Z4M rears. Almost every thread I've gone through so far pertaining to Koni yellow/HR springs recommended those bump stops over factory e9x bump stops.

[colorado.e9x]

Having no first hand experience, from my research a decent setup looks something like this

Koni Yellows
Swift Springs
E36 M3 / Z4M bump stops

[E92only]

So I'm installing my Bilstein B14 kit on Saturday and didn't even consider bump stops before this thread. I called Bilstein and the representative told me to get E92 rear bump stops, and did not recommend cutting them. FYI for those of you who are on the same boat as me.

[BSM n54iS]

I'm thinking it's a combo between your semi-solid motor mounts/heavy e93/h&r springs. I have b8's with BMW P yellows (same as Dinan) and no complaints from the females. Where in Dallas?? If you're in like East or south D I guess, I grew up in Dallas and I thought some of the best roads minus horrible patches here and there but overall not as horrible. I have Michelin P4s also.

I would say put the iS motor mounts in or back to stock for e93, and get the B12 kit or Koni's with Eibach to soften it a bit. And get new rubbers everywhere

For Koni's get the e36 front/z4 rear bump stops

[S65Hunter]

I grew up/ still live right by love field airport. The surrounding areas have pretty decent roads. BMW P/Dinan springs were another thought I had but they are back ordered on most sites. Swift springs would be great but they don't make a set for the e93 (or atleast not that I've seen). For now, I ordered koni yellows, new mounts all around and e36/z4 bump stops. I'll report back with how it rides, may end up trying to get the Dinan springs if I'm not happy.

[E92only]

You can get custom rates from Swift if you go to them direct.

[S65Hunter]

Originally Posted by E92only

You can get custom rates from Swift if you go to them direct.

I may look into that then. Thought I would have no clue what spring rates would be best, ill have to do some research.