[.Limitless]

Hey guys, so I have an e92 328xi that I use as a winter car. Thought I had found the perfect car, classy but sporty, comfortable, and awd. Installed Eibach Sportline springs meant for a RWD e90, fit perfectly fine. Cut the bumpstops and installed them on my stock struts, rides fine but it does bottom out easily if I hit big potholes.

Didn't realize it at first, bottomed out a lot and broke my driver side axle. Replaced it with a FEQ axle (also didn't know aftermarket axles suck), and that broke within a year. Forked out the money to replace it with OEM now, and so far it's been good of course as it's only been about 3 weeks. Read all the threads possible (I think) on axles breaking... I think it might be because of my height but I'm not entirely sure. If it is, is there anything else I can do while keeping this height but putting less stress on the CV?

My question is: Should I be raising the car by either switching to coilovers, or higher springs, or would I be fine on this height if I drive carefully? I honestly still find the car quite high, although I do like this height because I don't have to worry about angling. I avoid all potholes and don't bottom out anymore now. I just don't want to worry about another broken axle... I know the first axle broke because I bottomed out, and I'm assuming the FEQ one broke because it's aftermarket?

How my car currently sits, about 1 finger gap all around.




I really love this car, but if I have to raise it a lot I think I would rather sell it lol. Thanks in advance for the help

[matteblue3er]

I'm about that height on an E90 and my front axles have been fine. Put H&R coilovers on at 80k and I'm at 130k now. I did replace my passenger axle but that's because the boot failed and I neglected it to the point where the bearings failed.

I think that's more due to wear than the angle. My driver's side is fine, but I rebooted it while I had the passenger side out.

Your issue is most likely from improper shocks. OEM shocks are not meant for lowering springs and will not be able to control suspension travel properly.

[.Limitless]

So not so much the height of the car itself, but the lack of travel from the struts? If that is the case I'd be much happier to just buy a set of coilovers and call it a day haha.
There is a ridiculously small amount of travel in the OEM struts, I only bottom out maybe once in a month if even? But it is quite stiff over slightly bigger bumps even without bottoming out. Would that be a factor?

On another note, if I grab coilovers do you think the front axles will be okay if I lowered it another couple mm from the height I'm at now? I've constantly checked my cv boots and they were always fine.

[WJMSprtXDrive]

Sorry about your issues.
You should always match your shocks/struts to your springs. Look into KW Variant 1 coilovers and make sure it is the xDrive application.

[.Limitless]

Thanks, yeah I've been looking into it actually and am very tempted to grab it haha.

Talked to a ton of BMW techs as well as vendors here though, and they said that many people run Eibach springs with OEM struts and have no issues :/ They all say that it doesn't sound like the spring/strut set up that's causing the issues, but something with the car itself. Transfer motor and everything to do with it was replaced about 30,000km ago though, and it works perfectly fine with no issues. All fluids were just changed on the car too (transfer case, rear diff, tranny, etc).

One of the techs mentioned that a roll center kit would alleviate stress on the axles from lowering the car, but does anyone make a roll center kit for an e92 328xi?

[matteblue3er]

Um what? Eibach is a lowering spring so unless your OEM struts/shocks magically revalved themselves, they are not working properly...

Having no issues is a relatively broad statement and just because you can physically install something, doesn't mean it performs or works correctly.

I would also stay away from KW. There are better options out there.

[.Limitless]

OEM struts aren't mated to any lowering springs, only issue from a mechanical point of view would be blowing the struts? Correct me if I'm wrong. Technically I've been told that it shouldn't affect much else.

[matteblue3er]

Yea but the performance is crap. If you're just after the look it's ok I guess but handling wise it's a serious downgrade

[.Limitless]

It's mainly just my winter daily, comfort wise it's pretty decent (minus huge potholes) and it drives well. My main concern is just breaking axles really lol :/ Handling wise I have something else for the summer.


I do appreciate the help though! Hopefully I can eventually figure out what's up with the axles or just hope that it was the fault of using FEQ instead of OEM..

[AtlasM]

Eibach Pro-Kit springs are generally decent with stock shocks. Eibach Sportline are much lower and stiffer.

The stock xi front suspension has a ton of wheel gap because that's how it needs to sit to have an OEM level of suspension travel. When you lower it, it greatly reduces the amount of travel.

With an aggressive lowering spring like Eibach Sportline, and stock shocks, you'll have not much travel, and the shocks aren't firm enough to keep you off the bump stops. On top of that, you have cut-down bump stops that don't do their jobs as well.

So, you end up with that terrible feeling on potholes.

You can keep those springs, but to reduce the bad behavior on potholes, you'll need firmer shocks, firmer bump stops, or both.

[.Limitless]

Originally Posted by AtlasM

Eibach Pro-Kit springs are generally decent with stock shocks. Eibach Sportline are much lower and stiffer.

The stock xi front suspension has a ton of wheel gap because that's how it needs to sit to have an OEM level of suspension travel. When you lower it, it greatly reduces the amount of travel.

With an aggressive lowering spring like Eibach Sportline, and stock shocks, you'll have not much travel, and the shocks aren't firm enough to keep you off the bump stops. On top of that, you have cut-down bump stops that don't do their jobs as well.

So, you end up with that terrible feeling on potholes.

You can keep those springs, but to reduce the bad behavior on potholes, you'll need firmer shocks, firmer bump stops, or both.

Makes sense, thanks for the advice! I think the problem I had with the axle breaking was just because it was an aftermarket one and not an OEM one. No issues since I swapped OEM back on. But yeah, my car sucks on potholes and I'll be looking into a set of coilovers soon haha

[TemjinX2]

by lowering the car, you changed the angel the stock axles are rotating at then they were originally designed to do. So its going to increase the rate of wear compared to stock.

pot holes and shocks not correctly paired with your springs, is going to put more stress on your components. If the shock is not absorbing that energy, something else is. So the weakest component will break.

I think upgraded shocks or coil overs would probably help reduce the stress on the axles, but it still won't be reliable as stock.

With that said. i have coilovers lowered with a slight rake 1 finger gap front and 2 finger gap rear and my car has been fine so far. But i only probably put 3k miles on the car since i installed them.

[Sean978]

I'm XI, on KWs, Lower than you, for the last 30k miles. Haven't had a single issue with suspension. Its not the height. Its the components you paired.