6 pot front struts on a 4 pot compact ti
 

hi

im looking to lower and stiffen up my e36 318ti compact its a 95 with the m42 engine.

im on a budget so im thinking 6 pot front stuts off say a 325 or a 328 for the extra shock rate and adding a set of lowerings springs.

does anyone know how much stiffer a 6 pot front shocker is compaired to my 4 pot ones?

i did a seach but kept seeing oem mtech mentioned.

cheers

ive found a pair of 98 325 struts at a local breakers for £50, now im thinking ill just cut the springs from my 318 struts, so i get the uprated 325 shocks and the cut 318 spring should give a slight increase in spring rate and lower at the same time.

any idea how much i should cut? will this work?

cheers

:no:

like Jesse says...it's a bad idea.
it just ruins the integrity of the spring.
we did this to mini-trucks back in the early 1980's. the ride was sh!t.
just buy lowering springs and good shocks. save up for it if you have to...
but, don't cut your springs.

its a £700 car, its my daily driver but i also compete in autosolos i think you call them autocross over there. i do about 12-15 events a year at present.

i have the money for say a spax kit matched prings and shocks thats £375 plus delivery. but on a £700 quid car????

over here spending huge wads of cash on your car for what is supossed to be the cheapest of cheap motor sports isnt really seen as playing the game. it puts others off having a go if they think they cant be competetive without spending the earth on mods.

thanks for your replys

simon

Ever heard the phrase "you gotta pay to play"? It's a BMW FFS. I don't know where you got the idea that cut springs would be good for autocross, but you're absolutely wrong. The car will handle like shyt. And by your logic, since you only spent £700 on the car, does this mean that you shouldn't change the oil, fill the gas tank or do any maintenance on it?

hi jess

thanks for taking the time to actually type something this time. of course i maintain my car, i do it myself, i certainly dont pay the local bmw dealership, although i suspect that you might.

my cars totally standard at the moment apart from a pair of pwerflex front anti roll bar (sway bar to you) bushes, that i needed for the mot (road worthines certificate) last month.

i fail to see what being a bmw has to do with things, other than over here there as common as muck, the scrap yards are full of them and if you use your head you can get parts for next to nothing. belive me when i say there is bugger all kudos to be earned from driving a bmw these days.

to me its the cheapest rwd car i can get that isnt dropping in bits, the badge dosnt mean a god dam thing.

as for that phrase? are you saying im not competative? or cant be without spending money like a drunken sailor in a knocking shop?

my last results .. http://www.anwcc.org/res-as-20120219.htm

Perhaps you could find a low mileage/well maintained car in the scrap yard to pull springs from?

I've never seen a good result from cutting a coil spring. I've heard of some folks cutting very measured segments from springs to get a desired ride height effect, but like Sean said- the ride will be crap and cutting an 1/8th or so of a coil a time and then reinstalling/test driving can be horrifically time consuming. Additionally, the heat generated from cutting a spring will almost always cause the spring to lose its tempered strength (what gives a spring its rebounding properties) in the area where it is cut, unless it is done very, very slowly by hand.

The problem with cutting springs is you have no idea what spring rates you'll end up with. They could be very different side to side and I feel like that would be worse for autocross than the stock spring rates. That and the springs are designed to have a certain amount of compression before the "main" spring rate takes over. So by chopping one end off the spring you lose the built in preload.

I guess there is a large difference between what is acceptable here and over there. Most of the cars I see at autocross were purchased cheaply because the owner knew they were going to beat on it at the track/parking lot. That leaves more money in the budget for worthwhile modifications. It's unfortunate that that turns people off to the sport over there, it's a lot of fun with just a stock car.

cheers spider n zoner, you both make good points.
the 325 the struts are coming off looks in pretty good condition, and i do know they have a 318ti in that i could take just the springs off, so if it all dosnt work out ill still have my origional struts/springs to put back.

i read somewhere that if you cut with a hacksaw and then heat up the spring 1/3 of a turn from the cut end you can bend it back to close the coil without the heat having a detremental effect on the spring as a whole.

i think there will always be to camps on the subject of spring cutting, maybe depending on peoples personal experiances or the mine cost more so its better attitude. ive always liked to play around with things so i guess ill suck it and see..

if anyones interested there are a few vids ive posted from the last few years on youtube if you search for LA8RAT

it's more of the mine was made correctly by professionals so it's better attitude

if you don't want to spend money just keep your stock suspension, it will be much better than cut springs and incorrectly valved shocks

for what it's worth I've spent about $1000 on suspension upgrades for a car that I bought for $2200

OP if you're looking for words of encouragement or people to support your ghetto inspired ideology, I doubt you'll find it here. I mean I couldn't imagine someone on here telling you "Oh yeah, that's a great idea" or "Do it, everyone here runs cut springs and our cars handle great". I'm just not entirely sure what exactly you expected for a response. Most of us love our cars and wouldn't even consider such a thing. But do what you like man. Can't wait to see the final product.

I mean you can easily carry on with the logic that you "only paid £700" for the car and never spend a penny on it. When it comes time for tires, pick up some used ones from a tire shop, it doesn't matter if they're worn or non matching. Afterall, you only paid £700 for the car right? Why waste 200 bucks on springs when you could just chop your old ones up, you only paid £700 for the car right? Why waste a couple hundred bucks on exhaust when you could just weld a fence post under your car, you only paid £700 for the car right? Do I recall you saying this was going to be your daily driver? Meh, if cut springs are safe enough for autocross, they should be safe enough for public roads.

:eek:

no lie, I've heard of someone doing that

priceless