Suspension advice needed - quickly!

[bovilexic]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Is it possible that you could have mistakenly purchased springs for an e36 coupe, sedan or vert? I ask because someone on here installed them on their ti and while they'll physically fit, they gave the car a substantial amount of rake and I'm sure it didn't handle very well.

Thanks for the response. Hmm...interesting idea...I have the emailed invoice from bimmerworld, which clearly references the 318ti. Of course, this is not to say that a mistake could not have been made...

The springs, and the box they came in, are at the shop...so I can't check right now. I'll surely do that on Monday (I presume the box and/or springs have some product number labeling).

Assuming it's the correct part, my thinking is to have the shop put in a Z3M 9mm front spring pad, which would bring the front up just a bit.

Thanks!

[bovilexic]

Took the advice offered, and double-checked the part numbers, and the springs were the correct ones.

Turns out that the previous springs were complete sh*t. PO told me they were a Dinan setup, which was clearly not the case. Inspecting the old springs, it's clear they were not fabricated by any reputable manufacturer...

The H&R springs out-of-the-box were about 1/2" shorter than the old ones, but evidently the reason my car sat so low was that the springs were way too low a rate (so the weight of the car compressed them a *lot*).

With the H&Rs, ride height is perfect: lowered from stock, but not scrape-every-freakin-speed-bump-even-at-a-crawl height. Cannot be happier with the improved ride -- it's pretty much what I'd want for street performance.

Lesson learned: choose a better shop to to the pre-purchase evaluation.

Would recommend H&R sports with Bilsteins for anyone wanting a reasonable solution for street use. Too bad labor rates are so high in NorCal, or it would have actually been "affordable" :-)

[anassa]

Originally Posted by bovilexic

Took the advice offered, and double-checked the part numbers, and the springs were the correct ones.

Turns out that the previous springs were complete sh*t. PO told me they were a Dinan setup, which was clearly not the case. Inspecting the old springs, it's clear they were not fabricated by any reputable manufacturer...

The H&R springs out-of-the-box were about 1/2" shorter than the old ones, but evidently the reason my car sat so low was that the springs were way too low a rate (so the weight of the car compressed them a *lot*).

With the H&Rs, ride height is perfect: lowered from stock, but not scrape-every-freakin-speed-bump-even-at-a-crawl height. Cannot be happier with the improved ride -- it's pretty much what I'd want for street performance.

Lesson learned: choose a better shop to to the pre-purchase evaluation.

Would recommend H&R sports with Bilsteins for anyone wanting a reasonable solution for street use. Too bad labor rates are so high in NorCal, or it would have actually been "affordable" :-)

Good to hear,

Take a weekend to do the swap yourself! I found it easy to learn - you don't need to disconnect anything that is fluid or will require adjusting afterwards, each strut is about 6bolts and rear is 3 (I think )

Enjoy the ride!