Coilover front and rear mandatory?

[KINGJOHN808]

Aloha,

While my car is on the lifted awaiting a bunch of suspension pieces, I came across this item on groundcontrol.com. https://groundcontrolstore.com/collecti ... conversion for $499.00 I only want to close the gap (approx., 1 inch) between the front fender and the tire. Current rims are 16x8 Riken with 225/50/16 tires. No rubbing or banging of the fender to the tire. I understand that the coil over conversion kit is a sleeve that slides over or screws into the strut housing. Must I install coil overs front AND rear? What are the issues if this is done (coil overs front only)? This car is for weekend drives around the island and the occasional "cars and coffee" meet ups. No rally courses or high speed twist and turns, mainly a cruiser for myself and the wife.

I haven't removed the rear shocks or struts yet but understand that they are adjustable by moving the ring up or down. Not trying to spend $2k on a high performance suspension only to use the car for the drive to Walmart or Starbucks on the weekend.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Im not 100% sure, but im willing to bet that all of the struts and shocks are original to the car from 1984.

Found the following rear shocks but unsure as to which maintain the ride I have now.

B8 Performance Plus.
B4 OE replacement.
B6 Performance

[bpoliakoff]

Coil ove fronts require a good bit of welding and cutting modification to the strut housing. That is why ground control charges $299 for the complete 4 corner assembly ready to go. Stay away from it and just buy lowering springs and appropriate shocks.Will run you about $800 for all 4 corners and drop you about 1.25-1.35 inches regardless of brand or what their ads say Regardless of shock brand you will need a shock compatible with lowering sprins ie a Bilstein sport shock or a Spax adjustable Has to do with the length of the shock stroke. Too long and the rear spring will lift out of it's perch Front spring not a problem as it is captive on the strut

[KINGJOHN808]

Coil ove fronts require a good bit of welding and cutting modification to the strut housing. That is why ground control charges $299 for the complete 4 corner assembly ready to go. Stay away from it and just buy lowering springs and appropriate shocks.Will run you about $800 for all 4 corners and drop you about 1.25-1.35 inches regardless of brand or what their ads say Regardless of shock brand you will need a shock compatible with lowering sprins ie a Bilstein sport shock or a Spax adjustable Has to do with the length of the shock stroke. Too long and the rear spring will lift out of it's perch Front spring not a problem as it is captive on the strut

Aloha bpoliakoff,

Found this set up at ECStuning for $780.00 (almost $1000.00 when they add shipping cost and taxes). https://www.ecstuning.com/b-assembled-b ... /e28sport/. Has front and rear lowered springs (H&R) and front and rear struts/shocks (Bilstein B8's). Because this is a static system, im a little leery of getting something non adjustable. The site list "The H&R sport springs lower the ride height up to 1.25" (depending on model) with a spring rate that is stiffer than OEM sport springs, but totally streetable." I'm awaiting a email back from them to determine exactly what the statement "lower the ride height up to 1.25" (depending on model)" actually means.

Got a little more research to do before I pull the trigger on ordering the suspension.

[bpoliakoff]

That is basically the common lowering setup regardless of brand. That happens to be good quality with the Bil shocks and very good quality springs. If you are going to lower, spring for those, no pun intended. Otherwise ,as I said in my original response, you are into a complete coil over setup at about $2200, which is state of the art, and no real reason for it except bragging rights. Lowering 1.25 regarding the model doesn't mean anything. It's a cover their ass. The drop is approximate and will be anywhere from 1.2 to 1.3 pretty much the same from one brand to another. If you look around like on Ebay where you will see several different brands for sale they all have a little wiggle room on the drop they claim. I bet when ECS responds, the answer is "murky" I looked for a year and a half to find springs for my e12 based car and did a lot of product reading and that was pretty much what I saw from brand to brand

[Brucey]

IIRC H&R springs have two big problems;

1) (IIRC) they have 5-1/2 turns in the front springs and therefore to fit them the top hats need to be turned 180 degrees (OEM springs have a whole number of turns). Since the springs are inclined about five degrees to the upright, once turned, the top hat is then cocked about ten degrees, and is putting a weird side load on the front upright all the time; exactly what BMW were trying to avoid in fact, only twice as bad as if they had done nothing.....

2) IIRC H&R supply a single spring length for many different BMW E24 models, instead of at least four different ones as BMW supplied in most markets. They need to make the springs short enough that even cars with the lowest possible noseweight are in fact lowered. This means that If your car is heavy at the front (autobox, AC, highline or park bench bumpers, sunroof, electric seats etc, it all adds up) then the ride height can be too low.


In view of both these things then my verdict is at least 'approach with caution' if not 'avoid altogether'

cheers