H&R OE Sport Springs; lower than .5" drop in rear??? [Archive] - Bimmerforums

grauster

07-21-2008, 12:37 AM

Has anyone here lowered with H&R OE Sports springs? I got my car back from the shop today and it rides great, but the rear tires seem a bit too tucked under the fender. Looks like it dropped more than the .5" "advertised".

The car used to have a nice positive rake, now it looks completely level and optically even a little lower with the wheel tucking. (i'm seeing a little more of my hood than I used to).

Has anyone else experienced an unexpectedly lower drop in the rear when lowering? What to do...? Any advice would be great. I guess I can swap out the upper spring pads with the 15mm ones, anyone else done the same?

Thanks...

thedude60126

07-21-2008, 01:21 AM

It does seem when you lower the car it evens out a bit more

beem3

07-21-2008, 01:39 AM

I'm on oe sports too, and with a 17' rim in the trunk, the top of my rear tires were slightly tucked but closer to level with the wheel well. Now that I don't have my spare in my trunk, I can fit my pointer finger between the top of the rear tire and the wheel well.

When I got my shocks/springs installed, I got new rear shock mounts at the same time, not sure if that makes a difference in height or not.

The h&r sports are supposed to drop the rear closer to 1in., and the oe sports close to .5in., perhaps you are the lucky one who got the oe sports that are on the lower side of the spectrum.

atlantisvip

07-21-2008, 02:18 AM

Rear shocks may be weak.

grauster

07-21-2008, 09:51 AM

Rear shocks may be weak.

Had them replaced with news ones at the same time...

grauster

07-21-2008, 09:53 AM

I am still running on my stock 15"s, maybe when I upgrade to 17"s it will be better?

grauster

07-21-2008, 02:06 PM

so I got everything changed out: front struts(sachs advantage oem sport) and springs(h&r oe sports), rear shocks and springs, rsms, front lcabs, front and rear swaybar endlinks, all new hardware...

and I'm getting a clunk in the rear going over some bumps...could the shop not have tighted the rsms all the way, or could my new fresh, slightly stiffer suspension have wreaked havoc on something?

beem3

07-21-2008, 11:17 PM

firefirefire90

07-21-2008, 11:25 PM

rear clunk is Rtabs I have been told...

fiveayam

07-22-2008, 12:12 AM

I have the oe sports on my car. I didn't take measurements, but the rear does get lowered more than .5". I believe the rear springs are supposed to lower the car .75-1.0", the front springs .5".

grauster

07-22-2008, 10:28 AM

I have the oe sports on my car. I didn't take measurements, but the rear does get lowered more than .5". I believe the rear springs are supposed to lower the car .75-1.0", the front springs .5".

Then why don't they say so...I guess they only "approximate". I am going with the thicker e46 xi 15mm spring pads in the rear, I'll let you know how it goes.

I really wanted the 1"F / .5"R to enhance the great positive rake on the car, now I'm almost dead flat. Oh well. They do ride really good though...

beem3

07-22-2008, 12:32 PM

Then why don't they say so...I guess they only "approximate". I am going with the thicker e46 xi 15mm spring pads in the rear, I'll let you know how it goes.

I really wanted the 1"F / .5"R to enhance the great positive rake on the car, now I'm almost dead flat. Oh well. They do ride really good though...

He's got his information reversed. OP you're correct, the oe sport springs are supposed to drop the car 1"F/.5R, not the other way around like the previous guy quoted.

Here's a pic of my car with the oe sports. I have a 1 pointer finger gap in front, and no finger gap in the rear (assuming you have a spare tire in the trunk).
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a155/Wongerthetrojanman/PicsofMyCar4-15-06001-1.jpg

grauster

07-22-2008, 01:15 PM

He's got his information reversed. OP you're correct, the oe sport springs are supposed to drop the car 1"F/.5R, not the other way around like the previous guy quoted.

Here's a pic of my car with the oe sports. I have a 1 pointer finger gap in front, and no finger gap in the rear (assuming you have a spare tire in the trunk).
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a155/Wongerthetrojanman/PicsofMyCar4-15-06001-1.jpg

Thanks for the reassurance...

Are you on 16" or 17" wheels...I think part of my problem is that I am on my stock 15" x 7" spokes. But my rear tires is tucked a little more than yours it seems, hopefully the thicker upper spring pad will make a difference when it goes in.

I think because my wheels are narrow, they are not outboard enough and are in more shadow than they were originally. Maybe some wheel spacers will pick up the slack...

grauster

07-22-2008, 01:19 PM

I keep on drooling over your pic...

I need some 17"s...

beem3

07-22-2008, 01:51 PM

haha, thanks for the compliment. FYI, I have 17x7.5 235/40 front and 17x8.5 245/40 rear.

oh ok, now I know what you're trying to say. since the oe sports lowers the car, you're going to automatically have more negative camber. My negative camber after alignment is at -1.8 on all 4 wheels, whereas oem specs you should have no more than -1.2 camber (I know that for the stock alignment specs for the M3, camber range is -.3 to -1.2). Since you have 16" rims, your tires are probably tucked in more into the fender wheel well since they are narrower and accomodate narrower tires. I initially had 17x7.5 235/40 in the rear, but I didn't like how narrow it looked and how it tucked into the wheel well, so switched the rear to 17x8.5 in the rear, and it fills the gap much better.

Even with my 17x8.5 rears, I too once thought about spacers. You ever think about buying used rims? I bought mine used off dtmpower.net for $650 for 4 rims 2 years ago. Just a thought.

grauster

07-22-2008, 02:10 PM

Yeah it seems like the wheels were sucked into the middle after everything was together again. Ha!

Yeah it seems I definitely have more negative camber than before. (tires angle out from top to bottom, right?) I will have to hold off on new rims for the time being, as things turned out a little bit more pricey than I had orginally hoped (when do they not?) for the suspension refresh. Maybe in 6-8 months...I'll keep DTM in mind, is that another forum?

beem3

07-22-2008, 07:17 PM

For negative camber, if you stand behind your car and are looking at the back of your tires (ass view), the top of the tire would be closer to the center of the car than the bottom of the tire. With zero camber for example, a tire would be at a perfect 90 degree angle to the floor and the top of the tire would be directly above the bottom of the tire. Hope that makes sense, it took me a while to figure out camber.

DTMpower.net is another forum, although I never registered as a member on there, but just happened to see a classified add for contour rims a few years ago and decided to meet the seller to buy the rims from him. If you ever get used rims, bf.c is a good enough resource.

grauster

07-22-2008, 11:55 PM

I'm getting a clunk in the rear going over some bumps...could the shop not have tighted the rsms all the way, or could my new fresh, slightly stiffer suspension have wreaked havoc on something?

So i think I found the culprit. It got a lot worse today to and from the train station...so I decided if I could pull away the trunk liner gently enough and inspect the rsms. As it turns out...the damn shop installed the top cresent washer (inside the trunk) upside down. This installed it like an uspide down bowl, instead of a bowl right side up...

Anybody else have this problem before. I am going to take it back to them tomorrow and have them correct it...

beem3

07-22-2008, 11:58 PM

Glad you found the problem.

No, I haven't had any experience with that problem. Let us know if that fixes it.

fiveayam

07-23-2008, 12:24 AM

Haelo

07-23-2008, 12:39 AM

The cars look lower in the back because of the shape of the fenders. Plus, level is better for handling. I lowered my car .5 inch the rear and it tucked my tires, and I actually measured to see how much it went down. I got .5in on the left and .4 on the right.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/haelo/garage/94BMW325IS/2008-7-21-Lowering/pics053.jpg My tuck with a .5 in drop from stock (and it was at stock height specs, no sag)

From the handling tests I've heard of from BMW roadrace tuners in my area, it seems to me that the E36 came with stock rake to induce 'safe understeer' (to keep bad drivers from oversteering, which the auto industry says is more dangerous for most drivers), which most cars do with other kinds of safe-understeer inducing tuning that is often harder to fix than just putting in springs. That's my theory at least, from hearing race shops say that their cars are best level.