New spring/shocks on my car today!

[320]

I am getting new springs and shocks installed on my car today - yeeeeeeeehaw!!! :o)

I bought new H&R Sports (60mm/40mm lowering) springs and Bilstein Sprint shocks. In stiffness, the sprints are between sports and race here in Europe, but I don't know if they are imported to the US as I haven't seen any of you running this setup??

Anyone here with this?? If so please post a pic. I can't wait to pick up my car after work today! :o)

How long should it take until they "settle in"? The guy who install them said he would not do an alignment until after 2-3 weeks. Do you agree with this or could harm be done to the car if I don't do it right away?

I also ordered E46 Rear Shock Mounts, Z3 Reinforcement Plates etc. to go with it. The only thing I am unsure of is if my ACS swaybars will have to be taken off?? I forgot to ask about that...

I will post new pics of my car soon. Then i wait until spring with my next mods which will be a complete Brembo Cup-kit and a Supercharger...

[Miles-uk]

Cool, I would like to see pics after you've finished.

It'll take a while for the springs to settle so it's better doing the alignment after a while as otherwise you do the alignment, the springs drop a bit and then your camber+toe in is set wrong.

when I put my springs in it took a few weeks for the to drop.

[320]

Argh!!! After waiting 4 weeks for free time at my local garage to install these and before that 2 weeks for the Bilstein shocks to arrive I got a phonecall saying that the ones I had received for the front was not for my car model year!!

This even thought I explained the exact date my car was registered. So now I must wait another 2 weeks for the new shocks to arrive from Germany, as not any of the importers here in Norway had the correct one for my car in...

Shit shit... They had removed everything in front before they saw it, so I was charged $100.00 for the work that led to nothing. They had already installed the shocks/springs in the back, so I told them to leave that on.

Now my car is parked in the garage and looks very silly with the back much lower than the front :o) Oh well, thats typical huh?

I will of course not drive my car until I get the correct shocks in front, as I think this will cause some kind of damage... or at least it is not a safe setup to drive around with.

[232is PoWeR]

looks like willys:D

[320]

Nono you got it all mixed up, its the other way around :)

[Miles-uk]

Yeah, I know what you mean the same thing happened to me even though my car was built after the shock change over period.

What it is, is the piston on the shock changed from a 3 "step" shaft to a 2 "step" plus slope shaft which means they wont fit on the existing shock mounting - If they already have the shocks they can put the later (or earlier) upper shock mounting on and everything is fine.

Any chance of a pic of the rear wheel arch, as I've lowered mine 50mm front, 20mm rear and I was thinking the rear needs to go lower eg 40mm - I was interested in seeing how good it looks before I spend the cash.

If you want to see how the early & later shocks differ check out this link http://www.bmwe36tips.20m.com/strut-differences.htm

[320]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Like u say and it says there "if you get a suspension kit that has the newer type of struts you also need to swap the top mounts" if I understand correctly I will not need to send back my current shocks???

I asked the BMW-technican about this, and he said "No you need to get new shocks, there are no parts to make this one fit". So he was wrong?

If yes, shit then this would save me ALOT of hazzle sending the ones I now have back, and waiting 2 weeks for new ones...

Please give me some more info and if possible the part number for the new top mounts.

My car looks real shitty with just the back lowered... looks like I have many full suitcases in the back :) and it was really not nice to drive either, so i think i skip on a pic until the full swap has been made as it will look different.

but it felt so much better than the ones i had. near where i live there is this deep crack in the asphalt and i always have to drive real slow over it to not get my DTM-lip in the ground. the front suspenision was so much softer/longer than the Bilstein Sprint shocks with 40mm H&R sports. Anyway look forward to hearing from you again. thx.

and yeah, btw: my car was also built after 6/92 but had the old style anways also :(

[Miles-uk]

This is taken directly from Jamex's web page at www.jamex.co.za

Two applications to watch out for are the GOLF III and the BMW E36. The Golf III suspension changed in 10/94. Later Golf III use the sport chassis and the springs and suspensions are shown in the catalog with an “N” after the part number. The BMW 325i E36 strut top mounting changed in 5/93. All cars produced before this will need new top mounting assemblies to fit Sportline kits. BMW dealers supply this at +- R380.00 per side. The difference is in the length of the piston shaft.

The paragraph mentions the 325i but I though it was across the entire range as bilstein and various other people advertise the same shocks for the entire range of cars from a 316i->328i, so the only difference must be the top mounting and nothing else.

If you are not sure then I would send them back, but I'm pretty certain it's only the top strut mounting that is different. maybe you could compare the bilsteins with a standard shock as see if there are any other differences apart from the piston shaft.

[aaron]

TAKE PICS!!

I want to see a 325 with a slammed rear end a normal front end.