Are these spings stock or just sagged

[johndownunder]

Hi, the rebuild of my front suspension continues... Pulled the struts apart and measured the front springs as both 385mm +/- a mm or so. Stock spring height is 416mm. Now, my VIN number reckons my car came with 'sports suspension settings' ( along with the manual gearbox and a LSD - yay). Unfortunately, BMW even with my VIN can't help other than say the car has 'sports suspension settings' but we don't know what that means. Can anyone help out there? Are my front springs just stock springs that have sagged or was there a special lowered spring set (close to 385mm I guess) that I have fitted? The thickness of the coil is pretty much as per the standard spring of just over 13mm. Car is the 1989 535i legend, so that's 26 years of sagging.

Many thanks to any guru who can solve this riddle.
John

[demetk]

Any colors on the springs? Usually BMW springs will be color coded to help identify the spring rate.

[Sir Montalbon]

I just measured a spring I have from a '95 540i/6 that came with the MTech suspension option and it measures about 345mm, give or take a few mm. It also has red paint marks, if that is what demetk was referring to.

[johndownunder]

Hi Demet, my springs have a blob of green paint on them!
John

[ross1]

I've searched(hard) and not seen the explanation of the color codes, nor specs for relaxed lengths.
No doubt BMW has consolidated part numbers for close specification springs by now anyway.
The best information I coud find regarding the color codes was that the paint color, number of "stripes" and the number of coils they were applied to determines the spring. No correlation to any actual specifications.
Clear as mud, I know.
EDIT; As built the cars had springs VERY specific to an individual car's equipment. The differences are nominal in the real world of old car repair, little difference in ride height or ride between them all. A few part numbers cover all the variations if shopping the aftermarket.

[johndownunder]

Ok, looks like I'll just fit some new stock springs with HD Bilsteins. Noticed pelican Parts have std height rear springs (Suplex). Does anyone know of some good quality stock front springs other than genuine BMW?
thanks
John