Time to raise the front end up

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Ahhh.... Yoo sow smat, I guess if I go that route, I can use the rear, sell the front for fiftyone dollah.

[auaq]

Ahhh ... Yoo sow dum, yes you can go that route, you can use the rear, sell the front for fiftyone dollah.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Wow, der bee eqo inn hear!

[1gr8e39]

But HO8 bars suck like HO6 bars. You'd want a HO///M bar in the HO6 or HO8, unlike me with my chopsticks as sway bars. Me soooo body rolly

[JimLev]

Never ended this thread.
It drives nice and smooth, no additional noise or vibration, and corners almost perfectly flat.
Here's a pic of the spacer ring in the wheel carrier. No more scraping as I go in and out of the garage.

[auaq]

Time for group buy for stancetards.

[philly98540]

No more embarrassing noise pulling out of the driveway!! Is adding this spacer a common technique for raising ride height as I never saw it before? Seems like a fairly easy thing to do and seems like you got plenty of clamp on the strut. Excuse my lack of knowledge here.

[JimLev]

Never heard of anyone doing it before. About the only options I've seen were to buy the thicker (rough terrain) lower spring pads or to get different springs.
Then I remembered about the strut tube having different diameters at the bottom end which set how far down in the wheel carrier it would slide. If I could limit the amount of strut drop into the wheel carrier that would raise the front end. Much cheaper option that the above 2.
So now I'm clearing the garage apron by 1/4".
Time to get an alignment done next week.

[philly98540]

Looks very clever actually. Is the wall thickness of the spacer equal to the gap so it all clamps up tight? Meaning the shim gets squeezed when the strut tube gets squeezed? Glad to see those FSDS are still doing well for you.

With the thicker front bar, can you really notice the improved roll resistance? I chickened out on the thicker Eibach thinking it would be too much.

[JimLev]

The OD was 0.015 larger than the fat part of the strut when machined. I put a cut thru the ring so it would compress nice and tight when the pinch bolt was tightened.
The ID was about 0.010 large than the lower part of the strut tube so it would slip on. The tube wasn't perfect so some clearance was required.
The ring is made from aluminum and the FSD tube is steel.

Yes, I notice much less body roll, you need to have the rear Eibach too.
Do it.

I could have bought coil overs too, not going to happen.

[AquilaBMW]

Jim - Hats off to you man! I had to remove the DINAN sway bar from my parts car today. What a royal PAIN! It took me about 4+ hours to get it out. Must be the worst designed sway EVER! You make it look easy - shows great competency. Nice work sir!

[JimLev]

Not an easy job if you've never done it before. This was the 3rd one I've done.....and hopefully the last!

[philly98540]

The OD was 0.015 larger than the fat part of the strut when machined. I put a cut thru the ring so it would compress nice and tight when the pinch bolt was tightened.
The ID was about 0.010 large than the lower part of the strut tube so it would slip on. The tube wasn't perfect so some clearance was required.
The ring is made from aluminum and the FSD tube is steel.

Yes, I notice much less body roll, you need to have the rear Eibach too.
Do it.

I could have bought coil overs too, not going to happen.

Sounds perfect on the fit and tolerances. Nice solution for a simple small rise and keeping all your existing struts/springs.

On the front bar, I don't plan on changing to the Eibach front anytime soon, but who knows down the road. It was a sort of bastard to swap in the M5 bar with the subframe totally out of the car!

[JimLev]

You have the M5 bar in your car now?

[philly98540]

You have the M5 bar in your car now?

Yups. When I did that thread on the new headers/exhaust, M5 steering box, and M5 bar earlier this year. I really like how the car drives now, but who knows down the road.

[JimLev]

Didn't know you did the bar with the box. In that case there isn't a BIG difference from M5 to Eibach. If you were going stock bar to Eibach then yes, very noticeable.

[peter540]

The OD was 0.015 larger than the fat part of the strut when machined. I put a cut thru the ring so it would compress nice and tight when the pinch bolt was tightened.
The ID was about 0.010 large than the lower part of the strut tube so it would slip on. The tube wasn't perfect so some clearance was required.
The ring is made from aluminum and the FSD tube is steel.

Yes, I notice much less body roll, you need to have the rear Eibach too.
Do it.

I could have bought coil overs too, not going to happen.

Reviving an old thread. Jim, I'm running Eibach ProKit springs and Koni Yellow struts/shocks now. The front is a wee bit low. Do you think the spacers you had made would fit my struts? Also, how much did the spacer raise the height? Could you post some photos of the spacer, the spacer installed on the strut, and a before and after shot of your car?

Any chance you might have a couple extra of those spacers lying around?

--Peter

[gmak]

Don't the Koni yellows have 3 settings for height based on notches in the body and a circ-clip? Or is that just in the rear shocks?

[JimLev]

Peter, I sold the last set I had a few months ago.
Pretty sure I have all the dimensions you need, yes they will fit your Koni yellows.
I will post info and pics later today, need to do a bunch of errands this morning.

Gmak, your thinking of the rear shocks.

[peter540]

Peter, I sold the last set I had a few months ago.
Pretty sure I have all the dimensions you need, yes they will fit your Koni yellows.
I will post info and pics later today, need to do a bunch of errands this morning.

Gmak, your thinking of the rear shocks.

Awesome, Jim, and thanks! I recall that your car's front looked very low in earlier photos; I'm curious to see what your setup looks like now. Would love to know what your height was, fender-to-center-of-wheel (aka center of hub), before and after the spacer so I can anticipate how mine will set up.

Also, belated thanks for your tip to try the Vibrant muffler. I went with single oval outlet, which fits perfectly. Looks very similar to the Dinan muffler outlet. Sounds MUCH better than before -- more throaty, a little louder, but not too crazy for the 52-year-old me.

Gmak, as Jim noted, you can only modify height settings on the rear Koni Yellows. The fronts are a fixed height, although it sure would be nice if they were set up similarly to the rears.

--P

P.S. I STILL can't post photos -- I can select the file to attach in the pop-up dialogue box, but after that it doesn't show a "save" button (or whatever). Between this issue and the BimmerForums app no longer working on my phone, I'm more than frustrated.

[JimLev]

Peter,
My center of the wheel to the fender lip is 13.5", it use to be 13".
Here's some spacer info. Well find ID and OD and a few pics in a bit.
StrutRings_1.JPG

I slit them with a hacksaw as they were a tight fit on the bottom of my FSD's.
F_Eibach7.JPG

F_Eibach8.JPG

F_Eibach9.JPG

[JimLev]

Before raising the front 1/2".
Your tires may be different, so go by the 13 and 13.5" I referenced above.
The lip is even with the top of the tread before I raised the front.
I still need to find the spacer info.

At Johns.JPG

[JimLev]

Spacer drawing, is before the slice.

StrutRing.JPG

[computiNATEor]

How are you liking the FSDs? They were my favorite upgrade to my old 530iA.

[JimLev]

I really like them, not stiff and handle the bumps well. Think I have 75K on them now. My OE struts and shocks were toast at 80K which is when I put the FSD's on.
The H&R springs are maybe 15% stiffer than the OE's.