Rebuilt ix strut housings feeler.

[aaron325ix]

I've been a little confused myself sometimes when it comes to coilover options.

Currently I have Billies and H&R sports (2/3 bumpstop removed)
I'm fairly happy with the feel of the car other than the occasional bottoming out of the rear tire (215/45/17) with some weight in the back, as well as the occasional bottom out on the fronts.

I really don't think I would like to lower the car much more than it is now as it looks and handles pretty good. I mostly want the adjustability of coils for the snow.

In that case do I really need to shorten the strut housing?

[nando]

Only if you intend to run Koni Race inserts. Can't do it with Koni SAs, and custom shortened Bilstiens ride like 2x4s.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Could use Bilsteins with 36mm pistons in an inverted strut configuration. Not sure if the OD of the original housing is big enough to work with that.

[chuckdizzle]

Estimated price point?

[ForcedFirebird]

Price will vary depending on what is ordered, and what will be done here. For those that have bearing/hub press tools, they may just send in the actual core?

[2002tiiguy]

Yeah, you need to shorten the bump stops. Honestly, I would never use Bilstein again in an E30 - even valved specifically for my rates, the ride was brutal.

With the shorter housings, and a realistic ride height, suspension travel should be close to stock. I have never dropped the collars all the way down - i think the frame would rest on the CV shafts, lol.



The inserts were custom valved and made 2" shorter than stock by Bilstein. I ended up switching them out for Koni Race inserts after a year of brutal, punishing ride quality. The ride with the Konis is still stiff, but it's so much better than the BS it isn't funny!

The *front* bearings for the ix are expensive. When I sent you parts, I sent rear bearings which are much cheaper - they are nearly identical anyway, and I haven't had any problems (IIRC the OD is 0.1mm bigger on ix front bearings). The hubs were expensive, I think around $300. Normally you could reuse them, but mine had stripped threads and needed to be replaced.

BTW, if anyone does buy new hubs - throw them in a tumbler or file them down to debur the splines - BMW doesn't do this, the result being the CV shafts wouldn't fit through the new hubs, I had to take everything apart and file down the burs, then put it back together again..

weird, i replaced one hub and i had no issue whatsoever on reassembly

[nando]

Must have been lucky.

[ndfspd67]

I would also be interested in this for sure!

[Kershaw]

I put in a new front hub with no issues as well.