Fortune Auto - Ride Quality - Strut tower damage

[Garrick2007]

The rear spring and shock mounting points are the same on all e30 models and years

This seems to be correct as ive double checked as well. My guess is FA mixed the rear up with a newer 3 series, maybe a touring? Who knows, it's a very simple core design which im sure is shared with many many cars. At the very least I'll take them up on their offer to have them looked

[Garrick2007]

KW’s came super quick (Wednesday) a week early, I installed the rears yesterday as we all know where I was having the most issues, the car feels dramatically different, on soft settings it takes bumps very well like it should. I’ll be dialing things in more over time, hopefully Monday I can get the fronts on. With me knowing this now and ruling out fully instillation error or some anomaly going on with this specific car I’m going to seek reimbursement for damages and a full refund as no customer should have to diagnose a crappy suspension for a whole year.

[Garrick2007]

Late updated but I was able to receive a full reimbursement excluding shipping once I explained that the E30 suspension system requires welding on the front so I couldn't just simply "return them" when I first noticed the issues (which was immediately) as easily as many would think especially being a car i daily. After 8 months of running the KW V3's the car drives incredibly better, I started out on low settings for compression and rebound just because I was traumatized by my previous setup, just putting 10 feet in my drive way I could tell the difference in quality that fast and comfort. Now im at a mid settings and it just feels great, I'll give the higher settings a try just to see but I have a feeling it'll still be drivable on roads. Im still not sure what was up with my fortune auto kit but from drive quality to customer support KW easily takes the win and I wish I would have just spent the money on KW to begin with. It was way too much back and forth with FA but I appreciate them for finally reimbursing even though it was out of warrantee . Id say if you can't swing the cash for the V3's get the V1, even without adjustments my guess is the kit is pre adjusted to mid settings, for the extra $600 or so I believe it is id say I should be worth it all day.

[Mike36]

That's great that your were able to get your full refund and thanks for the update. After doing some research, its seems that preloading the front and rear is done differently according to their videos:

Front: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKkipKqSu3o&t=3s

Rear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZMOnaAV3qo

I believe you may have over preloaded them in the rear. I did the same with my BC's I installed on my old vert and couldn't figure out why my rear suspension was so harsh. I also know of another e30 that experienced the same rear shock tower damage after installing coilovers.

E30SPDFRK described it just like in their rear install video:

I can't fully tell from the photos, but since the rear shock is length-adjustable, you want to adjust the length to where the spring is just barely unloaded at full droop. From photo Groups (twisted red reinforcement), is the shock mount itself broken? It looks like the stud is still bolted in place but the shaft is way off to the side.

[Northern]

Those rear shocks have got to be too long (or adjusted too long), there's no way you'd have that kind of carnage otherwise.
Yeah the shock towers crack/can punch out without reinforcement plates, but the RSMs and reinforcement plates destroying themselves is wild.

6" fronts are probably fine but my personal opinion is that 5" fronts are way easier to hit any desirable height without the lower adjuster making contact with the tire.