E30 off-road suspension/lift?

[Conall456]

Hi everyone! Iv got an 87 325e sedan (manual, factory LSD) that I just dropped a new low mileage motor in, I was going to turn it into a street car but I also have a e36 328i that’s on coilovers and does that fine. Iv decided to do the opposite with the e30 and put some beefier tires, suspension, and other things on it since I actually have taken it on some light trails before just with my agressive all seasons and semi-worn out stock suspension and it somehow did fairly well. Iv also seen what these cars can do with the right tire and suspension setups from other people taking their e30s rallying and off-roading.
now with the context aside, my question is does anyone know what a good budget offroad suspension setup would be? I’m thinking somewhere between stock height and a 2 inch lift to keep it somewhat reasonable on the road.
I was looking at strut spacers but I couldn’t really find any good ones and I don’t know how I would lift the rear end, and I was also looking at springs but there aren’t really any aftermarket off-road options for the e30 so I was looking at either the e30 325ix springs or the e34/e46 spring combo that Iv heard people using. Also, if I were to go with the e30 IX springs, would the IX struts work too? Are those my best options or has anyone done something different? Thank you!

[packratbimmer]

325iX springs on the front with E36 sedan rears will make a good econo set-up for off-road. iX struts will not work on the front. Thick spring pads combined with spring caps that provide lift will also help. 325iX springs with 1 127 503 (31331127503) on them are pretty tall and stiff. 31331125726 are likely the tallest you will find stock without exploring the E34 option. E46 are all the larger diameter spring like an E36 as far as I know.

[82eye]

this guy put something together on a budget and dealt with a few issues on the way

[packratbimmer]

I've seen that too and would put my option above at 1.5 on the list of options. It depends on the tire size that you are looking for and how much lift you need.

[KenWa]

We just finished lifting my son's 89 ix sedan to fit Pirelli ATR 205/70R15's on stock ix basketweaves. They're about a 26" OD tire vs the stock 24" tire, so we added 1" of lift for clearance. That involved:
1. Replacing 6X front strut press-in studs with new M8X1.25 X35mm studs, same for 4X rear upper shock mounts.
2. adding 1" of spacer between the front strut bearings/rear upper shock mounts and the body. We cut this out of 1/2" thick PP/HDPE boardstock, aka Starboard
3. adding 1/2" spacers of the same material on top and bottom of rear springs (1" total)

The only issue we had to work on was that the top inner corners of the tires rub on the bottom of the front strut lower spring seat. ix front strut rebuilds especially on this one will be involved, so hopefully this lasts a while. We ended up grinding off some of the front seat and adding 5mm wheel spacers to get a little more clearance.

front suspension on the ix is different from an RWD E30, so you might have issues clearing the wheelwell in the back- but those tires just squeak in there!


Rides/drives nice so far.... time will tell.