Drop Hats.....

[fuzzysux]

i honestly think that "don't cut your springs" is a general statement and really applies more to springs with certain design characteristics.. such as changes in outer diameter or spring wire diameter. obviously these things will effect either ride quality or actual spring location in its "seat." the front springs on an e30 are a pretty simple standard wire diameter and on most all springs i've seen the last coil is pretty tight.. so cutting off a half coil shouldn't be a big deal at all. it will still seat pretty square on the strut.

now, most people are cheap and don't want to buy a set of hats or lowering springs.. they want the same ride height that you have now.. but by cutting 3 coils off of their stock springs. the stock springs are softer and have more room in between each coil. this, i would suspect.. would lead to bottoming out, etc...

everyone has their own theories, objectives, etc. personally, i'm on H&r and e90 hats and i love it. also i have all new spring seat rubber.. but i also replaced every single rubber bushing in the entire car... i just like a smooth ride.

your car looks great btw! perfect wheel choice/stance!

[blue plates]

Richard, you still come off like a douche 7 pages later.

[dpmcdonald]

Is there a consensus on these E90 drop hats? Did the grinding issue get resolved? Or the issue with the struts bottoming out?

I see IE sells some drop hats. Are they just E90 drop hats?

[LateFan]

We just did this with no problems. I think putting the new washer in the correct place is a big part of it. If you look at the realoem diagram, it shows that washer right there.

We bought our hats from ECS Tuning. They were pretty inexpensive.

[SkiFree]

Is there a consensus on these E90 drop hats? Did the grinding issue get resolved? Or the issue with the struts bottoming out?

I see IE sells some drop hats. Are they just E90 drop hats?

The consensus is if you can't get the e90 drophats to work then you shouldn't be working on your car.

Yes the listing on.the ie site is for the e90 hats (selling at dealer list).

[george graves]

The consensus is if you can't get the e90 drophats to work then you shouldn't be working on your car.

Well laa-dee-daa! ;)

I have e90 drop hats, and I'm sure I know how to work on a car. Are mine grinding? I have no clue. If they are, I can't feel or hear it. Guess I'll sell my tools then. I have no business working on a car apparently.

(just messing with ya skifree!)

[Zreberlcoe]

I'm running Ie3's bilstein sports and IE drop hat's that supposedly drop .5" and no spring pads up front and stacked stock spring pads in the rear and this is what mine looks like. I think there's something wrong because it looks wayyy to high in the front to supposedly have over a 2.5" drop.

Don't mind the subaru, we were bored.




annnnd stock.

[Oojin]

Zreberlcoe I also have IE3s but without the top hats. Still supposed to be a 2" drop in the front but I still have about 4 fingers of gap tire to fender on 225/50/15s. Its the curse of the front struts I believe, to get any lower you're gonna need to modify them via a coilover conversion, or I guess just manually cutting a section and re-welding the stock perch?

[delamaize]

I just read though this whole thing. My brain hurts now....
So I have come to a TLDR assessment of all 18 pages of this abortion.

1: about 4 pages of information that say E90 drop hats will work on E30's, gives you 10 to 15mm of drop, depending on the other suspension components.

2: 14 pages of insults, bitching, arguing, and general butthurtness.

[SoundByte]

Thanks for the summary. I was trying to get an answer as to whether I should even bother before reading the whole thread...

[george graves]

2: 14 pages of insults, bitching, arguing, and general butthurtness.

If they didn't work, there would be 100 pages of butthurtness.

[delamaize]

Bought some drop hats today, just gotta wait till I can afford some other suspension components before I get them installed.

H&R E36 M3 springs and E90 hats on the front, in my sig picture.

[Dukereturns]

My dealer just quoted me $25 EACH for these. Is that right?

[SkiFree]

BMW List pricing is always fluctuating, at the moment they are bmw-list $13.77 each.

Try telling them you know what the current list price (quoting price above). If that doesn't work then call a different local dealer or just order them from just about any respected online retailer.

[lambdamu]

I'm running a set of e90 drop hats on mine. No seating issues with the h&r race springs. Has anyone run the e90 drop hat with the GC touring camber plates? I'm getting incomplete info after exhaustive searching.