How low is too low in the front? (shock travel Q)

[91 318is]

I'm running 325ix shocks in mine. They were 3" shorter than stock iirc and they're on sale at BAV for $207 for both right now.

Really? Never heard of that. I'll have to look into it.

[Hartge_H27]

On the GC website the description say DA and the pic shows a E30 setup with DA but when u click for more info it says SA

SA


DA

[Hartge_H27]

Koni does make a DA drop in shock that is the same dimensions as the on White bought. But damn $300 ea

[E30SPDFRK]

Really? Never heard of that. I'll have to look into it.

Only problem is they only sell HD's for the ix. You need to shorten the struts the whole 3" or else they bottom out just as fast. I only went 1" and I'm just as low as I was before with stock shocks. It's only like $60 a shock to get them revalved through Bilstein so once I get my swap all finished up I plan on shipping them out to get revalved while I shorten the strut the rest of the way.

This is 1" shortened all the way down with plates. No travel.


3" shortened would give you 2" of travel at this height.

[dinanm3atl]

The 'Koni Race' is a different shock but is still single adjustable. Koni Yellow is the basic one. THen you still further have the double adjustable version.

I would just save up. Shortened housing and I am pretty low and there is lots of chrome showing. Could go pretty darn low and have travel.

[Stephen]

3" shortened would give you 2" of travel at this height.

need

[91 318is]

Didn't get a chance to call GC today, gonna try again tomorrow and see what's up.

[Hartge_H27]

i am riding on 1" shortened housings. I have driven my car to atlanta and around town here in birmingham never bottemed out the suspension. and i am running LOW.

here is a comparison pic mine versus stock.

[McGyver]

your location says richmond, so i would just wait or keep the height higher based on the amount of potholes and general lack of road maintenance around here.

[e30guydownunder]

3" shortened would give you 2" of travel at this height.

But You wouldn't get 2" of travel without running small tyres or messing with the underguard structure. I was looking at this when I was messing with it on my car. I'm going to make some custom strut tops for my race car (I'm tight) that will pickup around 40mm in compression travel, I will only be able to use around 25-30mm of that with out messing with the structure and I'm running 205/50 tyres.

[91 318is]

Thanks guys, I think I'll hold out for shorter shocks.

[E30SPDFRK]

But You wouldn't get 2" of travel without running small tyres or messing with the underguard structure. I was looking at this when I was messing with it on my car. I'm going to make some custom strut tops for my race car (I'm tight) that will pickup around 40mm in compression travel, I will only be able to use around 25-30mm of that with out messing with the structure and I'm running 205/50 tyres.

Yeah, the first thing to hit is the pinch weld's in the inner fender. Those are 205/45's in my picture and they have about .5-.75" of clearance left. The 2" I said was just showing that there is the potential for travel. You really don't want it though, as the road is getting quite close :)

[91 318is]

Just got off the phone with GC, they carry them in stock for 189 each. I think I may go ahead and order them soon. I wanna order some stiffer springs since it's gonna be lower. Bimmerworld recommended me too soft of a spring. I can't remember the rate but I know it's softer then what everyone on here runs.

[Stephen]

What rates are you on right now? I think alot of people go overboard on rates for street duty. At my height im using 300# (with billies) and i dont have issues with body roll, bottoming out etc. I do realize Koni's behave a little differently though.

[SA E30]

But You wouldn't get 2" of travel without running small tyres or messing with the underguard structure. I was looking at this when I was messing with it on my car. I'm going to make some custom strut tops for my race car (I'm tight) that will pickup around 40mm in compression travel, I will only be able to use around 25-30mm of that with out messing with the structure and I'm running 205/50 tyres.

If you're not too picky about cutting your car. You can do similar to what I have done to get more travel as we're running stupidly low on the race car (ala DTM e30 M3). We didn't have the budget right now to get custom made dampers, plus the Sachs dampers we have are pretty darn decent.

I ovaled out the hole where the strut top comes through (needed if you're running camber plates and got a 25mm spacer plate made that will accept the camber plate fitted onto but with the cut outs to allow the camber plate to still function (although we run our camber plates centered as the tubular arms are better IMO for camber adjustment). That gave us more travel although we had about an inch travel on 1000lbs springs it's just a safety thing, and now we don't have to pay the extra when we want to get new dampers made due to the shorter housing (we use e36 struts but the principal is the same)