Kyb shocks?

[ashton]

Would kyb shocks be a good purchase for my 88 325i? I already have the gc coilover conversion kit with stock shocks. Would kyb's help me be moar low? That's what im lookin for. Moar low and good ride with good handling. Will these help me?

[devon.818]

they will help with not having blown stock shocks...


probably not good enough for GC's though. what spring rates are you running?

do you care about form over function?
if so, then sure, kyb. they are like a minor upgrade from oem. not too special.

go billy sport if you dont wana spring for koni's. buy billy's used to save cash.

i've seen what can happen when someone slams a car on GC kit, then uses stock shocks, actually seen this twice, both have resulted in tire blowouts.

[ashton]

they will help with not having blown stock shocks...


probably not good enough for GC's though. what spring rates are you running?

do you care about form over function?
if so, then sure, kyb. they are like a minor upgrade from oem. not too special.

go billy sport if you dont wana spring for koni's. buy billy's used to save cash.

i've seen what can happen when someone slams a car on GC kit, then uses stock shocks, actually seen this twice, both have resulted in tire blowouts.

My stock ones aren't blown. But the gc coilover conversion kit didn't make my car low enough and I didn't know if it would make a difference. Cause I wanna tuck at least half tire on my stock bottlecaps with 65 series tires lol

[AndrewBird]

You need to cut off the stock spring perches and weld new ones on lower. That is the only way you are going to be able to go lower. Shocks/struts do not determine ride height, your springs do.

You could run shorter springs perhaps, but that decreases your suspension travel.

Also, if you are running coil overs with stock shocks, they might not be blown now, but they will be soon. You need to get shocks that are shorter so they aren't bottoming out all the time. Makes a HUGE difference in handling.

[ashton]

You need to cut off the stock spring perches and weld new ones on lower. That is the only way you are going to be able to go lower. Shocks/struts do not determine ride height, your springs do.

You could run shorter springs perhaps, but that decreases your suspension travel.

Also, if you are running coil overs with stock shocks, they might not be blown now, but they will be soon. You need to get shocks that are shorter so they aren't bottoming out all the time. Makes a HUGE difference in handling.

Can you explain what spring perches are you talkin about? The ones that hold the spring on the bottom?

[ubernasty]

I don't mean to sound like a douche, but like i've said before, people need to stop posting info that is just not correct. If you have no first hand experience then you shouldn't put your "opinion" on a public forum that people go on to find info for help.

I'm not a suspension guru by any means but I do know exactly what the op is asking.


Kyb shocks will be ok, but only if you aren't slammed (any mods to stock aftermarket springs... vogtland is my experience). I had kyb shocks on my old 85 eta that lasted fine for 2 years with no problems. When I picked up my 88 cabrio I simply swapped the whole front assemblies and rear springs/kyb straight off the eta. Still, with the kyb's I already got 2 years out of they were great.

I wasn't happy with the ride height so I took the spring pads out of the rear first (keep in mind vogtland is the softest spring with most drop for a coupe, so being a cabrio it was even lower). The rears blew out that day. Billy sports solved that problem. Now the front was too high for my liking, so a dead coil came off them. The kyb's lasted about a week before complete blowout. I then bought billy sports for the front, sort of felt like I was bouncing off the bump stops but haven't shortened the stops yet. It rode great. I bought some 15mm drop hats from Levent at gutenfest. I was under the impression that drop hats didn't change the shock travel. I was wrong, it just doesn't change the spring travel (still feel retarded for not seeing how obvious it is). Probably 3 miles after the drop hat install I started bottoming my front shocks out HARD on every little quick shot to the suspension. I'm really surprised just that 3/4" made such a dramatic difference but non-the-less its definitely shitty.

Long story short, I picked up some h&r sports from stuart (FunfGan) that i'm going to put on in hopes of picking up some much needed spring rate. Probably going to take the billy's apart to cut the stops in half and see what happens. Either way, I'll find a way to be one of the lowest e30's not on coil overs... the bitch is finding a way to be that low while maintaining a working suspension. Another option I'm considering is cutting my tubes like you would do for coils and running the rado koni's. Should be just the same as a slammed coil-over car just w/o the adjustability.... which, lets be honest, the majority of people just get their car where they like it and don't change it.

Hope this helps.

[e30gentry]

Just stating my experience with KYB:
I had Eibach sport springs installed with KYb and only lasted a year before they took a crap and that was with all new hardware too, this was on a 1990 325i sedan. The whole reason i installed them is because people have had good experience with them. Guess i was one of the unlucky few. Afterwards i installed new billy sports and love them.