Pelican Parts Stage 3 kit good buy?

[workman482]

So it's time for me to upgrade the suspension on my stock 85 325e. Car has approximately 150,xxx miles. Odometer was broken when I purchased it.

Looking at Pelican parts stage 3 kit that includes Eibach sport spring set, Bilstein sport shocks, all the spring seats/bushings, shock and strut mounts, sway bar links, etc.
It pretty much has everything I need to freshen up and upgrade my worn out suspension.

What do you guys think of the price tag (1200) for this? Are there any other places out there who offer similar kits? How is the ride on the Eibach springs? Car will be a DD and will not likely see much track time. I've purchased several things from them before and have always had a good experience with them.

Here is a link to the kit:
wwwdotpelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/smart/more_info.cgi?pn=PEL-S3E30-6N&catalog_description=Stage%203%20Suspension%20Ki t%2C%20325%2Fe%2Fes%2Fi%2Fis%20%281984-91%29

[wakdog]

I am not personally a fan of Eibach sports, they are too soft for how low they are imo - they were in my car when i bought it with billy sports and i was hitting the bump stops a few times a week...

A better spring to match the Bilsteins would be H&R Sports imo

[workman482]

Ok. From what I've seen here, bimmer forums, and e30tech the census seems to be in favor of H&R sports over Eibach's. Think I'll contact Pelican and see if they would be willing to substitute the H&R's for the Eibachs in the kit for me.

[FLG]

Your wasting money ordering anything from pelican, there prices are usually much higher then the rest of the guys. For that much you might as well be going coilovers.

If you want to stick with using stock components and not switching to coilovers, call guys like blunt and have him hook you up with everything.

[iwantspeed]

Try rmeuropean.com
They have almost everything.

[workman482]

Sent a message to bluntech and rmeurope to see what the prices of a similar kit would be. Thanks for the suggestion guys. I'll post their replies on here for prices.

[workman482]

Well blunttech is at 1334.82 for springs, shocks and rear shock mounts and the entire suspension kit. Basically what pelican parts has for 1200.
One of the reasons for the expense is due to all the small stuff, bushings, spring pads, mounts, etc. One of the reasons I'm not wanting to go with coil-overs is I want a system I don't have to touch for another 140,000miles+ I realize I'll have to change shocks/struts at some point down the road, but by utilizing some the OEM suspension engineering I hope to prolong the life of the suspension.

Tried rmeuropean but have received no response to my email. Any more suggestions on parts suppliers?

[Earendil]

Your wasting money ordering anything from pelican, there prices are usually much higher then the rest of the guys. For that much you might as well be going coilovers.

If you want to stick with using stock components and not switching to coilovers, call guys like blunt and have him hook you up with everything.

I'm all for companies like Blunt, and my loyalty is usually to price before company. But Pelican has been serving me well and cheaper on a lot of things for many many years. It helps that they have a distribution center in my city though, so "ground shipping" is usually close to overnight, especially when they tend to get things out the door the same day. They also accept part number searches and nail it more often than any other website.

When looking for parts, I usually do a combination of PelicanParts, BMAParts, and BluntTech, with a few side trips to Bimmerworld and TurnerMotorsport depending on the product I'm looking for. I've all but given up on BavAuto, though it doesn't help them that they are on the wrong Coast :)

For tiny gaskets and bolts though I tend to use Pelican, because the combination of realOEM.com + Pelican is unstoppable for misc parts.

They all have their uses :)

And "kits" from any supplier are usually more expensive than sourcing the parts yourself.

[workman482]

I agree. I've purchased several items from Pelican in the past and found them to be very helpful and shipping was fast and at a good price. I'm working on creating an excel worksheet to help me keep track of repairs/mods, parts suppliers, and prices. Hopefully when I get done with it it'll help track cost and compare prices easier.

One of the things I like about the pelican kits is that they include ALL of the small stuff in there kits to include plastic caps and nuts/bolts. As a mechanic of 14 years I know it's the small stuff that will hold up a job.