In my effort to be cheap and avoid coilovers (for inability to weld, and impatient to pay someone else) I tried many set-ups before I was satisfied. I thought I would share my experience in hopes of saving someone else the frustrations I faced. In retrospect I wish I had taken measurements along the way, but honestly if faced to go through it again I would have just grown a pair and wrote a check to GC.
My First set-up was on a pair of used Vogtland (purple), with new Billy-Sports, stock Drop-Hats, Strut Mounts, and Bottle-caps. This was fine for then because it was inexpensive and had a decent ride.
Skip Down a 1.5 years and after being a good boy I got some new wheels and a proper IS lip from the wife for my b-day. At this point I also added IE’s rear urethane space to bring the back end up a bit.
I rode on this a few months and realized especially in front my suspension was too soft in addition I told myself my front strut mounts were failing. (They were Not.) Either way my next step was to install IE Stage 3 all around, with E90 drop-hats, IE street/ track camber plates, and removed both pads in the front. I did keep all the pads in the rear.
I was extremely happy with the new ride comfort and performance, however the front was now to high for my liking. At this point I was strongly considering the GC kit and paying the $300 core charge so I wouldn’t be let with out my E30, but I couldn’t swallow the cost. I then found this thread: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=131124
And a few others like it and decided to take the plunge and cut ½ a coil off the bottom up front. I ran this for a few weeks and honestly I was not impressed with drop and something told me the Billy-Sports were preventing any further drop. (Could possible just be the crazy voices in my head) I was also continuing to make sweet harmony with the Bump-Stops every so often, so I swapped in a new set of Koni SA. After a few mishaps I finally have the ride height I have been wanting, and the firm smooth ride I like. Although I do still need to play with the settings because low speed bumps are bit rougher than they need to be.
I suppose the other big benefit to this whole ordeal is when I first removed my stock suspension and installed the 1st set the whole job roughly took me 4 days. I had no idea what I was doing, I didn’t have the proper tools and I got frustrated very easily.
Now I can all 4 corners in around 4 hours.
My First set-up was on a pair of used Vogtland (purple), with new Billy-Sports, stock Drop-Hats, Strut Mounts, and Bottle-caps. This was fine for then because it was inexpensive and had a decent ride.
Skip Down a 1.5 years and after being a good boy I got some new wheels and a proper IS lip from the wife for my b-day. At this point I also added IE’s rear urethane space to bring the back end up a bit.
I rode on this a few months and realized especially in front my suspension was too soft in addition I told myself my front strut mounts were failing. (They were Not.) Either way my next step was to install IE Stage 3 all around, with E90 drop-hats, IE street/ track camber plates, and removed both pads in the front. I did keep all the pads in the rear.
I was extremely happy with the new ride comfort and performance, however the front was now to high for my liking. At this point I was strongly considering the GC kit and paying the $300 core charge so I wouldn’t be let with out my E30, but I couldn’t swallow the cost. I then found this thread: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=131124
And a few others like it and decided to take the plunge and cut ½ a coil off the bottom up front. I ran this for a few weeks and honestly I was not impressed with drop and something told me the Billy-Sports were preventing any further drop. (Could possible just be the crazy voices in my head) I was also continuing to make sweet harmony with the Bump-Stops every so often, so I swapped in a new set of Koni SA. After a few mishaps I finally have the ride height I have been wanting, and the firm smooth ride I like. Although I do still need to play with the settings because low speed bumps are bit rougher than they need to be.
I suppose the other big benefit to this whole ordeal is when I first removed my stock suspension and installed the 1st set the whole job roughly took me 4 days. I had no idea what I was doing, I didn’t have the proper tools and I got frustrated very easily.
Now I can all 4 corners in around 4 hours.
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