New Member - 1989 325ix and Evo

[Mlarsen]

^ I thought that seemed kind of odd as well.

[nando]

hmm, are you really that much lower than me? can't say I've ever had the shaft pop out.

another consideration is the shaft will eventually hit the frame. that. would. be. bad.

[Nisse Järnet]

From what I can see (and feel trying to get the shaft in the diff), I'd say it's the angle causing the shaft to be too short. I only have 1/4" to go on raising it up, so I'm going to do that, grab the GC camber plates (another 1/4"), and beat the piss out of it and see if she holds.

I'll try to update with my findings as much as possible as not too many people have experimented with going low on an iX, it seems.

Thanks, you are really helping out here :) Thats good news for me as im gonna use E34ix axles and they are slightly longer than E30ix axles i think so it hopefully works out!

Im thinking of getting the GC plates and coil kit, are u using their coil kit?

[AWDBOB]

Ok thats not good news :( It really looks nice! Do you think its the angle itself or is the angle cousing the shaft to be too short? If u know what i mean :P

Yeah i can imagine the springs on the new setup is a bit stiffer :)

From what I can see (and feel trying to get the shaft in the diff), I'd say it's the angle causing the shaft to be too short. I only have 1/4" to go on raising it up, so I'm going to do that, grab the GC camber plates (another 1/4"), and beat the piss out of it and see if she holds.

I'll try to update with my findings as much as possible as not too many people have experimented with going low on an iX, it seems.

[Nisse Järnet]

Thanks, man!

Unfortunately, I do believe so. I drove the car hard for about a week, and was making a hard left under some power, and pop, out she came. I'm going to raise the car up the little I have left and see if that's enough to correct it. It's a shame, because this ride height looks pretty sweet with the flares in the front!

Suspension travel wasn't really sacrificed, as most of my drop was taken out of the housing. That was 2.1" right there alone. When the car is on the ground, the struts are barely even compressed. I'll get a better measurement later on when the car isn't stuck at the bottom of my street :???:

Ok thats not good news :( It really looks nice! Do you think its the angle itself or is the angle cousing the shaft to be too short? If u know what i mean :P

Yeah i can imagine the springs on the new setup is a bit stiffer :)

[AWDBOB]

Man i missed this, car looks awsome! :D But do the shafts pop out at tyhis ride hight? Or did i misunderstand? :P
Do you know how much suspension travel you have in the front with the current setup?

Thanks, man!

Unfortunately, I do believe so. I drove the car hard for about a week, and was making a hard left under some power, and pop, out she came. I'm going to raise the car up the little I have left and see if that's enough to correct it. It's a shame, because this ride height looks pretty sweet with the flares in the front!

Suspension travel wasn't really sacrificed, as most of my drop was taken out of the housing. That was 2.1" right there alone. When the car is on the ground, the struts are barely even compressed. I'll get a better measurement later on when the car isn't stuck at the bottom of my street :???:

[Nisse Järnet]

Man i missed this, car looks awsome! :D But do the shafts pop out at tyhis ride hight? Or did i misunderstand? :P
Do you know how much suspension travel you have in the front with the current setup?

[AWDBOB]

After speaking with nando comparing the two setups, I would recommend Konis for a street setup. Plus, you always have room for adjustment too, if need be.'

I have some further notes about dumping an iX:

The CV shafts will pop out of the diff before they break. I'm going to raise the car up a bit soon, just need to find the right sleeves to buy.

[nando]

if you drive the car on the street a lot, go with Konis.

[Mlarsen]

koni sports will work fine in the rear. I wouldn't use revalved rear bilstiens and konis up front.. that's asking for trouble.

Right, I was stating I'd either do the Koni's or revalved Bilstiens all around.

[nando]

koni sports will work fine in the rear. I wouldn't use revalved rear bilstiens and konis up front.. that's asking for trouble.

yeah my sleeves are 4" tall. you should be able to put a taller sleeve on there, that would essentially allow you to raise the car up near stock height. I drove home in some pretty nasty shit yesterday, made it just fine but I definitely wished for a bit more ride height (snow, no problem - ice, can suck it).

I could have raised it up but we get snow so infrequently here I didn't bother.

[Mlarsen]

What'd you use for the rear shocks? Those Koni's seem like a good option up front. I was thinking of just sending my HD's to Bilstien and have them revalved and shortened.

[AWDBOB]

Looks sweet...I need this set up

You do need this!

what are your driving impressions so far? that thing looks awesome, well done

Driving impressions:

Ride quality is great. FAR better than I expected. Our roads back here aren't very good at all, especially during winter, and the car is still very forgiving and doesn't send you through the roof when you're not able to dodge a pothole.

CV Shafts obviously increase in angle once you go low, but they do not feel strained/binded on hard right/left turns, and I don't see the lowering causing them to be any less reliable than they are at stock ride height.

You really don't feel every bump in the road, and the car is still pleasant to drive, but VERY sharp and precise when you want it to be, which was my goal. I think the Konis made all the difference in the world, as their valving matched my spring rate great, and also since I shortened the struts/housing, suspension travel is retained!

Hope that helps.

Dang, that's a low ix! Looks great!

Thanks, man!

Damn, that's awesome! Haha, I feel like I'm building the exact same car. I just got a bimmerheads head with a 280 cam with a 2.7 bottom end. Also, was planning on building similar coilovers. I didn't see, what struts did you use?

Baha there's nothing wrong with that! I'm jealous of the Bimmerheads head/2.7, that's going to be a killer setup!

I used shortened Konis that aren't advertised for the iX. They're 2.1" shorter than standard iX struts, so that is the length you'd need to shorten your housings.

P/N: 8610-1436race

Also, when ordering these struts you need to order special Koni gland nuts with them too, as they don't come with them since they're not actually iX struts.

P/N for gland nuts:

73.25.01.003.1 (M48 x 1.50) - [Thanks Nisse]

The only other annoying thing is that the threads are bigger for the top strut nut than stock so you'll need to get creative. I took a 21mm (I think) socket and shaved it down so it fit in the hole to tighten the nut down. The nut is the same thread size/pitch as your ball joint nut.

Looks damn good! cool to see a low IX.

We figured that for heavy winter driving a bit higher advisable.. you're in Philly so maybe only an issue for a few days a year. I've got H&R sports on our IX coupe. Low enough for us, but I do like the low on yours! If I ever move on to coil overs I'll get a setup like nando's that sits a little higher.

Thanks, man! Ironically, we got hit HARD this Winter, but thankfully this setup wasn't on for all of that snow or I would've stayed inside quite a bit more haha.

The H&Rs look great and are definitely functional for Winter status!

Thankfully, the only thing I'll need to do is get a longer thread for the coilover adjuster, as the GC sleeves aren't quite long enough, but that is only due to the position in which the perch was welded on, if that makes sense.

So- my setup is virtually the same as nando's (I used Konis, he used Bilsteins), but he has a longer threaded sleeve for the front to raise it higher, and he welded his perches on a tad higher than mine!

I'll have to get him to take a measurement, and I will too, so that way the info is there for anyone deciding on where to weld the perches in the future.

[bradnic]

Looks damn good! cool to see a low IX.

We figured that for heavy winter driving a bit higher advisable.. you're in Philly so maybe only an issue for a few days a year. I've got H&R sports on our IX coupe. Low enough for us, but I do like the low on yours! If I ever move on to coil overs I'll get a setup like nando's that sits a little higher.

[Mlarsen]

This is almost maxed out on high. Had no idea it was going to be this low.

Damn, that's awesome! Haha, I feel like I'm building the exact same car. I just got a bimmerheads head with a 280 cam with a 2.7 bottom end. Also, was planning on building similar coilovers. I didn't see, what struts did you use?