iamnatio

Hey all!

Got my new summer shoes and feel its time to have my car dropped. I am shopping around for H&R springs. I have considered adjustable coilovers, however I am investing on a body kit and exhaust system so trying to keep everything within budget. So for now springs it is. My summer setup is...
front 245/35/19
rear 275/30/19
I currently have about a 1.5" gap for the front and about 1.8" gap for my rear where the tire would align with the fenders. This is all approximate as its based on testing with my fingers at the time. lol

I have a few options so far. Not all H&R. I added it as a poll and any advice would be appreciated. I am personally going towards 1.2" at this point as I really don't want any rubbing and will be adding a front lip to my new bumper and don't want any scraps on that.

Thank you!

tgm001

I run the same wheel setup on mine, I have the sport supsension,

I have the m5tec kit with the lip, so with that the front now is ery low, everytime I try to pass over a bumper I habe to be carefull cuz many times the lip touch it ! The same thing with driveway's etc,

So, I'm a bit scared about dropping my car lol

If you already have the sport suspension, I don't think springs will make a big difference, coils would be the best solution as you can adjust the height of your car !

I'm considering coils but like I said im a bit affraid of lowering it with the lip

JugMan

Sorry if this posts twice, I'm new to the controls.
FWIW,
I dropped my 2006 E60 550i Sport recently. The stock dampers were not damping any longer after 85K miles. I went with H&R Sport Springs, and Bilstein Sport shocks and struts (the units intended for a lowered E60, all from Turner). My stealer installed parts, but didn't set the alignment correctly afterward due to random placement of front struts on each front tower. Steering was horrid, new rubber was thrashed, and of course the stealer from White City, FL claimed my alignment was perfect, costing them my service forever onward. How did I know they'd randomly placed the struts? I could easily tell this by the worn areas where the bolts and washers had been since my car was built (missing paint around old washer area). They had both struts all the way to the passenger side. Won't work that way.
There is quite a bit of movement available for camber up front, this despite all info indicating that there is no camber adjustment possible to the front of an E60 550i. Perhaps only the V8 can be manipulated? I know for fact that there are two different front ends for E60's, one for sixes, the other for eights. Did you know that they GLUE them on....? Anyway:
Believe me, there are at least 1.5 degrees of play available there, due to the slotted holes at the top of the shock tower.... and if you get them both way wrong, your ride will steer like crap and eat tires all day long. You will DEFINiTELY want to take a quick photo of stock nut locations (each side) for reference before you begin swapping struts. Use that as a starting point when performing an alignment. I suggest driving the car a bit on known road surfaces after installation, and experimenting with camber, until handling is neutral, and then have all four wheels re-aligned. Then re-evaluate at low speed, and highway speed for pull, etc. Make certain to have as many variables eliminated BEFORE you do this lowering procedure, ie, no bent rims (check, you'd be surprised what you may on the inner sides of your from rims), no radial tire creep, separated belts, or crap tires. find Moving the struts around can be done by simply jacking up each front tire until it is no longer in contact with the (level) ground. Be certain to chock your rear wheels, and lock you hand brake first, of course.
Net result of lowering is stiffer ride, that literally follows the road completely. Sounds good, but you may not like it after you drive it for several thousand miles. Also, the Bilsteins and HRs take a while to break in, essentially, the ride becomes a bit more... "active" after they get worked in.
If all the roads you drive on are smooth interstate, you'll love the new ride. Sun baked or warped road surfaces will be amplified and you will have to focus more attention on your vehicle's tracking... Cornering is even more phenomenal that it was previously. You will never bottom a shock, but you will occasionally bottom out the front of the car. Forget large speed bumps. Simply back away....
I would not recommend this procedure for most BMW owners, instead I'd go with stock height replacement parts. The BMW Sport is already lower than a normal 550 anyway. The look of the lowered car is sinister, especially when combined with wheel spacers.

JimeE60

I have lowered quite a few cars both with just spring on oem shocks and full coil over kits. If you track the car coil overs are the only way to go, if it's just street it's way overkill. H&R lowering springs are by far the best lowering springs you can get on a German car. They ride smooth like stock yet lower the car 1.2-1.5 generally which is perfect. If your oem shocks are good then toss em on. Otherwise I have even been as cheap as using KYB GR2 non adjustable replacements and on a pure street car they were fine. Springs I hated the worst were Eibach pro-kit, don't do it.

epilithic

I lowered my 08 non sport 535i with H&R springs and i used koni shocks. here is a link to a thread where i posted some pics of it. I don't like how the front gap doesn't match the rear gap, thats just me being anal though. https://5series.net/forums/topic/121...1#entry1426266

JimeE60

I think your car looks good.. The rear is a tiny bith higher, however I was just looking at my car with the M Sport package and the rear is also a bit higher there so BMW intended it that way for whatever reason. Generally is pretty hard to argue with their suspension dynamics..

How much lower is the Msport setup than the regular on a 550i?