I'd imagine it's because XI's have airbags in the rear instead of struts, but say, an M5 Touring uses struts.

No, the notes always refer to the EDC which is not on any US market E61. Springs are springs in the rear, air, steel, still just sitting there at same height so HD rear ought to fit fine. It would probably even "fit" on an E60 with EDC but then the car would have a warning about the system not working because the rear EDC wouldn't be hooked up anymore.

Wait, I thought we were talking about struts and not springs?

E61 rear does not have "struts". It's separate spring and damper design. You cannot buy a rear Bilstein strut anyway, as there is no such thing for E61 regardless of KW, sport, etc.

Right... which is why when he stated Bilstein says the rear HD will fit but resellers say it wont, I was talking about likely due to how the rear suspension doesn't really have "struts" back there - its a damper/airbag design that auto levels when weighed down if I understand correctly ( similar to Crown Vics/Gran Marquis/Town Cars ).

Then you talked about springs an.... oooooh yeah I totally misread. I misread and thought somehow went from Bilstein HD struts to Bilstein HD springs hence my confusion. :lol:

Reading comprehension > me.

AnywayZ, I'm hoping we can all find out if the HD rear dampers will not only bolt in to the factory positions without trouble and also if they then "work" as desired. My car is actually getting a little bouncy now at 111,000 miles, just like a Crown Victoria ;)

My GF the other says when walking by an earlier model 328 wagon in that nice blood red "oooh, that's nice" and I'm thinking WTF, it's a base 328 wagon totally stock.... it was the color that did it for her.

I had already been thinking the deep bmw red in matte would be soooo slick on the E61... I'll need to look up that color, not sure if it's Monza

That's lovely but not it. Oh, it's Imola Red that I was thinking of. That wine color above is very classy though, probably better suited to a 5 wagon in terms of aesthetic style.

Greetings,


The Bilsteins look like a possibility for my wagon. Also wonder if there's a vendor out there that might do a reasonable group buy for the KW-VR3. I might consider them if they could be sourced for slightly under 2k. Elsewise, now looks like the Bilsteins are the only other option.


I've got RD sways, front and rears set to middle hole. I'm still running original 17s that came with the car. RDs helped control somewhat but still not where I'd like it to be.