unfadeable

I've used H&R sport lowering springs on a 2007 3-series with the stock shocks, and will never use these springs again. The ride was way too bouncy as I think they just didn't play well with the stock Sachs shocks spring rate.

My current BMW is a 2006 530XI on 19's. I want to lower the car, but the only available option I've been able to find for the E60 awd are the H&R springs... I'm aware of all the coilover options, but unfortunately don't have spare cash at the moment for KW's or Bilstein's. The Godspeed's and ISC coilovers are cheeper but I can't really find any positive reviews on either which gives me pause.

The OEM BMW springs from the E60 M Sport's exist, 31336761325- front; 33536763053- rear, but the non-AWD E60 with the N52 is 200 pounds lighter. I don't have the sport suspension on the car so I don't even have the same shocks used in the M Sports so I doubt this would be viable without retrofitting the entire suspension to Msport.

Is anybody aware of a better alternative to lower the car?

rice_rocket88

Use the godspeeds.. it's a billion times improvement over the H&R.

unfadeable

Thanks for the input rice_rocket. I just took a look at the classifieds section here and was able to find a lightly used set from a member. I made an offer which was accepted. The price didn't break the bank, so I'm gonna give them a try. They should go out this week so I will report back with some pics and an update after I install them... Were they tough to install or did you have a shop do it? I've installed coils before, but never on a BMW... I may just have a shop do it so I don't botch it. Also, are they easy to adjust?

rice_rocket88

No harder than any other spring install.. other than perhaps you might not have the right sized socket or wrench (18mm comes to mind as not so common and I have like only 2 sockets of that size). I actually found a vendor and shot them a best offer that got accepted. Adjustment wise.. start at the lightest setting on the strut (I think there's like a billion clicks to adjust it) I found that it gets too hard already like 3 or 4 clicks in, so just left them at full soft. My car is tucked in but not slammed.. so I would say 1-1.5" dropped.

FuzzyWuzzy

Instead of lowering springs, you can always go with coilovers.

I went with ISC for my E61 (not really a lot of options to begin with), but they're pretty good.

unfadeable

Thanks RiceRocket thats good info- I appreciate it!

Fuzzy, the ISC's have been on my radar for awhile, but most of the crowd using them seems to be on E61's. It's really hard to know without having ever used them, but I read a few reviews that made me a bit gun shy. For the price I scored the Godspeed's it's worth the gamble, and I cannot imagine that they could be any worse then the H&R springs. I'll keep you guys posted and let you know what I think and report back with a picture or two once I get them installed.

unfadeable

So I finally got the coilovers on and without a doubt they are a substantially better solution than the H&R sport springs. The car doesn't hobby horse, or bounce wildly over bumps and is much more controlled and behaves like a BMW. Maybe it was just the Michigan roads, but the e90 I had with H&R sport springs was super rough (bone jarring), but just felt dangerous at some points during highway driving the way the back end would bounce and skip around especially while hitting a bump on a corner doing 80...

I jumped on the highway and did 30+ miles and it really behaved great- very smooth and controlled, not bouncy at all; no wild back end bounce over rough spots like I experienced in the past with H&R springs, and no rubbing over dips. Even got a thumbs up from some guy in a M2 lol.

They seem to be a well built quality product, but I will report back on that after a few thousand miles. The guy here on the forum who I bought them somehow didn't include one of the studs pictured below sticking out of the top hat. How that happened exactly is a bit of a mystery because they are pressed in during the manufacturing process, and do not turn, or move in any way as it has groves that lock into the top hat. They were used and I assume got lost in the sauce during his un-install or something. Unfortunately this wasn't disclosed to me by him. I didn't realize I was missing a stud until midway during the install which was a surprise.



The one on the right is the one that was missing the stud

As it turns out those groves you can see line up with matching groves on the stud and apparently is a unique bolt. It locks the stud in place preventing it from rotating when you screw the bolt on from the top because the angle is impossible to get anything around the bottom to hold it and keep it from spinning as you tighten it down. So long story short I checked a dozen Metro Detroit auto supply stores and none had anything like that. All the close fits I found would not lock in those groves and were really just traditional M8 bolts. I called Godspeed in California and spoke to Harold in their customer service department who helped me out. He had some used MonoMax coilovers in their shop and had a mechanic use a press to pop out a spare stud for me. He overnighted it to me and for whatever its worth it seems like they are invested in ensuring their customer service gets handled properly, which was refreshing.

I took RiceRocket's suggestion and set the springs wide open on the softest setting. It's only been a few days since they have been on and have already settled some. I don't think it will settle much more but I could be wrong. The rear passenger side dropped another 1/2 inch or so lower than the drivers side, so I'll need to take the wheels off again and do some more adjusting in the back. It currently doesn't rub on any corner except in the back right at all unless cornering hard. I'm not planning to do any serious driving until I can do a proper ride height adjustment and get an alignment done. I'll try to take some better pictures at some point.

OrganicStrive

This is so clean. what are these wheels?

unfadeable

Those were 19" Miro 111's. I ran the Miro's on the car for 4 years until I hit a nasty pothole here on these Michigan roads and cracked one. They don't make the Miro 111's anymore and I wasn't able to find a replacement with the right offset for the XI/Drive that I have. I really liked the look of the Miro's, they were pretty aggressive and the rear wheels poked out more than what I have now.

To replace them I ended up settling for a staggered set of 19" VMR 710 flow formed wheels, which construction wise is an upgrade from the Miros. Initially I wasn't in love with them as much looks wise, but they have grown on me. Fronts are 19x8.5 et 35 on Michelin Pilot Sport 4s 245/40. Rears are 19.5x9.5 et 33 on 275/35.