[Mr.Smartepants]

While replacing the brake calipers this weekend, I noticed that two of the dampers have their rubber dust cover split. The car has >55k miles on the original OEM suspension, and needs to be replaced. So I'm looking for suggestions.
My car is 2017 F34 320i GT RWD without EDC.
Ideally, I'd like to drop the front by 25mm and the rear by 10-15mm, although stock ride height is OK if I have to.
Target price for the kit (front and rear, springs & dampers) ideally less than £1500 (bonus points for less than £1k). Extra bonus points for purchasing/source/fitment shop in the East Anglia region (no further south than M11/M25 junction). Car will never see the inside of a track, and street comfort preferred while dodging the myriad of potholes.
Some kits I've been eyeing up are from KW, Bilstein, and ST. I know others are out there, but I'm unfamiliar with all of them.
Links preferred, and honest opinions needed. Good and bad experiences too.
Discuss...

[Mr.Smartepants]

So far I'm leaning towards the KW v1 kit. The reviews I've read online are all positive. The drop is a little more than I was looking for (30-55mm front & 15-40mm rear), but I can live with that I think. This shop isn't too far away, and their price to fit is acceptable.
https://www.mstyle.co.uk/kw-variant-...320i-420i.html

[Oksamit78]

Originally Posted by Mr.Smartepants

Ideally, I'd like to drop the front by 25mm and the rear by 10-15mm, although stock ride height is OK if I have to.

Discuss...

FYI
The front alone on my 2017 F34 (340 xDrive) needed 20 - 22 mm drop to even out the front and rear gaps.

[Mr.Smartepants]

Originally Posted by Oksamit78

FYI
The front alone on my 2017 F34 (340 xDrive) needed 20 - 22 mm drop to even out the front and rear gaps.

Thanks! That's what I was thinking after taking a long hard look at the wheel arches.

I'm now thinking I'd be better off with the ST kit, especially since it's 500 quid cheaper and if I'm honest with myself, I don't really need the adjustable damping that the KW kit offers. I'm worried that the max ride height of the ST will still be too low for my tastes.
https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/prod...lover-kit-st-x

[Mr.Smartepants]

Has anyone used both KW and ST kits and can comment on the relative merits of both?
*Edit: Discussion of both is over here... https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1598152

Here's a quote from a KW tech (pulled from another thread) regarding the differences between KW & ST. We salt the roads pretty heavy in winter here, so maybe the extra cost for the KW v1 is warranted?

"Thank you for contacting KW Automotive, the difference between ST and the V1 is that the ST line has a galvanized housing and a limited 5 year warranty while our KW line has a stainless steel inox coated housing and a limited lifetime warranty.

If you have anymore questions please let me know.

Chad Gordon

Technical Advisor"

[Mr.Smartepants]

I ended up ordering the KWv1 kit from MStyle, so I'll report back with "after" photos once it's done. I've updated the 1st post with a "before" photo.

[BaconDouble]

I had a set of ST coilovers on my old Audi S4. I chose them as an economical alternative to KWs. The adjusting hardware did end up getting pretty grungy/rusty after a few years (i live in snow/salt area) but it didn't bother me too much. After the first few months of tinkering with a good ride height, I never needed to adjust it again. They were my first coilovers and I wanted the ability to adjust each corner one by one to dial-in the ride height just right.

Please keep us updated on your coilover installation as while I appreciate the lower cost of lowering springs/shocks, I am really concerned about things like the reverse rake (front higher than rear) that some lowering spring brands seem to not address. In addition the F34 platform seems to get lumped into either the sedan or wagon part version and that also concerns me somewhat as the F34 is the heaviest platform (I don't believe anyone makes F34 specific coilovers but perhaps I'm mistaken). Then you factor in some F34s are xDrive and some are not and it gets very complex.

[washufiddyfo]

Originally Posted by BaconDouble

Then you factor in some F34s are xDrive and some are not and it gets very complex.

There are RWD F34s?

[Mr.Smartepants]

Originally Posted by washufiddyfo

There are RWD F34s?

Yes, very common in UK/EU.

[Wli110]

Waiting for the after photos.

[Mr.Smartepants]

Originally Posted by Wli110

Waiting for the after photos.

Me too! Installation day is tomorrow.

[Mr.Smartepants]

Installation of the KW v1 kit is completed. The instructions I gave to the shop was to set the rear ride height to max and match the front wheel arch gap to the rear. I might need to tweak the settings...
Ride quality is markedly improved.

[jumbo_jet_z]

Looks good, I've been thinking about doing the same. The only thing that gives me pause is how the wheel well spacing looks uneven in the rear. I wonder if there are coilovers out there that would have smaller drop.

[Mr.Smartepants]

Originally Posted by jumbo_jet_z

Looks good, I've been thinking about doing the same. The only thing that gives me pause is how the wheel well spacing looks uneven in the rear. I wonder if there are coilovers out there that would have smaller drop.

Yes, I was worried about this very thing. KW makes a "street comfort" kit and Bilstein makes one with the name "Komfort" (yes, it's spelled that way) which doesn't have as much of a default drop. In hindsight, I should have ordered the "street comfort" kit, but it is VERY hard to find.
More info; https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1427232

[WhiteCollarMetalHead]

The profile / shape of the F34 + the stock ride height plays games with your eyes. It's hard to remove that front gap. One usere here literally only lowered the front of the car, causing a rake, but making the gaps look even. Sounds like you have to option to drop the front a bit more but the "visual illusion" of gaps and rise height on these cars is real. Overall it looks great and I'm sure handles much better.

[Mr.Smartepants]

So after living with this suspension for a while now, I regret my choice and should have gone with the street comfort model. I live in an area with a lot of speed bumps and potholes and the car bottoms out on the speed bumps. Here's a better photo of the gap between the car and the road surface, the front is now too low. Design flaw of the F34.

[BaconDouble]

Do you mean the car is scraping on speed bumps? What part is scraping?

I used to have a lowered Audi S4 with an AWE exhaust and it was the lowest point on the car, so occasionally scraped on speed bumps. Other VWs have lots of clearance problems with oil pans being the lowest point on the underneath, etc. Each car is a little different.
But when I look underneath the F34, I am really surprised at how well the stock exhaust fits up in the chassis so well, there is tons of clearance underneath.

I'd like to lower my car slightly, but it seems on the F34 the options are really limited and this being my only car/daily driver, not sure it's worth it in the end to get more headaches and have to worry about camber plates, tires getting worn out quicker on the insides, etc.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by Mr.Smartepants

Installation of the KW v1 kit is completed. The instructions I gave to the shop was to set the rear ride height to max and match the front wheel arch gap to the rear. I might need to tweak the settings...
Ride quality is markedly improved.

People use all sorts of ways to measure chassis height or tire/fender gap. Did you discuss with shop how they measured. You can easily check yourself.

The most accurate is to use a tape measure from the center point of the wheel logo straight up to the closest point on the fender lip. (I even put a piece of painter’s tape on the fender lip and use a 4 foot level vertically to make the exact line directly above the wheel centerpoint.) Measure at all four corners.

This chassis height measurement is not affected by changes to wheel/tires. Just set front and rear measurements to be identical.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by WhiteCollarMetalHead

The profile / shape of the F34 + the stock ride height plays games with your eyes. It's hard to remove that front gap. One usere here literally only lowered the front of the car, causing a rake, but making the gaps look even. Sounds like you have to option to drop the front a bit more but the "visual illusion" of gaps and rise height on these cars is real. Overall it looks great and I'm sure handles much better.

Yes, the front and rear fender lines on F3x models are different. Depending on the distance and angle of view it really can play visual tricks.

I learned something pretty cool from Alohasurftoad on this subject. It turns out that the profile shape of the particular tire and horizontal position of the tire sidewall also plays a visual role.

Note: My tires are Michelin Pilot Sport 4S which actually have more of an oval profile shape compared to say a Continental DWS+ which has more of a square shape. Visually they can make the tire/fender gap appear different.

First, I refreshed my suspension with new springs and rubber bits and had the alignment done. Then I measured not only the chassis height (from wheel centerpoint straight up to fender lip), but also the horizontal position of the tire sidewall relative to the fender lip.

This measurement was pretty simple. I put a piece of blue painter’s tape on the fender lip and used a four foot level vertically to mark a vertical line directly above the centerpoint of the wheel logo. I tied a few washers to the end of a 2 foot piece of string to use as a plumb weight. I taped the end of the string at the vertical line on fender and let the washer weight hang down. Then I got a millimeter ruler and measured the gap between the closest spot in the middle of the tire sidewall and the hanging string.

The front distance was only 3mm and the rear distance was only 5mm. I bought 3mm and 5mm Turner Big Pad Spacers because they fit the pad size on my stock BMW 400M winter wheels and Apex summer wheels perfectly.

These are very small. 3mm is about 1/8” and 5mm is less than 1/4”. But visually it made a big difference in relation to the fender lip (after lowering the chassis) to pull the tire out of the wheel well, even those small amounts. Even though the chassis height measurement had not changed, the tire/fender gap appeared to the eye to have been reduced. It was a pretty cool experiment.