[sapphire black]

Hey members,

I've spent hours and hours searching but I am still hesitant to pull the trigger on these springs. I'm looking at the Eibach ProKit for the mild drop with minimal change to spring rate. I noticed there are lots of pictures of X-drive coupes and a few rwd gran coupe cars with this kit, which all look even front to rear, but I can't find many pictures for RWD coupes. I have come across quite a few threads saying there is a notable rake for rwd 440 coupes caused by the springs.

Eibach advertises 0.8 drop in front and 0.4 drop in rear for cars with adaptive suspension

In this video - the drop looks perfect, even front to rear. You'll notice that he also mentions that the springs drop the car a bit more in the rear for the gran coupe as compared to the coupe:

In this video, showing the 440 rwd coupe - there is a notable gap in the rear compared to the front. Especially in the shot at 34 seconds in:

I was able to find one user who addressed this by installing prokit springs in the front and sportline springs in the rear - to give an even 0.8 drop all around. exE36M3

Here is the thread I was looking at: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1644558

Unfortunately, it seems the pictures are no longer shown on the thread for some reason so I can't see with my own eyes to verify.

It is a very old thread, so hopefully exE36M3 can chime in and re-upload those pics.

If anyone has pics of a RWD 440 with adaptive suspension and eibach prokit springs, please upload them here, it would be GREATLY appreciated! I'm half hoping to just go with the prokit and that the rake is acceptable, but in the video above with the dark blue 440, it looks pretty rough

Otherwise, I'm thinking to follow the mix/match front and rear eibach springs. My concern is that the prokit are progressive while the sportline are linear and somewhat stiffer. Are there any major risks to running this kind of set up?

I don't really do performance driving; the drop is mainly for aesthetics. FWIW I also intend to install 12/15 spacers and f8x bumpstops, but I don't think those should impact the end result.


Here are the springs I'm looking at (individually packaged):
https://eibachshop.com/index.php?k22...rmance-springs

[123Britt]

For a mild drop and matched to your struts -- why not just go BMW?

.
20mm drop for non-sport and 10mm drop from M-Sport models.
.

[sapphire black]

Ive read about the bmw m performance springs but as far as I know theyre for the 435 not the 440 and apparently dont play well with EDC.

The springs should probably work though but I’m having trouble finding the springs alone - seems only the full kit is being sold (includes sway bars and other things)

[sapphire black]

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...g/31336860630/

Found the link to the springs but seems they do not fit

[exE36M3]

sapphire black - I gotcha Feel free to message me directly if you have more questions. I work as a Brand & Creative Director so I tend to have A LOT pickier eye than more people.

With the stock 225/45-18 and 255/40-18 wheels/tires
With just the Eiback Pro kit you'll get a .8" and .4" drop. You can see the space at the rear is more than the front. There's a slight rake/tight forward. It's not that bad, I only noticed because I'm stupidly picky.



Swapping only the rear spring from the Eibach Sport kit offers an .8" drop.
You can see the front and rear are visually even. Note, this is with a 235/40-19 and 265/35-19 tire. It's 1 finger front and 1 finger rear from fender to tire and my tire set-up is about .4"-.6" taller than stock.


And yes, I bought TWO full kits to try this out... although I had a gift card, so one set was almost free.

As far as the ride. It's a decent street solution. It still feels like stock, cornering is a little better as you pick up like -.8 camber.

I had to pull the springs because the tire width and offset I am running rubs the front tires pretty significantly. (My offset is like et34 with a 19x9 rim/235-40 tire, an et38 would have fixed that.).
If you stick with the stock 225 and 255 width, you won't rub unless you are travelling with 4 people and luggage and hit a freeway bump at speed (high compression situation), but flip to sport mode to stiffen things up and that won't happen.

[johnung]

IMO be careful because it’s easy to be reading these spring drop estimates and specs and make incorrect assumptions about how a spring might ride and drop on your own car.

I used the Eibach German catalog to research because it lists the individual front and rear springs in each kit. (See photo for some of the information that I collected that pertains to your 440i RWD.)

Then I wrote up a list of questions about specific struts or shocks compared to the ones in the kit specified for my car which I used as a baseline. I asked about spring rates and difference in drop compared to my baseline.

TAKE BASELINE CHASSIS HEIGHT MEASUREMENTS
Fill the gas tank. (16g of gas weighs ~100lbs) Make sure to park on a flat surface (concrete is best) and take stock measurements at all four corners. Measure from center of BMW wheel cap straight up to the lowest fender lip. This measurement is always the same regardless of wheels/tires. Expect their to be differences between left and right sides. It’s normal.

So you could be fixating on tire/fender gap by staring at one side of the car, and it could be different on the other side.

Also Eibach estimates are pretty good, but springs and cars vary so results can vary. The only way to get around this fact is to pay much more for the adjustability of coilovers. With your car, to keep the expensive high tech Adaptive Suspension that you already invested in, IMO the KW DDC kit would be the one to get.

IMO if you go with just springs and you end up with a slight positive rake that actually looks good, compared to the XDrive reverse rake with a huge gap over the front tire. And remember it could look slightly different on one side of the car versus the other side.

Hope this helps!

[sapphire black]

Originally Posted by exE36M3

sapphire black - I gotcha Feel free to message me directly if you have more questions. I work as a Brand & Creative Director so I tend to have A LOT pickier eye than more people.

With the stock 225/45-18 and 255/40-18 wheels/tires
With just the Eiback Pro kit you'll get a .8" and .4" drop. You can see the space at the rear is more than the front. There's a slight rake/tight forward. It's not that bad, I only noticed because I'm stupidly picky.



Swapping only the rear spring from the Eibach Sport kit offers an .8" drop.
You can see the front and rear are visually even. Note, this is with a 235/40-19 and 265/35-19 tire. It's 1 finger front and 1 finger rear from fender to tire and my tire set-up is about .4"-.6" taller than stock.


And yes, I bought TWO full kits to try this out... although I had a gift card, so one set was almost free.

As far as the ride. It's a decent street solution. It still feels like stock, cornering is a little better as you pick up like -.8 camber.

I had to pull the springs because the tire width and offset I am running rubs the front tires pretty significantly. (My offset is like et34 with a 19x9 rim/235-40 tire, an et38 would have fixed that.).
If you stick with the stock 225 and 255 width, you won't rub unless you are travelling with 4 people and luggage and hit a freeway bump at speed (high compression situation), but flip to sport mode to stiffen things up and that won't happen.

Thanks man - really appreciate you taking the time to write this. For some reason my earlier response didn’t post.

These pictures are a life saver - Ive been looking all over for these hahaha.

I think I’m leaning towards your solution with the sportlines in the rear, I’m also very picky visually and know that the forward rake would probably bother me too much.

exE36M3 - i had 2 more questions. I noticed you had tried the f8x bumpstops before but ended up removing them - can you give me a bit more insight on that? I understand the stock bumpstops will probably provide for a worse ride but better handling. Personally, i dont do performance driving - just regular spirited driving here and there when safe - but by no means going 10/10ths

The other concern is spacer measurements - im planning to go with 12 mm in front and 15 in rear. Im not sure how to read offsets but would you expect a rubbing issue on this setup? [edit] did some more research into tire offset measurements - it seems that with my stock size 19 inch 225x40 and 255x35 tires, I shouldnt have an issue - but i may be reconsidering going 10/12 instead of 12/15 - again open to any input on this.


johnung

Thanks again for the input - I’m definitely going to take those measurements you noted and post with pics of the before/after, though it may be a few weeks from start to finish. Hopefully these can help someone in the same situation as me, because for some reason there’s like 10 posts on xdrive suspension setups for every one post on rwd - let alone the gran coupe seeming to be more common as well. Also the drop seems perfect on the 3 series but the 4 series threads are very muddy and uncertain.

I did do a rudimentary fender to rim edge measurement and determined a slight forward rake but havent documented anything yet. I would be okay with the forward rake - its a much better stance than reverse rake (i used to have an xdrive 440).

But my main issue is the difference in wheel gap. If you look at the tanzanite blue 440 coupe in the video above, the rear wheel gap looks absolutely massive compared to the front - this issue does not seem to appear in rwd gran coupes - and the poster also noted the GC gets a bit lower in the rear. Hopefully, this prokit/sportline combo resolves the issue - will keep posting with updates


Again thanks all

[johnung]

Originally Posted by sapphire black

Thanks man - really appreciate you taking the time to write this. For some reason my earlier response didn’t post.

These pictures are a life saver - Ive been looking all over for these hahaha.

I think I’m leaning towards your solution with the sportlines in the rear, I’m also very picky visually and know that the forward rake would probably bother me too much.

exE36M3 - i had 2 more questions. I noticed you had tried the f8x bumpstops before but ended up removing them - can you give me a bit more insight on that? I understand the stock bumpstops will probably provide for a worse ride but better handling. Personally, i dont do performance driving - just regular spirited driving here and there when safe - but by no means going 10/10ths

The other concern is spacer measurements - im planning to go with 12 mm in front and 15 in rear. Im not sure how to read offsets but would you expect a rubbing issue on this setup? [edit] did some more research into tire offset measurements - it seems that with my stock size 19 inch 225x40 and 255x35 tires, I shouldnt have an issue - but i may be reconsidering going 10/12 instead of 12/15 - again open to any input on this.


johnung

Thanks again for the input - I’m definitely going to take those measurements you noted and post with pics of the before/after, though it may be a few weeks from start to finish. Hopefully these can help someone in the same situation as me, because for some reason there’s like 10 posts on xdrive suspension setups for every one post on rwd - let alone [...]

“ I understand the stock bumpstops will probably provide for a worse ride but better handling.”
Not true. Lowering while leaving the stock bumpstops is likely to prematurely bottom out the dampers on the bumpstops, screwing up both the ride and the handling.

[cfm56d7b]

sapphire black, if the springs you eventually select may not provide precisely the drop you want, would that be a barrier?

Springs provide only one drop - with no tuning options after initial installation.

[sapphire black]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

sapphire black, if the springs you eventually select may not provide precisely the drop you want, would that be a barrier?

Springs provide only one drop - with no tuning options after initial installation.

Ive definitely considered coilovers for this reason - however I am saving for an M4 (or supra or m2) and coilovers would eat into that significantly. I only plan to keep the car for 2 more years, so I can’t justify spending 3k+ for suspension that may not be compatible with my next car.

I’ve spent way too much time looking at spring options so I’m feeling pretty confident I can get the look I want haha. Planning to place an order on the parts tonight hopefully.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by sapphire black

Ive definitely considered coilovers for this reason - however I am saving for an M4 (or supra or m2) and coilovers would eat into that significantly. I only plan to keep the car for 2 more years, so I can’t justify spending 3k+ for suspension that may not be compatible with my next car.

I’ve spent way too much time looking at spring options so I’m feeling pretty confident I can get the look I want haha. Planning to place an order on the parts tonight hopefully.

No worries. When your M4 arrives, please share pictures. :-)

[sapphire black]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

No worries. When your M4 arrives, please share pictures. :-)

Whatever I end up in, I’ll never forget the 440 - its such a great car I might just end up keeping it 😁

Either way, plenty of pics to come

[sapphire black]

Update -

I took some Fender to Rim measurements to confirm the current stance.

I got approximately 4 inches all around (at most 3mm difference which can be due to a variety of things - bottom line is that the fender to rim is the same front and back)

Interestingly, since the front wheel well is larger than the rear, the fact that the fender to rim gap is the same between front and rear indicates there must already exist a slight forward rake in the chassis - but as the gaps are the same, it appears visually flat. Just something to think about.

So looks like its decided, to keep the even gaps - im placing my order for the front prokit springs and the rear sportline springs + f80 bumps and 12/15 spacers

Here goes nothing - will post back in a few weeks once they’re all in

[exE36M3]

sapphire black - been away for the holidays...

1. Bumpstops, did the "Dinan" versions - so shorter front and rear. With stock tire widths/height, it was fine under loads. Had mild rub (comfort mode) on freeway with full trunk of luggage and passengers in all seats.

2. Spacers... I ran the +15 in the rear and +10 fronts. No rub in the fender well. I ran the Stanceworks set.

Around town... just the springs upgrade and stock EDC shocks the car will drive and ride close to stock, maybe a little more resistance when you steer. Less car lean in corners. On the freeway, high speed dips, it will float a bit like stock. If you ever get bored, flash the suspension with the Dinan software. It moves Sport up to Comfort and Sport becomes like Sport +50%.