Fortune Auto MSC Muller coilover review

[clawhamm3r]

Yeah, they don't adjust for that, unfortunately. You can swap the top plates for Vorshlag plates so you can adjust for caster if needed. I've done my own alignment using toe plates, strings, measuring tape, and a camber/caster gauge, and the car is pretty good - although my tires are so bad now its hard to tell if the alignment is off or the tires are bad. I just bought a new set of tires (woohoo) so once I get around to mounting those I'm going to take the car down to AR and have them do a proper alignment and go from there. If I need to get a set of Vorshlag plates I will.

I was just asking because you seemed to have put a lot of thought into this and totally missed something pretty important (I'm currently in the same boat). I had custom BC's built on Swift springs, and never thought anything about the caster. My suspension shop noted they couldn't adjust it and I knew that was normal. What I didn't realize until the guy posted on here with his offset BCs was that installing a non-caster adjustable/non-offset plate was going to take away caster.

The car is more unstable at highway speeds, and it it doesn't self steer/center as much as it used to. I find myself sawing at the wheel more when messing around on the street ( you know, just like letting it hang out on u-turns and such). I always attributed it to the aggressive alignment spec, especially the floating front end feeling at speed which you get from more negative camber. I guess it was compounded by the lack of caster too.

After that guy's thread I went back through my records and found the alignment sheet, sure enough, 4.33 degrees of caster per side. I think factory is 6.55 and we all know you want 7*+...was pretty shocked I missed something so obvious. So now I'm looking at Vorschlag or maybe Turner hybrids, can't wait to get them and get a new alignment and see if I get that classic E46 self-steering feel back.

Also +1 on all the Taiwanese parts. They are all the same and sometimes assembled here. I like that about Feal and FA. Off the shelf BCs are assembled in Taiwan. I was looking at FAs but my buddy was pit crewing for Chelsea Denofa back when he was still drifting an E46 and Chelsea hooked us up with custom builds for our cars. When they do custom builds they just take the off the shelf Johnnies and disassemble them and revalve lol. And in all the conversations I had with him on my build he never once mentioned caster lol.

[DJAM3]

30th drive and more thoughts:

I'd like to go down to a 7k front spring as I think that will give me a bit more adjustability and be closer to that "flat-ride" harmony. While I'm happy with what I have now, I'm hoping the softer front spring will let the harmonics of the car work in my favor.

The NVH is still annoying. While I don't notice it most of the time driving, just going down my driveway first thing it's like "HEY you're in a race car!!!!"

I think you'll be happy going to 7k front springs with your GC sway bar. I went with 7k front and 12k rear FA 500s and they feel pretty on point. Digs into corners, stays flat, and soaks up everything. The downside is the car is so planted you have to work harder to slide the rear out. Regarding NVH I'm not getting any noise from the camber plates at slow speeds. Maybe it's the softer springs or you need more pre-load? I might also look at Vorshlag plates because my caster is about 1 degree less than the factory spec.

[wsybert]

Great writeup and thanks. When I read your intro, i thought you were talking about me! lol... we have an eerily similar background.
I just installed my FA Muller's the week... went with 8K front and 10k rear. Still in the process of the SMG to manual conversion... so I haven't driven it yet. Timely review and can't wait to get it out on the road. Will update once I am finished.
These went on a 2003 Steel Grey M3.

[enjoy_m3]

Thanks for the thorough honest review liam, I was looking into similar suspension setups. This will definitely help me make a much better decision on my next set of coilovers.

[Toby22]

Nice review, thank you! I always had some suspicion about them being actually made in US as there is a sort of clone for them called feal suspension: https://fealsuspensionstore.com/feal...06-bmw-m3-e46/ That usually would indicate a manufacturing at some big asian factory (btw nothing wrong with that). I guess, in this situation they may buy casings and do all internals. Anyway, it is a very tempting set especially after your post. You say they cost like PSS10?

I thought it was common knowledge that Fortune Auto are Chinese/Taiwan coilovers that are assembled in US. K-sports are also US based but source their suspension in China/Taiwan etc

[liam821]

Fortune auto looks suspiciously similar to megan/feal/BC/Apexi/D2/Ksport/Tanabe and all the other white label coil overs that come out of the same factory in Taiwan. Yeah, the human putting them together is in the US, but man, they sure look like the parts came out of the same factory.

Great write-up, I really enjoyed it. I recently did similar check-sum decision making on coil-overs and the Ohlins won for me, although I would of liked independent right height adjustment without changing preload on the front.

Thanks! And yeah, they look so similar to all the white label Taiwanese sets out there...They're not a huge company like Bilstein or Ohlins so making the thousand different mounting hardware for so many different models is probably cost preventative. My guess is they're buying misc parts from the same Taiwanese supplier just like BC/Feal/Apex etc - because they look identical - and then are using their own damper design - I'm not 100% sure but it makes sense.

Nice write up Liam! I'm running a very similar setup, BWS 500S with 9kg front (500) and 11kg rear (615) Swift springs, 16 clicks in the rear from soft, and 4 clicks from soft in the front. These are actually Fortune Auto coilover's valved to Broadway Static's specifications.

I previously ran BC Racing coiler's with 8k and 12k springs. The BWS 500's were a very noticeable improvement from the BC's. I don't notice the NVH much at all. The only thing different with my setup is the rear control arm Rogue Engineering reinforcement plates with custom made dampers underneath. Take a look at the photos to compare the similarity between FA and BWS.

Very similar. You and I ended up with similar settings on the dampers too.

[WOLFN8TR]

I do believe they are 5” springs. I used some 1/8” ABS Plastic Sheet. You can get it on Amazon.

24"x24"x 1/8" ABS PLASTIC VACUUM FORMING SHEET TEXTURED FRONT SMOOTH BACK

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKKOK5G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_W6WyFbCH5M3WN

[rbg]

How short are you rear springs? What material you use for the dampers?

[WOLFN8TR]

Nice write up Liam! I'm running a very similar setup, BWS 500S with 9kg front (500) and 11kg rear (615) Swift springs, 16 clicks in the rear from soft, and 4 clicks from soft in the front. These are actually Fortune Auto coilover's valved to Broadway Static's specifications.

I previously ran BC Racing coiler's with 8k and 12k springs. The BWS 500's were a very noticeable improvement from the BC's. I don't notice the NVH much at all. The only thing different with my setup is the rear control arm Rogue Engineering reinforcement plates with custom made dampers underneath. Take a look at the photos to compare the similarity between FA and BWS.

[Epsilon]

Fortune auto looks suspiciously similar to megan/feal/BC/Apexi/D2/Ksport/Tanabe and all the other white label coil overs that come out of the same factory in Taiwan. Yeah, the human putting them together is in the US, but man, they sure look like the parts came out of the same factory.

I totally agree about the similarity. While these Mueller's are digressive pistons, BC does make a digressive all inclusive set too for the E46M.


Awesome write-up Liam!

[S14]

They're around $2k, yeah. I'm not sure who makes Feal suspension, but a quick google says they're made for Feal to their spec in Asia. With that said, while FA assembles and engineers their kits/dampers here in the US, I seriously doubt they produce every single piece that goes into each damper themselves. I'd imagine they have some sort of supply chain for all the shims/rods/seals/whatever and so on that goes into each damper and it's very likely some of those parts are produced in other countries.

You can watch a video from Speed Academy that shows how a FA damper is made here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqHg_Gf7JSo

I think if you don't want something out of the box, do your homework, and order exactly what you want you're going to be pretty happy with the results, especially for the money.

Fortune auto looks suspiciously similar to megan/feal/BC/Apexi/D2/Ksport/Tanabe and all the other white label coil overs that come out of the same factory in Taiwan. Yeah, the human putting them together is in the US, but man, they sure look like the parts came out of the same factory.

Great write-up, I really enjoyed it. I recently did similar check-sum decision making on coil-overs and the Ohlins won for me, although I would of liked independent right height adjustment without changing preload on the front.

[liam821]

Nice review, thank you! I always had some suspicion about them being actually made in US as there is a sort of clone for them called feal suspension: https://fealsuspensionstore.com/feal...06-bmw-m3-e46/ That usually would indicate a manufacturing at some big asian factory (btw nothing wrong with that). I guess, in this situation they may buy casings and do all internals. Anyway, it is a very tempting set especially after your post. You say they cost like PSS10?

They're around $2k, yeah. I'm not sure who makes Feal suspension, but a quick google says they're made for Feal to their spec in Asia. With that said, while FA assembles and engineers their kits/dampers here in the US, I seriously doubt they produce every single piece that goes into each damper themselves. I'd imagine they have some sort of supply chain for all the shims/rods/seals/whatever and so on that goes into each damper and it's very likely some of those parts are produced in other countries.

You can watch a video from Speed Academy that shows how a FA damper is made here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqHg_Gf7JSo

I think if you don't want something out of the box, do your homework, and order exactly what you want you're going to be pretty happy with the results, especially for the money.

[rbg]

Nice review, thank you! I always had some suspicion about them being actually made in US as there is a sort of clone for them called feal suspension: https://fealsuspensionstore.com/feal...06-bmw-m3-e46/ That usually would indicate a manufacturing at some big asian factory (btw nothing wrong with that). I guess, in this situation they may buy casings and do all internals. Anyway, it is a very tempting set especially after your post. You say they cost like PSS10?

[liam821]

What are you doing about front caster since those camber plates don't do caster?

Yeah, they don't adjust for that, unfortunately. You can swap the top plates for Vorshlag plates so you can adjust for caster if needed. I've done my own alignment using toe plates, strings, measuring tape, and a camber/caster gauge, and the car is pretty good - although my tires are so bad now its hard to tell if the alignment is off or the tires are bad. I just bought a new set of tires (woohoo) so once I get around to mounting those I'm going to take the car down to AR and have them do a proper alignment and go from there. If I need to get a set of Vorshlag plates I will.

[clawhamm3r]

What are you doing about front caster since those camber plates don't do caster?