My review: Koni Yellows / Eibach Springs on a daily driven M3

[ChapterM3]

By jittery, I mean bouncy and busy. They are simply too active and too eager to react. I have a two phase plan. First, I intend to back off the rear shocks by one click each time I drive to the office (10 miles one way with a perfect variety of road surfaces and speeds). Second, I will have the rear springs looked at for preload issues. If the rear spring has been adjusted (wound more tightly) to yield a lower ride height, I will have the spring returned to full extension.

My rear ride height is 13" and the initial installer told me this was "max height". Didn't seem right at the time. Doesn't seem right now. Maybe phase 3 is switching to a softer spring in the rear?! Idk. It shouldn't be this hard.

As I said above, I am strongly considering making a switch to Konis+Eibachs or Dinans . . . unless you experts counsel otherwise. It would be a bummer to lose my racecar stance, but it's not my racecar.

Although I made this original post a while ago when the car was still in Boston... we're now in LA. I still LOVE this setup for the streets here and for blasts in the canyons. I don't know if we've seen each other before at Newcomb's ranch but I have seen a few LSB's up there from time to time - If you want to feel this setup before pulling the trigger I'd be happy to meet up and have you feel it out - The car has new control arms and fresh OEM rubber all around as well. I have nothing but positive things to say about this OEM+ kit - But then again, I've never been in an Ohins setup!

[LSB4Me]

By jittery, I mean bouncy and busy. They are simply too active and too eager to react. I have a two phase plan. First, I intend to back off the rear shocks by one click each time I drive to the office (10 miles one way with a perfect variety of road surfaces and speeds). Second, I will have the rear springs looked at for preload issues. If the rear spring has been adjusted (wound more tightly) to yield a lower ride height, I will have the spring returned to full extension.

My rear ride height is 13" and the initial installer told me this was "max height". Didn't seem right at the time. Doesn't seem right now. Maybe phase 3 is switching to a softer spring in the rear?! Idk. It shouldn't be this hard.

As I said above, I am strongly considering making a switch to Konis+Eibachs or Dinans . . . unless you experts counsel otherwise. It would be a bummer to lose my racecar stance, but it's not my racecar.

[cobra]

This is interesting. Thanks, Tyler. My issue stems from the rear. After lengthening the shock bodies, I gained noticeable amounts of shock travel. This has taken the bump stops out of play and I can feel the components working better. However, I am still struggling to get the rear end to be less jittery over road imperfections. But . . . I have an idea.

I find the front to be perfectly compliant at the moment. After lowing the front one turn (3mm) a few months back, the front end softened up and began to behave nicely. I am wondering if the initial installer (not my current shop) left a bunch of pre-load on the springs. My thought is to have the rear springs inspected for preload and/or lowered one turn. Perhaps that will take some of the bounce out.

How would lengthening the shock bodies increase shock travel? I would think the opposite is true as it reduces bump travel.

The preload is nothing more than a ride height adjuster so long as you're not fully extending the shocks (jumping your car?). I doubt 1 turn of preload would cause a significant change. There may be some other factor that is being affected by the ride height change.

Can you describe this "jittery" feeling more?

Keep in mind - the rear is very sensitive to changes and drives a lot of your ride quality feeling. The rear pushes you forward against the seat back making you feel bumps easily. The rear end also must deal with acceleration forces and interact with anti-squat geometry. And the shocks in the rear are mounted aft of the axle which means changes to their settings has a more pronounces effect than the front. It all combines to make a pretty sensitive setup. I've found the same thing as you - that the front generally feels good despite big changes but there is a very narrow sweet spot for the rear.

[LSB4Me]

Your 400lb front springs are the problem I think Max. I just went down to 343lb from 400lb myself last week. 400/628 like ohilns have is "pitchy" as MrGizmo said in the recent Ohlins thread. I wouldn't go up in the rear on a street car, so I would go down in the front. I was very happy with 325lb. Andre is very happy with 325lb. There's 325lb/350lb in standard, then there's 60N/mm (343lb) and 6kg (336lb) in metric, BUT that would requie you to buy camber plates so you may wish to scrap the whole thing, sell the ohlins and go with what I made Andre or a tried and true combo like Eibach or Dinan springs on Koni. Or KWv2/PSS10, esp if you already have or are willing to buy a bigger front sway bar (for those kits' progressive springs).

There aren't great middle grounds for suspension. I would get street camber plates from GC or TMS and run lighter front springs, but it will cost another $600 or so, and you won't recoup much if anything of the stock mounts and ohlins front springs. Ohlins are about as good as it gets, damper wise. But if you are "no-compromise" in comfort terms, perhaps just fresh stock components and call it a day?

This is interesting. Thanks, Tyler. Weirdly enough, the issue stems from the rear. After lengthening the shock bodies, I gained noticeable amounts of shock travel. This has taken the bump stops out of play and I can feel the components working better. However, I am still struggling to get the rear end to be less jittery over road imperfections. But . . . I have an idea.

I find the front to be perfectly compliant at the moment. After lowing the front one turn (3mm) a few months back, the front end softened up and began to behave nicely. I am wondering if the initial installer (not my current shop) left a bunch of pre-load on the springs. My thought is to have the rear springs inspected for preload and/or lowered one turn. Perhaps that will take some of the bounce out.

[cobra]

Sorry to bump an old thread . . . but this one seems to have all the right info and members involved.

The roads in Los Angeles are quite poor (bumpy, uneven, lots of concrete expansion joints) and I just can't seem to find the same happy place with the Ohlins. My car doesn't see the track and, although I love the ride height/stance on the Ohlins, comfort and ride compliance are king.

What does the brain trust here think about switching from Ohins RT to Koni/Dinan or Koni/Eibach for comfort purposes?

I would run "soft" springs (300/500 rates) at stock height and either koni or bilstein dampers.

[Nate047]

Sorry to bump an old thread . . . but this one seems to have all the right info and members involved.

The roads in Los Angeles are quite poor (bumpy, uneven, lots of concrete expansion joints) and I just can't seem to find the same happy place with the Ohlins. My car doesn't see the track and, although I love the ride height/stance on the Ohlins, comfort and ride compliance are king.

What does the brain trust here think about switching from Ohins RT to Koni/Dinan or Koni/Eibach for comfort purposes?

I have Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs, I'm about to ruin my car so they will be for sale soon if you want. Located in Marina Del Rey.

[Tbonem3]

Your 400lb front springs are the problem I think Max. I just went down to 343lb from 400lb myself last week. 400/628 like ohilns have is "pitchy" as MrGizmo said in the recent Ohlins thread. I wouldn't go up in the rear on a street car, so I would go down in the front. I was very happy with 325lb. Andre is very happy with 325lb. There's 325lb/350lb in standard, then there's 60N/mm (343lb) and 6kg (336lb) in metric, BUT that would requie you to buy camber plates so you may wish to scrap the whole thing, sell the ohlins and go with what I made Andre or a tried and true combo like Eibach or Dinan springs on Koni. Or KWv2/PSS10, esp if you already have or are willing to buy a bigger front sway bar (for those kits' progressive springs).

There aren't great middle grounds for suspension. I would get street camber plates from GC or TMS and run lighter front springs, but it will cost another $600 or so, and you won't recoup much if anything of the stock mounts and ohlins front springs. Ohlins are about as good as it gets, damper wise. But if you are "no-compromise" in comfort terms, perhaps just fresh stock components and call it a day?

[LSB4Me]

Sorry to bump an old thread . . . but this one seems to have all the right info and members involved.

The roads in Los Angeles are quite poor (bumpy, uneven, lots of concrete expansion joints) and I just can't seem to find the same happy place with the Ohlins. My car doesn't see the track and, although I love the ride height/stance on the Ohlins, comfort and ride compliance are king.

What does the brain trust here think about switching from Ohins RT to Koni/Dinan or Koni/Eibach for comfort purposes?

[0-60motorsports]

CSL shocks, I'd imagine, are tuned for a lower spring rate for a lighter car. The eibach springs are 8% stiffer than regular factory m3, so probably a mis-match for csl dampers.

Thank you brother

[Tbonem3]

CSL shocks, I'd imagine, are tuned for a lower spring rate for a lighter car. The eibach springs are 8% stiffer than regular factory m3, so probably a mis-match for csl dampers.

[0-60motorsports]

has anyone ever tried Eibach Springs with CSL shocks?

[heinzboehmer]

I noticed when photodocumenting mine, the height of the camera, and the angle of the incident light can make the gap look different in dimension.

Yeah, that's true.

I did have my camera on a tripod and tried to both park the car in the same spot and have the camera in the same spot. Definitely not an exact science though. Having other cars around meant I couldn't place everything in the exact same spot, for instance.

[Obioban]

Konis and Eibach/Dinan/Stock springs is about as good as a DD suspension gets, IMO. Stock springs if you like more ground clearance, Dinan or Kono springs if you can't deal with the stock ride height. Keep the stock hats/RSMs, fresh bushings all around, add some sealed monoball RTABs, and you'll have a super dialed in, very stock NHV, setup.

[FBloggs]

Retook the pics. Drop is super slight, but you can see that it's a little bit lower than before (most notably in the front).

I noticed when photodocumenting mine, the height of the camera, and the angle of the incident light can make the gap look different in dimension.

[heinzboehmer]

Did the car end up dropping more with time? Or was that the final ride height?

Retook the pics. Drop is super slight, but you can see that it's a little bit lower than before (most notably in the front).