Ride height options

[mthreecpe]

Just picked up a 50k mile 2010 coupe. The car has Eibach Pro kit springs which (from what I see on various vendor sites) lower it by about an inch vs. stock. This creates problems with some scraping from garage/driveway situations (even if taken at an angle), as well as sometimes even with smooth undulating backroads where compression alone can cause a scrape. So I need to increase the ride height.

50k seems premature for a suspension refresh, but I wanted to see what my options are given the labor for putting stock springs back on the car isn’t likely much different than the labor for a suspension refresh with new shocks/struts. The car does have EDC, however I don’t necessarily need to preserve that functionality. Ideas r.e. fixing the ride height issue?

[Richbot]

I’d try to find some stock ZCP springs from a coupe if I were you. They are 10mm shorter than the non-zcp springs. It made a nice but not scrape-tastic difference in ride height on my 08 sedan. Could still do alleys and speed bumps and stuff without much stress, but still lower enough to look better than the old non-zcp springs and get a bit more front camber

Lots of people sell take-offs for reasonable money or you can order new for not reasonable money. They’ll work fine with EDC and the car will be more compliant over rough stuff than it would be witn even the softest coil over setups

[slicer]

Do you have stock tire sizes? Ride height can be affected by tires as well. Sometimes people put the wrong diameter tires on cars they are about to sell.

You may also want to give it some time. There are ways to adjust your driving style to avoid rubbing on driveway exits. 45 degree angle... You shouldn't be rubbing on a regular road unless something is hanging down or a wide tire is rubbing your fender. Note that there are sacrificial plastic under panels beneath the front of car. That's another area people neglect. Those pieces can break and hang down.

Eibach springs are a very mild drop. Just 1/2" more than the comp pack ride height. I have had them in past and drove through MN winters on them.

[Redd]

If road undulations are causing your car to jack down, you may have damper issues.

[mthreecpe]

The car has BBS 19 inch wheels with 255/35/19 tires up front and 285/30/19 in the back. Rough math suggests based on wheels/tires alone, my front would be 3mm higher than a stock car with 19 inch wheels and my rear would be 7mm lower.

I'm already sacrificing some of the protective plastic underneath the car. This is not a sustainable strategy IMO so I'm going to have to figure out something on the ride height.

Perhaps the noise I hear with road undulations periodically is a function of there being less space in the wheel well given my wider tires and lower ride height. The tolerance in there when the car is at full lock are very, very small.

What are thoughts on merely swapping OEM springs (comp pckg or otherwise) to get some ride height back vs. doing an early refresh (at 50k miles) on some of the suspension components given likely similar shop hours with either option? If the early refresh option, what specifically would people recommend for a daily driver?

Also, I've seen the 10mm lower claim on ZCP cars, but is this achieved with springs or something else? Can't tell if the ZCP springs are different than the non-ZCP springs...

[mthreecpe]

So is 50k way premature for a suspension refresh?

[M_Chronos]

Originally Posted by mthreecpe

So is 50k way premature for a suspension refresh?

No.

[mthreecpe]

Originally Posted by M_Chronos

No.

What items would you recommend I replace during the spring swap?

[Skhan109]

If interested I have two front stock springs that came off E92 Competition.

[M_Chronos]

Originally Posted by mthreecpe

What items would you recommend I replace during the spring swap?

I took your questions to be 'is it too early to consider replacing worn components at 50k miles?' So, no, it isn't so I would recommend looking over your suspension components and replace what shows signs of excessive wear.

[mthreecpe]

I picked up some ZCP springs (in my effort to reclaim some ride height with the prior owner's Eibach set-up being too low for me), so now the decision is if 53k miles is pre-mature for refreshing other suspension items given the cost of labor being about the same for a spring swap vs. a spring swap + refresh. Is 53k too soon for new shocks, mounts, and bump stops?

If a broader refresh is in order, I'm pretty indifferent towards EDC, so should I go with OEM non-EDC shocks, Bilstein B6, or Bilstein B8?

[Richbot]

If you're deleting EDC because you don't want the expense, I'd get OEM 1M dampers and bumpstops, and not even bother replacing the upper mounts, because mine were perfectly fine after that much time on the car

[mthreecpe]

What's the advantage of 1M dampers vs. OEM non-EDC M3 dampers? Looks like prices are similar.

I have noticed a slight squeak/chirp from the suspension over certain bumps. Perhaps a sign of aging dampers? What's damper life for the e92 OE units?

[Richbot]

The OEM non-ZCP fixed dampers are fine, they're just not designed around the OEM ZCP wheel/tire setup and spring/bumpstops which h all have different part numbers obviously and IIRC they all cost around the same.

To my butt, the 1M rear shocks are stiffer than OE non-ZCP passive shocks

And theyre still aluminum, the aluminum factory strut body is actually a pretty trick part that saves a bunch of weight Most aftermarket options use steel struts which adds quite a bit (5lb or so) of unsprung weight. The damping is usually better enough to make up for the weight penalty, but it's something to think about

[mthreecpe]

It's a non-ZCP car with OEM 18 wheels...the only ZCP component is the springs that I'll be using to regain some ride height. Would you still recommend the 1m shocks given this? Thoughts on the B6 or B8 as an option vs. non-EDC OEM shocks? Thanks!

[Richbot]

I had the B8 rear shocks for a while- didn't think they were much better than stock with the ZCP springs, control was improved, but not significantly, and the stock shocks had a lot of time on them by then.

If you have EDC I would just stick with the EDC dampers unless one is broken.