[turbo4]

I have been reading this forum for a long time. Many people improving bounciness of F30 xdrive choose either to replace the stock shocks or replace springs. Some go for complete set up with coilovers like KW V1. Everyone that has gone this road (replacing either) has good reviews.

My question is what is the difference in real world daily driving when comparing both approaches? Reading all the comments it can be confusing, since people that replaced shocks and people that only replaced springs have very good reviews but they are very similar. The car handles better, eliminated bouncines, better driving dynamics etc.
What I would like to find out, how just replacing shocks (e.g. Bilstein B6 HD) would differ from only replacing coils (Dinan for example). My goal is to have a planted but not too firm ride as this is my dd. By planted I mean the suspension is not loose, as currently is in situations were driving over many small bumps on the road.

I know that the chances of finding someone that has gone and done both may be small but hey, I will try. Maybe someone out here on the forum has been through this and can offer good advice. Much appreciate it.

[RM7]

If you don't have the performance suspension already: sways.

Sways if you want your car to handle faster, respond quicker, stay level in turns, make the most of a wider tire, etc. Otherwise, unless you change shocks and springs, you'll end up oversprung or under-damped.

[cfm56d7b]

How are the roads in Edmonton? What wheels & tires do you have: 17", 18", or 19"?

Without a budget in mind, it's very difficult to suggest a course of action. I have 2013 335i xDrive sedan and had to go through the same evaluation that you are going through at the moment.

I'd like to suggest a few things which will help you determine what to do next, beginning with the first logical (however not the best) choice:

1. Lowering springs. I don't suggest lowering springs when it's the only suspension component being changed. Your OEM struts are likely soft and may not be able to accommodate the force being dampened as a result of new springs being installed. It's simply impossible to _properly_ match the OEM strut to the non-OEM (likely to be much stiffer) spring. The outcome will be a stiff spring poorly matched with a soft OEM strut causing a bounce - the very result you probably do not want after investing in labor charges to install the springs.

2. Better struts.

3. Coilovers. KW Street Comfort are a great choice balancing cost and handling improvement. After one year of driving w/KW Street Comfort coilovers, I am very happy with my choice.

[turbo4]

Thanks guy for your suggestions. Well, the roads in my city are not the best but I think nowadays that is the case for every city in US and Canada. Up north were I am, the differences in temps between summer and winter can be up huge, winter -30 C and summer +27 C. You do the math. For some reason Edmonton city planners do a great job and put manholes no, not in the middle of the lane, its always on the sides. If you ever in the city and you see people driving strange it is because they try to not hit the manholes on the roads. Its pathetic I say. I have traveled around the world, US, Asia and Europe and I do not see so many manholes on the roads as I do in my own city.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. I was thinking the KW street Comfort but few people complain that they ended up with the clinking sounds once installed. I do not want to lower the car too much as I think I would be plowing the snow for the city in the winter and not getting paid . I am interested in getting a better planted, no clinking suspension on my car.
Lots of people I read on this forum went with Dinan springs and are very happy with the results.
But, I wonder how this setup compares with replacing stock shocks with something like Bilsteins B6? What is a real difference in car dynamics between these 2 configurations? My stock RF's are at the end of the life and I am planning to ditch my RF's this summer and replace with summer performance tires. Form what the people say this should make things much better.

[cryptocar]

Originally Posted by turbo4

Thanks guy for your suggestions. Well, the roads in my city are not the best but I think nowadays that is the case for every city in US and Canada. Up north were I am, the differences in temps between summer and winter can be up huge, winter -30 C and summer +27 C. You do the math. For some reason Edmonton city planners do a great job and put manholes no, not in the middle of the lane, its always on the sides. If you ever in the city and you see people driving strange it is because they try to not hit the manholes on the roads. Its pathetic I say. I have traveled around the world, US, Asia and Europe and I do not see so many manholes on the roads as I do in my own city.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. I was thinking the KW street Comfort but few people complain that they ended up with the clinking sounds once installed. I do not want to lower the car too much as I think I would be plowing the snow for the city in the winter and not getting paid . I am interested in getting a better planted, no clinking suspension on my car.
Lots of people I read on this forum went with Dinan springs and are very happy with the results.
But, I wonder how this setup compares with replacing stock shocks with something like Bilsteins B6? What is a real difference in car dynamics between these 2 configurations? My stock RF's are at the end of the life and I am planning to ditch my RF's this summer and replace with summer performance tires. Form what the people say this should make things much better.

I have Dinan springs now they made a great improvement over my factory EDC and were even better when I added Dinans Shockware. However I wanted something more since the over damping is the result of the stock shocks/struts. Dinan and many others suggested that the Dinan springs in combination with Bilstein B8s makes for a fantastic ride. For me this wasn't an option since I was unwilling to give up my EDC so I decided to go with KW EDC Coilovers. Set to arrive and be installed tomorrow
I live in Chicago my 335xi is my DD and the lowering springs surprisingly led to 0 problems in the snow this year only issue is that you need to take special care entering/leaving steep grade changes like driveways, I took a very small chunk out of one of my front splitters, but covered it with CF panels.

Last year on stock springs I bottomed out more than once in deep snow(it was a crazy storm parts of my driveway had drifts up to 8ft), but this year I had no problems, even in the same exact snow as I was driving my S63AMG(AWD) and Tesla P85D(AWD). Both those cars had adjustable air suspensions to jack up to escape snow or terrain and both struggled to even move in the snow in my driveway while my Dinan Spring lowered F30 just plowed through it all no issues whatsoever.

[bbog2008]

You are in Edmonton as I. Pm me and I will tell you my experience. Or read my posts.