[Roasty]

hi all

bought a second hand 2012 F30 335 sometime earlier this year. the car came with the KW DDC plg and play kit installed.

ever since i got the car, i felt as though the ride was somewhat harsh, with too much dampening. the ride also didn't feel as though it changed when switching from Comfort to Sports mode.

sent it for an oil servicing and my mechanic informed me that the KW DDC coilovers were not connected to the factory system. instead, the previous owner had disconnected the harnesses and installed "deletes" so the car doesn't throw an error code.

i was curious as to why the previous owner did what he did. nonetheless, I went ahead and ordered the appropriate BMW wire harnesses to reconnect the coilovers to the factory adaptive suspension system. unfortunately, the adaptors for the harness and the connection point on the coilovers did not match. thankfully, my mechanic was able to do some magic; he removed the connection points from the harness and coilovers and replaced them with a set of male and female adaptors to which he re-connected the wires to.

Before and after.. if i could make a comparison, the coilovers with the "deletes" feel like constant Sports mode, but with too much dampening. its harsh and somewhat jarring over humps and bumps. my wife did not like the ride comfort at all.

After reconnecting the coilovers to the factory adaptive system, the ride on Comfort mode is much much smoother. all the small imperfections on the road have been ironed out. at higher speeds on the highway, the car does seem to float a little, which i dont entirely like. for eg, when the road suddenly dips, the car has some mild bounce up and down for a short distance after the road dip. more importantly, the wife is very pleased with the car now, and i dont have to worry too much about the car shaking around too much and waking up my baby.

Switching to Sports mode, i can immediately feel the difference and tell that the coilovers are functioning. Road feel is heightened and car feels more planted and stable at higher speeds. i do note that there is still a good amount of dampening (not too much, not too little), which was sorely absent when the car was on the "deletes". whenever i'm in the car by myself, Sports mode is the happy place for me.

Although I have H&R front and rear sway bars installed, on both comfort and sports mode, I did notice even more reduced body roll on turning after having reconnected to adaptive system. In addition, there is almost no front or rear dipping of the car when braking or accelerating. these are great when driving around in Sports mode.

All in all I am happy with the way the car rides on the KW DDC coilovers. If i had one gripe, it would be that when going over those abrupt, short length speed bumps/humps in parking lots at very slow speeds, the car does bounce up and down quite a lot. however, if i drive over them at slightly faster speeds, the adaptive system kicks in and reduces the bounce after crossing over the bump/hump.

I do wish I was able to compare these coilovers to say, stock suspension or M-sports.. perhaps someone who has had these before and subsequently installed KW DDC coils can chime in.

also, are not more people on this system? if not, is there a reason why?

this is a pic of my car. lowered to 1 finger front and rear. no rubbing. 19" 8.5J/9.5J, et35 and et40, 225/35/19 and 255/30/19 michelin PSS. i can actually lower the car much more, but at risk of crapping the car out at my workplace carpark entry ramp...

[Big Nodge]

Thanks for the review. Once hooked up do the coilovers produce error codes? I thought you only needed the deletes if you were replacing your OEM EDC system with a non-adaptive setup. Like you I'm scratching my head as to why the prior owner would buy a DDC setup and then not run it to its full potential.

I've been considering these but it's hard to find anyone with real world experience. As far as I know there is only one user (besides you) on this board running them. I think the reason is pretty simple: in the US at least they are very expensive at around $3.5k.

[Tchao]

Just FYI:

Too much "dampening" equals a harsh ride, compression & rebound are set too stiff.

Too little "dampening" equals a bouncy ride, as you basically ride on the spring osculation and the shocks do little or nothing.

[Roasty]

Originally Posted by Big Nodge

Thanks for the review. Once hooked up do the coilovers produce error codes? I thought you only needed the deletes if you were replacing your OEM EDC system with a non-adaptive setup. Like you I'm scratching my head as to why the prior owner would buy a DDC setup and then not run it to its full potential.

I've been considering these but it's hard to find anyone with real world experience. As far as I know there is only one user (besides you) on this board running them. I think the reason is pretty simple: in the US at least they are very expensive at around $3.5k.

No error codes at all.

your questions were the exact same questions i asked my mechanic and he couldnt think of an explanation either. in the back of my mind, i was wondering if the coilover system had malfunctioned or if one of the components (or more) had broken down, and he installed the deletes to cover up and sell off the car. but i guess that isnt the case as all 4 corners seem to be working well.

i'm also not sure why the connection point on the coilover and the connection point on the stock BMW harness do not fit into each other...

Originally Posted by Tchao

Just FYI:

Too much "dampening" equals a harsh ride, compression & rebound are set too stiff.

Too little "dampening" equals a bouncy ride, as you basically ride on the spring osculation and the shocks do little or nothing.

u r absolutely right and thank you for pointing that out.

[Big Nodge]

yeah that is odd on the connectors, I thought they were supposed to be 100% plug and play. Maybe when he realized they wouldn't plug right in he just went for the deletes. Which seems silly, but who knows?

[Lancelot]

Originally Posted by Roasty

If i had one gripe, it would be that when going over those abrupt, short length speed bumps/humps in parking lots at very slow speeds, the car does bounce up and down quite a lot. however, if i drive over them at slightly faster speeds, the adaptive system kicks in and reduces the bounce after crossing over the bump/hump.

I have h&r anti roll bars and they are too stiff, at > 30 km/h this is a bit more managed by the adaptive system, but i'll be swapping them for softer bars, either KW or stock BMW as I feel the KW DDC are enough to contain body roll.