best way to lower front of my e39 525i
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"Screw up the flawless ride"? You just put 20's in there, that basically just degraded your flawless ride. Lowering it will degrade the flawless ride further. But if you do want to lower an inch look into HR sport springs or Vogtland. If you want adjustable height, look at coilovers.
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You must be new to the car scene overall.
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+1.
By adding blinged 20's, you increase the unsprung weight significantly.
Thus, your suspension, braking, and acceleration will work extra hard, deteriorating faster...
Stick with the OEM 17" or 18" wheels and look into some quality coil-overs, or Koni Sports with H&R springs.
Or, if you do not want to sacrifice the ride, stick with the OEM Sachs suspension with OEM Sport springs.
Thanks!
Jason
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Easy guys. It's his first post. Live and learn.
From what it sounds like, you are attempting to improve your car's appearance (by adding larger wheels and lowering the car to close the wheelwell gap) but failed to consider the physical consequences of these changes. What you need to understand is that there are tradeoffs with virtually every change you make to your car. Even going from the standard suspension to the sport suspension will compromise ride quality.
What everyone said is basically true. Changing from 16" or 17" wheels to 20" wheels has already compromised your ride. Aside from the added unsprung weight, your tire sidewalls are considerably smaller, further degrading ride quality. If you do a search you will find that the OEM suspension system gives the best ride quality with very good handling characteristics. Virtually all aftermarket strut/shock and spring combinations will increase performance but will further degrade ride quality.
Hence, if you truly prioritize ride quality above all else, get back to smaller wheels. If you want that lowered stance, get a sport package. Otherwise, live and learn.
From what it sounds like, you are attempting to improve your car's appearance (by adding larger wheels and lowering the car to close the wheelwell gap) but failed to consider the physical consequences of these changes. What you need to understand is that there are tradeoffs with virtually every change you make to your car. Even going from the standard suspension to the sport suspension will compromise ride quality.
What everyone said is basically true. Changing from 16" or 17" wheels to 20" wheels has already compromised your ride. Aside from the added unsprung weight, your tire sidewalls are considerably smaller, further degrading ride quality. If you do a search you will find that the OEM suspension system gives the best ride quality with very good handling characteristics. Virtually all aftermarket strut/shock and spring combinations will increase performance but will further degrade ride quality.
Hence, if you truly prioritize ride quality above all else, get back to smaller wheels. If you want that lowered stance, get a sport package. Otherwise, live and learn.
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Hi,
Not all 20's are 'blinged out' - as the OP hasn't posted up a picture of which 20's he has, it's a little unfair to jump to conclusions. 20's will indeed feel harsher on the road, if you have your suspension components all in good condition then the effect is minimised but still noticeable. Contrary to popular spoutings, ride quality isn't 'suddenly horrendous' by putting on 19 or 20 inch wheels - that only happens really if suspension components are shot. Keep in mind Alpina fitted 19 inch as oem on their B10 V8S E39 models...
OP - which wheels do you actually have? high quality lightweight 3 peice forged wheels? or indeed as suspected above, some 'blinged out' type 20's? - there's only really a handful of wheel designs out there which look good in 20 inch sizing on the E39.
If you wish to preserve as much of the ride quality as possible, look into getting high quality coilovers such as the KW V1 range. 20's ONLY look good on an E39 that's suitably lowered to pull the look off, any higher and it just 'looks wrong'. KW make coilover kits that are well reported by users to offer a fantastic ride even at low ride heights, two E39 owners I know who had their cars very low on 19's and both on KW swore blind that their ride was just as good if not better than oem.
It really comes down to how much you are willing to spend, and if it's less than the KW level pricing, then the ride quality will be correspondingly lower the cheaper products you go. The trick is the compromise level you are or are not willing to go to..
Cheers, Dennis!
Not all 20's are 'blinged out' - as the OP hasn't posted up a picture of which 20's he has, it's a little unfair to jump to conclusions. 20's will indeed feel harsher on the road, if you have your suspension components all in good condition then the effect is minimised but still noticeable. Contrary to popular spoutings, ride quality isn't 'suddenly horrendous' by putting on 19 or 20 inch wheels - that only happens really if suspension components are shot. Keep in mind Alpina fitted 19 inch as oem on their B10 V8S E39 models...
OP - which wheels do you actually have? high quality lightweight 3 peice forged wheels? or indeed as suspected above, some 'blinged out' type 20's? - there's only really a handful of wheel designs out there which look good in 20 inch sizing on the E39.
If you wish to preserve as much of the ride quality as possible, look into getting high quality coilovers such as the KW V1 range. 20's ONLY look good on an E39 that's suitably lowered to pull the look off, any higher and it just 'looks wrong'. KW make coilover kits that are well reported by users to offer a fantastic ride even at low ride heights, two E39 owners I know who had their cars very low on 19's and both on KW swore blind that their ride was just as good if not better than oem.
It really comes down to how much you are willing to spend, and if it's less than the KW level pricing, then the ride quality will be correspondingly lower the cheaper products you go. The trick is the compromise level you are or are not willing to go to..
Cheers, Dennis!
SO MUCH WRONG INFO IN THIS THREAD!
There are plenty of ways to lower a car without sucrafising ride quality.
Most of the people on the forums talk either out of their ass or from what they have read online. There are coilovers out there that dont cost a fortune and that will ride infenitely better than stock OEM suspension.
There are plenty of ways to lower a car without sucrafising ride quality.
Most of the people on the forums talk either out of their ass or from what they have read online. There are coilovers out there that dont cost a fortune and that will ride infenitely better than stock OEM suspension.
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Now there's a line of TOTAL BS. The ones that claim you sacrifice nothing in ride quality when slamming your car clearly know nothing about suspensions or feel nothing. You won't need a calibrated butt meter to tell the difference. The bottom line is personal taste. If you want the look or the performance, ride quality will have to give. Whether the amount of tradeoff is acceptable is a personal decision. Our feedback was based on your statement that you "don't want to screw up the flawless ride". Well, you have already tinkered with it. The 20"s may still give an acceptable ride, depending on your butt meter. That decision is yours. But every change you make will detract further from that "flawless ride". Whether you believe us or not is your call.
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While I totally agree, for someone just starting out, and having a limited budget, it might be hard to get decent coil-overs like the ones you are talking about.
Unfortunately, I do not know of any coil-over that rides as well as Oem AND cost under $1k.
The only coil-overs I know of that can come close would be the KW's, TC Klines, or AST's, maybe the Bilstein Pss9's/10's...
However, those are getting towards $1500-$2000...(
I have heard a lot about the BC Racing coil-overs, however I do not think there is any long term use/ experience.
Plus, they are made in Taiwan, which makes me a little leary...
Which coil-overs did you have in mind?
Also note that when you lower the car, the spring rates need to be higher to compensate for the less travel in the suspension, hence, a more stiff ride, unless you have adjustable rebound AND compression to help IMO...
However, there are coil-overs in the higher end of the spectrum that have independent adjustable height and rebound and/or compression (pre-load settings)...
Adjusting the height doesn't modify the travel of the damper piston.
Example:
EAC coil-overs...
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1432900
Thanks!
Jason
welcome to the forum how about take that money and save it for a brand new cooling system and other maintenance needed. Who cares about what wheels you have on it when it blows a head gasket from someone not overhauling the cooling system and buying some "bomb 20'' rims'' I see your name 4/20 your probably to immature to realize BMWs are not like Honda Civics
How many different coilovers have you had on your E39?
Jason, you know I have a lot of respect for you, but you're wrong with this one.
BC, PBM, Fortune auto ($1100) are all <$1000 coils and they ride amaizing. Stock E39 has 7" to go up in the front and 10" in the rear before its limited by front fender rail and rear upper control arms hitting frame rail...ask me how I know. Do you really think stock suspension has this much travel?
All you need is ~2" which means that with proper valving and solf spring rates (below 6K) you wont be sacrificing any ride quality. I have had 5 different coilovers on my car and I have riden in E39's with probably all of the availiable coilovers for our cars. I personaly believe that I have somewhat solid ground to be able to talk about this.
BTW, high price coilovers dont ride the best and in fact PSS9 were my least favorite comfort wise coils I ever ridden on in E39.
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LOL!
Yep!
I agree.
Of course, I know you are the expert, that is why I was asking you.
I am strictly talking about coil-overs that are basically height adjustable (like mine), because of the price range we are talking about.
Thus, this is why I posted above that IF you have coil-overs that have adjustable rebound and compression, you CAN get away/ having a good ride IMO.
Because I know you do have coil-overs that have adjustable rebound and compression, hence the reason why you can get away with having less travel IMO.
This is just my opinion...
I am no-way an expert...
Thread referencing the AST coil-overs...
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1828042
Thread talking about the EAC's...
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1804527
Sorry for my ignorance...
Thanks!
Jason
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None. But having driven or ridden in many cars with many different original and aftermarket suspensions, there is ALWAYS a DIFFERENCE in ride quality or handling when changing the suspension components. Simply replacing old with new will make a noticeable difference. In fact, any e39 with 100K+ will feel better with new Monroes than with worn OEM struts/shocks. But that doesn't make Monroes a better component. Suspensions (or the ride and handling resulting from them), much like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. While you may feel your coilovers improve your ride quality AND handling, others might disagree. While you can quantitatively measure handling performance changes, ride quality is and always will be subjective. I am sure that you feel your changes have greatly improved appearance and performance with no degradation (or maybe improvements) in ride quality. That's great. But suspension solutions are not a one size fits all. If someone who thinks a 10 year old e39 has "flawless ride quality", he needs to drive one where the entire suspension has been refreshed or get his butt meter recalibrated.
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