In April of 2004, I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet on new suspension. I had been researching for a long while, and a group buy came up on bimmerforums for the KW coilovers. I was looking to buy the KW V3, so this was a perfect opportunity.

I should note up front that while I drive my roadster regularly in the summer, it's not exactly a daily commuter. It's also very rare for me to have a passenger. The roadster is my 'fun' car. My point being that if it was my dailyy driver, it's unlikely I'd run coilovers.

Why KW? I've read good reviews of them. I think they're hard to beat for dual adjustables in this price range; I got the whole set for $1668.75, with free shipping. The strut housings are stainless steel; they should be reasonably light and corrosion-resistant for Michigan weather and my dirt road.

I seriously considered a Ground Control setup. The deciding factors were the stainless steel strut housings and reviews.

Note that part of the changes here include the Ireland rear subframe bushings, since the rear subframe in our cars has a lot of play with the factory bushings.

I wanted adjustable camber plates in front, and went with the TC Kline ones. The Ground Control ones looked nice too, but Pat Avakian said they were hard to keep quiet.

I installed Rogue Engineering rear shock mounts.

I also installed Racing Dynamics sway bars.

I am currently running TC Kline SmartDesign coilovers and rear springs/struts. This is because I broke a swaybar end link in the front and blew one of the KW coilovers.

---

Diary

• August 16, 2009
  
  • Suspension
    For the KW rebuild, I'd like to use Swift springs, 200mm long with 8.0 kgf/mm. That's Z60-203-080, available from Porterfield.

• August 8, 2009
  
  • Suspension
    I took a quick look under the car. There is fluid all over the front left control arm. The KW V3 is blown.

    I've really liked the handling with the KW V3, but the reality of Michigan roads has taken a toll. I've decided to order TC Kline SmartDesign suspension.

• July 31, 2009
  
  • Suspension
    While driving home from work, I noticed a noise from the front of the car and the front left wheel was fluttering. I got the car home, but it was late and I didn't look at it. It will remain parked until I have time to look at it.

• August 15, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    The TC Kline suspension arrived this week. Today I got the car off the ground to find the rod end on the KW front swaybar link snapped in half. There's a question of cause and effect here, but I believe the shock started leaking first. That would let the shock move too quickly and I think that's what broke the endlink.

    I ordered new adjustable swaybar endlinks from Turner Motorsports.

• May 13, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    The Project Kics R26 lugnuts should have arrived from www.daliracing.com. DHL 27205449552. Unfortunately, the R40 lugnuts were sent instead of the R26. They're OK, but they're longer than I'd like; they stick out in the front and they're past tne end of my studs on front and rear.

• May 9, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    The simple black lugnuts arrived from Turner Motorsports. I installed the TC Kline studs on the left rear to check parking brake clearance. Seems to be fine. They look nice too... since the rear wheels have deep lug holes, the studs don't protrude.

• May 7, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    I confirmed my order with www.daliracing.com for the Project Kics R26 lugnuts. These are very nice lugnuts, and TC Kline formerly sold them but can't get them right now. Details:
    • Super light-weight thin-wall construction using strong light-weight OEM quality materials.
    • Oversized and taper seat to ensure best contact.
    • External drive by popular 17mm hex for easier installation.
    • Full stud engagement and can accommodate long racing studs.
    • Very reliable and stronger than aluminum racing nuts.
    • Lug body produced by Cold-Forged SCM-435 material. Attached rotating taper-seat made with A7075-T6 aluminum and ultra-hard alumite finish.

• May 6, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    The TC Kline ProStud51 studs arrived for the front wheels. They're nice. I'm still waiting for the ProStud42 studs to arrive for the rear wheels, and for the nuts to arrive from Turner Motorsports.

    I found the Project Kics R26 lugnuts at www.daliracing.com for $129. Other places that might have them in stock:

    • www.aspecproducts.com
    • jvgmotorsports.com
    • www.optionimports.com
    • performance.yoparts.com

• May 5, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    Pete from TC Kline called me to tell me he can't get the pro alloy lugnuts because TC Kline is ending their relationship with Rays. So I ordered the Project Kics R26 lugnuts (same thing) from Evasive Motorsports. Pete said the studs should go out today; medium length from Ohio, short ones from California.

    Evasive Motorsports sent me email to tell me that the Project Kics R26 lug nuts aren't in stock and it could be months before they have them. I cancelled the order and ordered black lugnuts from Turner Motorsports.

    I tweaked my camber in the rear to be -1.1 degrees on the passenger side and -1.4 degrees on the driver side. I also checked my total toe in the rear, it's .5 degrees toe-in which is exactly the factory specification. Note that I like less camber in the rear to minimize my tire wear on the street. I ran something near these numbers for the last set of tires and they wore very evenly. I'd like to go back and tweak the camber on the passenger side a _tiny_ bit, to get closer to being even with the car unweighted.

• May 3, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    Drove the car a bit to settle the suspension. No more squeaks from the rear, which is nice. However, the camber isn't matched side-to-side. I've got about -2 on the passenger side and -1.3 on the driver side. Factory specification is -1.75 +/- 0.5, with a maximum difference side-to-side of 0.5.

• April 30, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    I installed the trailing arm bushings in the driver side trailing arm. It's worth noting that the Ireland bushings I removed were almost 1mm shorted than the stock bushings. That sucks when going back to stock bushings, since the mounting brackets had been bent inward a little bit (when torqueing the bolts) to touch the Irelands. Hence I had to bend them back a bit to get the stock bushings to fit.

    I touched up a few spots with black spraypaint, nothing special. I also ordered 2 more aerosol cans of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator.

• April 29, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    Parts arrived today to fix the fuel tank strap cushioning. McMaster-Carr 93275K36 (Quick Recovery Super Resilient Foam Strip .25" thick x 1" wide), 7132K79 (heatshrink tubing) and 7132K81 (heatshrink tubing). I fixed the fuel tank strap cushion issue, and wrote it up here. I also installed the second bushing on the passenger side trailing arm.

• April 27, 2008
  
  • Suspension
    I'm finally getting around to installing stock trailing arm bushings. It's been a long time since I've had the subframe out, it's taking me longer than usual. While I have the car off the ground, I'm going to do some other work that's been pending: install the brake lines from Classic Tube, bleed the brakes, and replace the engine coolant.

    I removed the subframe and one of the Ireland trailing arm bushings tonight. I then installed a stock bushing. The BMW tool is critical here; it works very nicely. I used a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water to lubricate the bushing for installation. I'll do more tomorrow, and take some pictures.

    I'm also going to deal with the fuel tank strap cushions. The plan at the moment is to use heatshrink to hold them in place, probably McMaster-Carr 2595K8. I'd also like to use a better material than the foam BMW used... McMaster-Carr 93275K36 looks right.

• March 28, 2007
  
  • Suspension
    New endlink bushings should be coming from springworks.com. A set of Energy Suspension 9.8106G and a set of Energy Suspension 9.8105G. Both are black in color. Erik (ShifterKartGuy) reminded me about someday needing them.

• June 26, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I checked my alignment in the rear. I've got 1/8" of total toe-in. Driver side camber is -1, passenger side is -0.8. My ride height is 23" on both sides.

• June 25, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I finished putting the car back together, and drove it to Southfield to see my grandmother in the hospital. No squeaks from my trailing arm bushings. Car feels good, but I need to check my alignment in the rear.

• June 24, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    The tools for removing/replacing the stock trailing arm bushings arrived from Jay Lilley.

    The only work that remains to be done in assembling the rear end: put the wheel well liners back in, put the wheels on, and tighten the struts and the subframe mounting nuts. I then need to put the undercover back on and put the DME cover back on (these were off for gauge/sender work).

• June 22, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    The clear coat dried on the pendants, so I hung the subframe tonight. The differential cover mounting bolts are not torqued yet, and neither are the subframe nuts. I should be able to put everything else back together tomorrow.

• June 21, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I sprayed some satin clear over the primer on the differenntial pendants just to seal the primer.

• June 20, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I sprayed some gray primer on the differential mounting pendants. 2 coats, nothing pretty, just some protection. It won't be long before Randy and I are under there again (before Homecoming).

• June 19, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    Well, I spent way too much time yesterday seeing if I could get the trailing arm bushings out without removing the subframe. It's possible, but it's a waste of time. For me, it's _much_ faster to roll out the whole subframe. There's just not enough room to work, even with the subframe lowered past the mounting studs and the wheel well liners removed. Lesson learned. I got one set of bushings removed, lubricated (moly powder and some aluminum complex grease), and replaced.

    Today I removed the subframe and the second set of bushings. I took some measurements, in the interest of having Randy take a shot at making some Delrin AF bushings.

    Steel sleeve O.D.	.752" (19mm?)
    Steel sleeve length	2.70"
    Polyurethane flange O.D.	1.41" (36mm?)
    Polyurethane flange thickness	.355" (9mm)
    Polyurethane body O.D.	1.063" (27mm)
    Polyurethane total length	2.70"

    I lubricated the second set of bushings (driver side), and reassembled the subframe. I now need to do some priming/painting of the differential pendants, since I scraped some paint off of them the last time I had the subframe out.

• June 18, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    After driving the car for a month, the Ireland trailing arm bushings started squeaking loudly. I'm in the process of dropping the subframe again to try a different lubrication. I've also got the BMW trailing arm bushing tools on order, in case I decide to go back to stock trailing arm bushings.

    If I have enough gear oil around, I'll probably install my differential temperature sender while I've got the subframe off. It will require removing the differential cover, and redrilling and retapping the sender hole in the cover. I need to get a 1/8 NPT sender in there, but to do that I need to go up to 1/4 NPT since the existing hole is M10. I have adapter bushings, so this isn't a problem.

• April 30, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    The H-pipe and heat shield are re-installed. The rear subframe bushings are installed. ABS wires routed and reinstalled (not torqued yet). Parking brakes reassembled and the cables routed and connected. Subframe support brackets installed and torqued. Butt-Strut is installed and torqued to 88 lb-ft. Differential cover bolts installed and torqued. Racing Dynamics swaybar fully installed. KW springs and ride height adjusters installed, struts connected and torqued. Brake rotors are installed and torqued. Calipers are reassembled and torqued. Driveshaft is torqued to final drive, trannie mount torque double-checked, and the front undercover is installed.

    The torque values:

    rear rotor to hub	16 Nm
    subframe support brackets to chassis	21 or 30 Nm?
    differential cover bolts	77 Nm
    rear lower strut bolts	77 Nm
    caliper carrier to trailing arm	65 Nm
    caliper guide bolts	30 Nm
    transmission mounts	42 Nm
    driveshaft to final drive	64 Nm

    The bummer is that I seem to be missing my passenger side brake pad retaining clip. Otherwise the car would have been driven tonight to settle the suspension and take rear toe and camber measurements.

• April 29, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    At tne end of last weekend, I had tried to powercoat my exhaust H-pipe with high-temp powder (1400F). Unfortunately it didn't stick, presumably due to me leaving some of the plating on. So I was up late tonight with the die grinder loaded with red scotch-bright pads, removing the powder. Once cleaned up, I sprayed it with a few coats of very-high-temp paint and oven-cured it.

    The aluminum rod ends from McMaster-Carr are very nice, and they have as much swivel as the RD rod ends (maybe more). See the Pictures section.

• April 23, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I reassembled the rear subframe and bolted the differential to it, and reconnected the halfshafts. It's ready to be lifted back into the car. I tightened the halfshaft Torx bolts to 83 Nm, and the differential mounting bolts to 110 Nm.

    I ran into a couple of hitches. One is that the connecting hardware for the RD endlinks is larger than stock, and won't fit through the holes in the trailing arm tabs. So I need to ream out those holes and touch them up. The second issue is that the new endlink hardware doesn't have cable guides for the parking brake cables, and the stock guide brackets need a little tweaking to use them.

    Finally, I didn't really like the looks of the end links that RD sent; the ball doesn't move very freely, and the races are plastic (I'm guessing a PTFE-lubed fiber-reinforced plastic). So as an experiment, I tried to powdercoat them. One end survived, one end had the race expand out of the housing.

    I have a number of choices to replace these. For now I've ordered some anodized aluminum ones and some 316 stainless steel ones from McMaster-Carr. The aluminum ones are rated around 4,000 lbs. of static load, have chromed 52100 steel balls and PTFE-lined high-carbon steel races; no lubrication required. The drawback: only 12 degrees of swivel. I'm not sure what the balls and races are on the stainless steel ones, but I know they require no lubrication. The stainless steel ones are rated around 3,000 lbs. of static load and have 19 degrees of swivel. Both are 3/8"-24 thread, and the dimensions match the ones that RD sent.

    I also ordered some 17-7 PH stainless steel 1" OD washers to replace the lower bushing washers on the endlinks, since the RD ones won't fit between the gussets Randy welded. 17-7 PH is high-strength, has excellent fatigue properties, and good corrosion resistance (not as good as 304, but better than 410, 420 and 431). I also ordered some 2.25" long 3/8"-24 grade 8 bolts (super corrosion resistant coating) and nylon-insert locknuts to replace the M10x1.5 bolts that came with the RD endlinks.

    If I wind up totally screwed on using the non-metric rod ends, I can order metric stainless steel M10x1.5 rod ends from McMaster-Carr.

    Most of the endlink hardware I wanted to powdercoat is now done. Support triangles for the top of the trailing arms, a pair of the washers for the urethane bushings, and the U-shaped metal pieces. I also finished coating one of the parking brake guide brackets; the other will get done tomorrow. I put the RD swaybar in the mounts on the crossmember, using the new powdercoated C-shaped brackets. Now I wait for the new rod ends to arrive from McMaster-Carr.

    Unrelated, I ordered some Wheel Wax, some Meguiar's NXT Wax, and 2 sets of microfiber towels from autogeek.net. Figuring Randy might want some Wheel Wax and more microfiber towels, one of the sets of towels is for him, as is one of the tubs of Wheel Wax.

• April 20, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I started the undercoating touch-up on the subframe. Like the trailing arms, it's only on the bottom. I don't know what caused it, but I had some chipped off near the center, and some peeling in the same area. I peeled off the loose stuff, feathered the edges with the die grinder, shot two coats of rust encapsulator, and then started applying rubber undercoating.

    I also powdercoated the exhaust hangers, in light gray. No idea how long this will last because I don't know how warm they get. If it doesn't last, I'll buy some new ones and powdercoat them with the high-temp powder.

    I managed to burn myself pretty good tonight, left hand fingers and thumb. I fumbled a pie pan taking it out of the oven and caught it with my unmittened hand so that Myles wouldn't get burned. Ouch, typing is not much fun right now and tomorrow is going to be painful at work. The oven was at 400F. No severe blisters yet, but I did this about 10 minutes ago. I've lost my appetite for the pie. :-)

• April 17, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    The subframe is ready, and the trailing arms are almost done. I'm waiting for rubber undercoating to dry. I'm also powdercoating the subframe support brackets. I'm doing them in light gray, since I have a lot of it. I'm going to do the thick washers (round and square) from the Butt-Strut while I'm at it; I already scotch-brited them and gave them the iron phosphate treatment. I'm waiting for the final coat of driver's side subrame support bracket to cure in the oven.

    I also powdercoated the marked side of the Ireland trailing arm bolt heads, one side of the keyed washers, and the non-contact side of the nuts.

    It's been about a year since I put the Ireland subframe bushings in, and other than some surface rust, they look brand new.

• April 16, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I cleaned up the subframe and put two coats of rust encapsulator on the spots where Randy welded, then put a coat of chassis black paint on it. I also started the rust encapsulator and rubber undercoating work on one of the trailing arms. I also cleaned up and put rust encapsulator on the inside diameter of the holes for the stock subframe bushings, since there was some rust in there. This time I'll put some lithium grease or polythane grease in there during reassembly. Last time I used a thin coat of CorrosionX, which obviously wasn't thick enough.

    I finished powdercoating Clint's TC Kline captive frames.

• April 10, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    Finishing some work that Randy and I started back in November. Randy welded the Ireland Engineering toe and camber adjustment kits to my subframe, and reinforced my trailing arm pickup points with gussets (welded). I'm now ready for the Racing Dynamics rear swaybar.

• February 27, 2005
  
  • Suspension
    I installed the TC Kline adjustable camber/caster plates. There was some ancillary work involved here; the captive bolts that hold them to the strut tower were too short to pass through the stock strut tower reinforcements and my strut brace. I cut the welds out and took them to Randy to have him tack longer bolts in (35mm versus 30mm). I then powdercoated the captive frames, welds and bolt heads.

    Also, my KW struts have a different thread than the stock or Koni struts; M12 versus M14. So I bought some thin bushings to fill the gap between the TC Kline bushings and the strut rod at the top. The bushings I bought were Teflon-lined, not by choice but because they were the only ones I could find in the right inner and outer diameter.

    I set the caster at maximum and don't expect to change it. I checked the camber at both extremes. It looks like I've got about -2.07 at one extreme and -3.4 at the other. Of course, I've got new S-03 tires (235/45-17 on the front, 255/40-17 on the rear), and haven't readjusted my ride height. The car had been on jackstands for almost 4 weeks. So we'll see where I wind up once the suspension has settled and I set my ride height again. Ride height right now appears darn close to where it was before the tire and camber plate work; about 23.125" from the bottom of the rim to the lip of the fender. To the floor it looks higher, since the tires have full tread and they're slightly taller. I suspect I'll wind up lowering the front to around 22.875" once the suspension is settled.

• July 31, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I drove the car quite a bit today, with the top up and down a number of times (up only for short periods). The new ragtop protection setup is working great. This wraps up the first round of suspension work, the next step is the KMAC trailing arm bushings and then the TC Kline adjustable camber plates in the front. I'm still up in the air on swaybars.

• July 30, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I installed the newly assembled plugs, they look good and work well. It won't be necessary to fillet the JB Weld of the cap to the inner bearing; the bond is very strong, I think the cap would bend and tear before the bond would give way.

• July 29, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The new plugs arrived, with the 1/2" long plain MDS-filled nylon bearings. I cut the prongs off four of the plugs to turn them into caps, then powdercoated them in Black Magic with gloss reducer. They're still very glossy, but they'll work for now. I JB Weld'ed them to the bearings, they're curing now. I may add a fillet on the inside tomorrow to make them even stronger, but I suspect it won't be necessary.

• July 26, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The flanged nylon bearings arrived. They're perfect, I cut two of them down to 1.25" length and they look like they're now exactly the right size; the top is basically even with the top of the rebound adjuster on the KW when placed on top of the RSM bushing washer. I plan to get these in tonight and replace the ragtop compartment liner.

    I siliconed the flanged bearings to the RSM bushings washers. Worked great, they're very snug but I know I could yank them off if needed. I cut the hole in the ragtop liner on the passenger side and inserted the trim plug. It looks perfect, the trim plug looks almost exactly like the plugs that hold the ragtop liner to the sheet metal. If I powdercoat them black with some gloss reducer, someone would be hard pressed to distinguish them.

    The bad news here is that these plugs don't grab well. So I've decided to go the slightly larger ones, and I'll cut the prongs off and JB Weld them to a 1" O.D. MDS-filled nylon bearing. This will also permit fairly big goofs in cutting the hole in the ragtop liner; the new plugs have a head diameter of 1.3125".

    

• July 24, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered 4 1" ID flanged MDS-filled nylon bearings from McMaster-Carr. They're 1.5" long, and I only need 1.25". Easy enough to fix once they're here. Two are for me, two are for Randy. The tentative plan is to adhere them to the washers on top of the rear shock mounts. Note that if I do this, it needs to be removable so I can still get at the flat sides of the piston rod to remove the shock from the rear shock mount. RTV silicone should work fine, preventing it from rattling but letting me tear it off when needed.

• July 21, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I've been driving on the new suspension for a bit, and I'm happy with the spring rate and dampers on the street. However, many would find them too stiff for Michigan, even set near full soft. That might include me if the car was a daily commuter, but it's not; it's my fun car.

    5 lbs. of light gray polyester TGIC powder arrived from Caswell. It looks nice, but it's hard to tell with powder until you've cured some on a part. I'll do that tonight (probably the handle of one of my height adjuster tools, or maybe one or more of the tools in my trunk).

    It looks like a 1" ID nylon bearing would work nicely to cover the top of the shocks in the rear, with a trim cap on top. They need to be 1.25" long. Looks like McMaster-Carr P/N 6294K72 is perfect.

• July 20, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered the Lisle Universal Strut Nut Remover Set and a Facom 19mm angled open-back socket wrench, in hopes of not having to use a crude method to torque the strut piston rod to the upper bearing again (whenever I get around to buying the TC Kline adjustable camber plates). However, I suspect that none of the bits in the Lisle set are going to fit the Double-D end of the strut piston rod. So I ordered some hexagonal 4140 rod and an 8mm end mill for Randy to take a shot at using to make a tool for me.

    Griot's and Ultimate Garage only show complete sets of Facom open-back socket wrenches, so I ordered the single 19mm from toolsource.com.

• July 17, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I made a simple holder for my new lugbolts so I can powdercoat the heads black. It's just a 2" wide x .25" thick Teflon strip with holes drilled in it so the bolts can hang in the gaps in the rack of my curing oven (toaster oven in garage). I did one set of 5 lugbolts at a time, both sets are done. Note to self: thermal expansion of PTFE at curing temperature is more than I expected; the PTFE expanded out to pin itself against the sides of the oven. I should trim some off of the ends.

    Today I will be setting the front ride height to 23.125" (from bottom of rim to lip of fender) on both sides. This is higher than I want to be, but will save my tires until I'm ready for an alignment.

    I powdercoated Randy's Rogue RSM reinforcement plates in Caswell 'Black Magic' TGIC powder.

    I turned the driver's side coilover height adjuster lower by 1/2 turn, and the passenger's side lower by 2 turns. This should bring my ride height just below 23.125" on both sides, with the locking set screw on the height adjusters facing outboard for easy access. No idea what my toe is at (yet), but I'll check the camber (car unweighted) after it settles.

    After settling, my ride height is just a hair under 23.125" on both sides in the front (seats not weighted). With my very crude measurement tools, camber appears to be around -1.5 on both sides. This doesn't seem right to me, so my tools are probably too crude.

• July 16, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered Kopr-Shield and some other anti-seize stuff from Eastwood. I also ordered more Simichrome, since I'm fresh out.

    I ordered a variety of different types of trim caps to try to use to cover the holes I'll be cutting in the ragtop compartment liner to access the rebound addjusters in the rear. I ordered them from McMaster-Carr.

    I also ordered a silicone plug kit, masking kit and some light gray TGIC powder from Caswell.

    With a friend's help, I installed the driver's side coilover. I then pulled the passenger side strut and got the KW installed on that side. I then put the Rogue wheel spacers on. I took a picture of each side, then put the wheels on and lowered the car to see where I am on ride height and space between the tires and coilovers. It looks like 5mm spacers would work, which is good to know. With the suspension not settled, my ride height is actually higher than it was with the stock suspension (23.5" versus 23.375"). I suspect it'll settle between 22.5" and 23". Currently I have the rebound damping set 1/4 turn from full soft, just like the rear.

    It's raining on and off here, but I took the car for a short test ride anyway, to see where the ride height would settle in and get a rough idea of how stiff it is up front for Michigan roads. I'm happy with the spring rate; it's firm but not a bone-rattling experience. More stuff rattles in the interior, but it's far from a cacophony. It will be a heck of a lot more fun to drive hard. It's time for better tires, either S-03's or PS2's.

    Interestingly, the driver's side settled only .25", to 23.125" (from bottom of rim to lip of fender). This is so close to my stock height that it's unlikely to have a significant effect on tire wear. Of course I want to go lower, but I will leave it as-is until I get the KMACs in and get to Randy's for an alignment or borrow his tools. I have not checked my toe yet on either end, nor the camber in front.

• July 15, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I was supposed to go to Dan's today to work on the battery box mold, but their new dog bit his wife Lisa this morning. Thank goodness she's OK!

    Since I'm not working on the battery box, I'm going to install the coilovers on the front today. I'm about to start, it's 4PM now.

    After getting the driver's side strut out and getting the spring compressed, I realized I didn't have a 21mm deep socket. I went to Sears to get one. All they had was 12-point, and no 22mm impact sockets. So I bought the 12-point, 1/2" drive. I also picked up a long 3/8" drive ratchet and a long swivel-head 1/2" drive ratchet. For some reason I can't find my old second set, and I like having more than one set around w/o breaking out the air ratchet.

    Then I couldn't find my 6mm allen wrenches. Didn't matter, I put the 21mm socket on the impact wrench on low speed, and the nut holding the strut together came off with no trouble at all.

    I then assembled the upper strut bearing to the KW V3 coilover. I packed the upper strut bearing with Phil Wood waterproof bearing grease. Not what I'd normally use, but my grease gun is empty and it was my last cartridge of wheel bearing grease. The strut bearing still had some clean factory grease, which I did not remove. The Phil Wood should work fine, it won't be in there that long since I plan to get the TC Kline adjustable camber plates at the end of this season. I used a new dust cup, as well as a new support washer (replacing the one sent my KW). I did something a little odd, using the KW-supplied washer on the top side of the upper strut bearing. This was done because the KW nut is smaller in profile than the stock nut (19mm versus 21mm nut).

    So, the driver's side coilover is ready to go in. Right now the ride height adjuster is set to 30 turns from the bottom (i.e. 30 turns from the lowest setting). I still have the helper spring installed, and it looks like I'd have to cut some of the dust cap on the coilover to get rid of the helper spring.

    While I was in the driver's side front wheel well, I put some black RTV silicone on the nutsert that Randy installed for me to hold my ISSPRO EVM oil pressure sender. It's stainless steel so it's not rusting, but since we drilled through the sealant, I figured better safe than sorry for my strut tower. The silicone should help prevent moisture from getting to the sheet metal.

    I removed the stock swaybar end link on the driver's side, cleaned up the end of the swaybar, and installed the KW swaybar end link on the swaybar.

• July 12, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I installed the Rogue rear shock mounts, and the KW V3 rear springs and shocks. I haven't yet reclipped my brake lines.

    It looks like my rear ride height hasn't dropped very far, but I won't know until I drive it and it settles in. The ride height adjusters are near max at the moment. I'm being conservative here until I get to the work in the front. I'm aiming for about 1.25" of drop in the end, but we'll see where I wind up. Since I haven't yet installed the KMAC eccentric trailing arm bushings, I can't drop the rear very far yet w/o eating up the inside of my tires.

    On my first test drive, I had the rebound set to four 1/4 turns from full soft. This is too hard for Michigan roads, but is very nice performance-wise on smooth roads.

    For my second and third test drives, I set the rebound to one 1/4 turn from full soft. This is fine on Michigan roads, and doesn't give up much on the performance front. Squat is dramatically reduced, as is roll in the rear. This is a huge relief from the ragtop weight that's up high, and makes the car feel much more planted.

    Ride height has been reduced by about 1.25" in the rear. I will probably go down another .25" when the front is done.

• July 9, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The Rogue 10mm wheel spacers arrived from bimmerworld.com.

• July 6, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The Rogue rear shock mounts arrived.

• July 4, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered a pair of Rogue Engineering 10mm wheel spacers from bimmerworld.com. Order number 106890. I'm hoping I can run the coilovers w/o the helper springs (move the lower spring perch above the tire) and not use them just to fit the stock 225 tires, but we'll see. But I'll likely need spacers to run 235 or wider street tires up front anyway. I don't think I can run 5mm spacers, at least not the H&R ones, with stock wheels (due to the chamfer). Or maybe I can if I use Turner's hub extenders? Anyway, the Rogue 10mm spacers were $95, including new lug bolts.

• June 29, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    Since the Ground Control rear shock mounts are a lousy fit, I ordered a pair of the Rogue mounts. Hence I'll have an extra set of their reinforcement plates. Randy will get the extra set if he wants them.

• June 28, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The KW V3 shocks and springs arrived from Pro-Imports.

• June 18, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I powdercoated the Rogue rear shock mount reinforcement plates, in Black Magic from Caswell.

• June 15, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    It looks like Rogue finally shipped my rear shock mount reinforcement plates. UPS tracking number 1Z435TT50343605514.

• June 1, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    It looks like m3motorwerks.com sent me the wrong rear shock mounts. I don't think the top reinforcement plates will fit, and the mount itself looks to be the wrong shape.

    I ordered rear shock mount reinforcement plates from Rogue Engineering.

• May 24, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The Ground Control rear shock mounts arrived from m3motorwerks.com. Pictures are here.

• May 20, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The KMAC eccentric trailing arm bushings arrived from Turner Motorsport. Pictures are here.

    The Ground Control rear shock mounts shipped from m3motorwerks.com. FedEx tracking number 314319310002452

• May 19, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered Ground Control rear shock mounts from m3motorwerks.com. Order #3329-1.

• May 17, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    The KMAC eccentric trailing arm bushings shipped from Turner Motorsport. UPS traccking number 1Z15708W0364386289.

• May 15, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I ordered the KMAC eccentric trailing arm bushings from Turner Motorsport. Order #9061.

• May 12, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I finished installing the Ireland Engineering rear subframe bushings. Details are here.

• April 28, 2004
  
  • Suspension
    I bought the KW INOX V3 coilovers through a group buy on bimmerfest. They should arrive in early June.

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Links

• KW INOX Coilovers
• Rogue Engineering rear shock mounts
• Rogue Engineering wheel spacers
• TC Kline camber/caster plates
• bimmerforums group buy thread
• Pro-Imports Group Buy price list
• KDB's KW V3 install (bimmerforums thread)