F30/31 front shock opinions

[Fail57 5]

I’ve got myself a F31 330D xdrive, ordered a set of H&R springs from ECS tuning and installed them. 
 

It’s sitting pretty nicely but drives like a plank of wood. Rear seems to be ok but the front is awful and smashes the bump stops over any dips, bumps, potholes etc so I’ve whipped them out and sliced them down for a little extra travel in the meantime while I find some replacement shocks for the front.
 

I’ve checked on ecs and found some pretty cheap bilstein b4 options as an oem replacement but before I check locally I wanted to see if anyone has experienced similar or could steer me towards something else. 
  

[Fail57 5]

Edit - it’s my daily driver and tow wagon so I’m not after any sporty dampers, just something that’ll not make me need to call a dentist after trips out of town

[Eagle 1661]

Not F30 specific but H&R springs are generally considered to be one of the more firmer\lower options and require uprated dampers. Eibachs would of been the better choice and work ok with B4's or OE replacements. New OE, B4's, Koni SRT, or maybe TRW option if available are about all you can really use for a cheap options. Anything is likely to ride and handle better than your likely worn ones you are riding on at the moment, but looks aside would be probably be downgrade from a fresh OE setup.

[Fail57 5]

2 hours ago, Eagle said:

Not F30 specific but H&R springs are generally considered to be one of the more firmer\lower options and require uprated dampers. Eibachs would have been the better choice and work ok with B4's or OE replacements. New OE, B4's, Koni SRT, or maybe TRW option if available are about all you can really use for a cheap options. Anything is likely to ride and handle better than your likely worn ones you are riding on at the moment, but looks aside would be probably be downgrade from a fresh OE setup.

Hmmm ok, I could adapt to it handling like a bag of dicks being it’s not a racecar as long as it’s not bashing bump stops every minute on the open road… google seems to think the B8 is required but by the time you splash out on a set of those I may as well just get coilovers and tune it to suit. I’ll do some phoning around this week and see if I have some local options

[TonyT 48]

How old are your current dampers? What you have possibly done by fitting the H&R (which as has been noted, are significantly firmer than stock) is push your worn dampers into only a small part of their operating range. Hence they are not operating very well. You have a number of options, none of them cheap. But all worthwhile in terms of improved handling, if that is your goal. 

[Fail57 5]

1 hour ago, TonyT said:

How old are your current dampers? What you have possibly done by fitting the H&R (which as has been noted, are significantly firmer than stock) is push your worn dampers into only a small part of their operating range. Hence they are not operating very well. You have a number of options, none of them cheap. But all worthwhile in terms of improved handling, if that is your goal. 

They’ll be the originals no doubt. 150,000kms old, I’m certain they’re stuffed but was hoping to find someone who’s fitted the same or similar springs on a factory shock who can chime in if it’s pretty normal to have this and I need a sport option for the new pair or will a new oem option work fine. Last thing I wanna do is buy a oem replacement and find out it’s a travel issue on top of me just having worn shocks 

[Apex 693]

I lowered my car and now it rides like sh*t also.

Following thread for fix. 

My mechanic told me the best solution is to un-lower the car so it rides as good as it did before, but I'm convinced throwing more parts at it will fix it. 

 

[TonyT 48]

23 minutes ago, Fail57 said:

They’ll be the originals no doubt. 150,000kms old, I’m certain they’re stuffed but was hoping to find someone who’s fitted the same or similar springs on a factory shock who can chime in if it’s pretty normal to have this and I need a sport option for the new pair or will a new oem option work fine. Last thing I wanna do is buy a oem replacement and find out it’s a travel issue on top of me just having worn shocks 

At 150k they will be stuffed, for sure. If you want to stick with the H&R springs I would email H&R and ask them what dampers they recommend. Otherwise, troll through the online forums and see if you can find someone else who has done the same, and what dampers they went with. 

[Fail57 5]

Small update, ordered some on Friday… made them triple check the part numbers I supplied, gave them the rego and said make sure they’re the correct numbers because it needs to be 4 specific things. M-Sport, X-Drive, F31 touring, non edc. “Yeah mate we got them”… they sent non m-sport ones 🤦🏽‍♂️ now we wait till next week to see what I can do

[balancerider 752]

On 9/16/2023 at 8:11 AM, Fail57 said:

Small update, ordered some on Friday… made them triple check the part numbers I supplied, gave them the rego and said make sure they’re the correct numbers because it needs to be 4 specific things. M-Sport, X-Drive, F31 touring, non edc. “Yeah mate we got them”… they sent non m-sport ones 🤦🏽‍♂️ now we wait till next week to see what I can do

They’re probably the right ones. The f3x x-drives run non m sport shocks as the centre diff needs more ground clearance so it doesn’t get smashed on bumps, they sit about 30mm higher than the rwd version

[Fail57 5]

10 hours ago, balancerider said:

They’re probably the right ones. The f3x x-drives run non m sport shocks as the centre diff needs more ground clearance so it doesn’t get smashed on bumps, they sit about 30mm higher than the rwd version

According to other people’s posts elsewhere the 22-220066 is stupid soft in comparison and definitely need to run the 22-220080 ones. 
 

The part I can’t understand fully is other searches say I need 22-238269 and 22-238276 for left and right… makes no sense 

[Fail57 5]

Alright, had an entire week of suppliers quoting the wrong part numbers even when I’ve given them the specific ones I’m after. Even had a sachs alternative sent through which was a Mini Cooper strut so I’ve given up. Returned the original wrong set and ordered some from ecs tuning. Should be here early next week.  

[Fail57 5]

On 9/11/2023 at 9:50 AM, Apex said:

I lowered my car and now it rides like sh*t also.

Following thread for fix. 

My mechanic told me the best solution is to un-lower the car so it rides as good as it did before, but I'm convinced throwing more parts at it will fix it. 

 

Ok so I got the Bilstein B4s from ecs tuning, the shafts were about an inch longer than what came out but even with the H&R springs they were juuuust captive and still compress so the same length as what came out. Definitely rides a million times better now. 

[Herbmiester 922]

I have found buying dampers in NZ can be frustrating. I end up going to FCP or Demon Tweaks. Landed with GST they are usually about 20% cheaper. FWIW I quite like the ride quality on KW kits, realising that coil overs and certification isn't for everyone. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Herbmiester