Well I have just completed a few projects on my E30 325ix. Here is what I did. New thermostat, old one broke at the support, kind strange place to fail on an OEM part. New power steering reservoir and line to the pump with fresh Red Line power steering fluid. B&B Tri Flow Exhaust. This exhaust is just awesome!!! It has a nice deep rubble at idle and low rpms. At highway speeds and rpms it is just slightly loader than stock. Very loud around town, so probably not for everyone. Then I installed H&R Sport Springs with Bilstein Sport Struts & Shocks. I also did a rear H&R Sway Bar. I replaced all the associated hardware as well. I would have done a front sway bar, but H&R does not make one for the ix. The ix has a specific front sway bar, which resides ahead of the front axle. I did all the work myself except the front struts and springs. That would have required too much time that I don't have at the moment. The front springs/struts were the last piece. Just got the car back today. Already it feels great and looks 100% better. Tomorrow I am going on a trip and am looking forward to seeing how it performs. I hope the springs settle a little more in the front. We shall see I guess. Next up is a set of summer tires on the stock 15 inch basket weave rims. I just love BBS Basket weaves. I have different variations on all my E30s! Here are a couple of before and after photos at my shop.
Hate to break it to ya, but I think your front height will stay where it is. Mine wasn't as dramatic as I had hoped, and mine isn't even an iX. Same springs. Looks awesome though. Love the snow tire/steelie look. Now, if we could just get you some Euro grillz...
Thanks! I painted the steelies to match the 2002 Turbo wheels. Yes I do want to get euro grills. I have them on my M3. I think tires need to come first though! On my 318i when I put H&Rs on it, it settled about 10mm. So I hope I get at least that.
I did the H&R/Bilstein Sports on my 1990 325is back in the day and the drop in height was considerable. Made keeping the front air dam intact a pain in the neck but the car handled and looked so much better that it was worth it.
Thanks! This one spent most of it's life in Virginia. There is a little rust, but nothing major. I hope to take care of it this summer. The amazing thing is there is basically no rust under the car. Just the bottom of the front doors, and a little around the tail lights.
When I put H&R Sports on my 318i, I got almost 2 inches of drop. But then again the stock 318i comes with off roading spec springs!
I used MS Paint so pardon the absolute crap job. Anyway, I did a quick modification of an old picture I have of my 325is. The top is with the stock springs and the bottom is how it looked after the H&R Sports. I wish I had taken a picture of it afterward because it looked so nice.
coming along nicely looks like you've got decent suspension running now. Nice work. I am putting billy HDs on mine in two weeks and keeping the stock springs. I actually like the height for clearance in the rallyx IX. I'll post pics before and after shortly. by the way, I'm in Washington, PA just south of Pittsburgh and go to DC every month. Where in Virginia are you?
Nice. We should meet up sometime. I talked to CRwholesale about your conversion as I am short a manual t-case. They may be getting a manual IX in next week if they win the bid on it so I could b rocking another stick as early as this summer. BTW, I'm driving over to DC in a couple of weeks and depending on how central you are, you might be on the way. Not sure why I can't received PMs, my settings say I can send/receive.
