Well, just found out I have a broken strut insert on Benny the Bimmer... Sad day... What started off as new strut mounts to get rid of the creaking when I turn my wheels and a new strut brace from Ireland Engineering has turned into an excuse for new Bilstein Sports Shocks on the front... The current set of Heavy Duties have only been on for about 80,000 and were just getting broken in good . Anyone notice a big difference in ride quality between the two types?
Bilstein sports are substantially stiffer, and will make for a harsher ride, but offer handling improvements. You should run the same shocks on all four corners, not a great idea to throw sports only on the fronts and keep old HD's on the rear. I don't know how sports may work with stock springs, most who opt for Bilstein sport shocks are using lowering springs. Progressive-rate sport springs by Eibach or H&R are popular choices for a streetable sport suspension setup.
I'm planning on getting the sport rears in the next couple of weeks, but the $$$ isn't there for it until next payday. Should I go ahead and get the lowering springs? I wasn't expecting to have to buy all of that too... Should I just drive a couple of weeks and see how it does and then get the lowering springs on when I do the rear shocks?
Pretty much up to you and your budget - replacing the front springs requires completely removing and disassembling the front strut and using a spring compressor to do so, plus an alignment since a major chunk of the front suspension is removed and re-installed - you're wasting time and money to stick new shocks on the front, have it all put back together, and then re-do it all again in to swap out springs, unless you're doing all the work yourself including a proper alignment, in which case perhaps you're only doubling your own effort. Doesn't make much sense to pay somebody twice to do the same thing in short order if a simple decision saves the expense - unless, of course, you want to make the expenditure regardless, for whatever reasons, or comparison purposes. Lowering springs are not absolutely necessary or anything like that, it's your decision about what you want for yourself and your car - I presume stock springs should work ok with sport shocks, and you'll preserve more ride quality, it's just not the typical setup most opt for. Sport shocks and lowering springs are typically chosen in conjunction with each other to improve handling performance aspects, quite often as an affordable and acceptable mostly street/occasional track-use setup, with the main compromise being everyday on-the-street ride quality (harsher over bumps, etc) and less under-body road clearance. So, sport shocks only with stock springs, you'll be getting the performance benefit from the shock-half-of-the-equation. If you already have the fronts all back together and are not ready to throw more money at the car, then it makes sense to just get the rear shocks when you can and see if you're happy with the setup, and if you decide for lowering springs, do that sometime later, perhaps when the next thing comes up that needs an alignment, for instance. Otherwise, decide what you want to do, or what's in the budget - even if you want springs, if that's not in the monetary cards for the moment, that's ok, it'll just have to wait and you'll know that it will take re-doing the front-end work, and you can budget for that.
Good point.. I see what you mean about everything. Its not in the budget for a couple of weeks, and it's sitting at the shop waiting on my new shocks to get in. I might can just order them and get them in and make the shop wait a couple of days. They told me its not bothering them leaving it in the shop and I have another car to drive.
Of course, I'm not sure if I want to do the lowering... I might need to sleep on it a bit... I live in a rural area, ground clearance is a valued thing here... you've given me some things to think about.
