Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewc89
Post some pics once it's all done!
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I posted some photos in this thread:
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...0#post25946770
Quote:
Originally Posted by gphung
Can you describe this difference in comfort and feel? Also, you're running camber plates right? Has/will this had/have any impact on your install?
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The difference is remarkable, There is far less bouncing around of the front end, and the steering feel is massively improved. I could feel there was a difference just pulling out of the driveway in the first 5 yards of driving, but even on a longer drive today, it honestly feels like a different car.
No, I'm not running camber plates, but I don't think that would have an impact on the install. You have to replace the strut top hats with M2C / M3 / M4 parts because they have additional holes on the top that the brace bolts to; the stock parts have a single bolt hole for the steel brace.
I did the install by raising the car on a Quickjack to the lowest position, removing the front wheels, and then jacking the lower control arm (with a rubber block) to take the weight of the strut. I then un-bolted the strut top nut, and slowly lowered the shock and spring down.
Once the shock and spring were lowered and pulled out of the way under the wheel arch, I un-bolted the stock top hats and put the new ones in; in my case, with the optional (because they're not on the M2C) strut reinforcement rings. You could at this point add camber plates, but you'd need to make sure that the plates you're using have the three holes for the strut brace rather than being the single mount hole that the OG M2 uses. I think some newer camber plates have both mountings, but I'm not sure about that.
With the top hats fitted, but not torqued down, I jacked up the shock and spring into place again, then tightened a new nut on top. This was slightly easier said than done because you do need to line up the shock shaft with the hole, and the spring and jack will not have this centered as you raise the jack. A helper would be very beneficial, but I was able to do it alone.
I waited for the weight to be back on the wheels before torquing all the bolts down; there is quite a bit of adjustment possible before torquing down, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't torquing the body in an odd state.
Overall though, I'd suggest doing this modification before you do any other suspension work, including camber plates. Without this retrofit, the body is just not solid enough for the stiffness of stock springs and shocks, let alone uprated.