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      11-13-2019, 01:34 PM   #15
FaRKle!
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Drives: 328d Wagon, M2 Comp, i4 eD35
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Assuming the same spring rate as OE, lowering springs alone shouldn't shorten the life of dampers unless the piston is reaching the end of physical travel. If you look inside a damper it's just a piston head, piston, and cylinder filled with oil. It shouldn't be position sensitive unless, it's reaching the end of travel and impacting things, but your bump stops should prevent that.

Stiffer springs by their nature reduce the critical damping of the damper, and thus as the damper wears will feel underdamped sooner, but that has nothing to do with lowering.

Some of the F2x/F3x springs BMW offers (either OE on models or M-performance line) have virtually the same spring rate as the M2 springs, but are shorter by about an inch.

Back to the bump stop point, if you go lower you'll want to either get shorter bump stops or trim your existing ones to maintain similar damper travel without engaging them. When the bump stops are engaged they boost the spring rate, and in doing so can create more work for the damper along with making the ride worse depending on how hard they're engaged.
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