[sdm2c]

Hello fellow members.

Hope everyone is keeping well. I'll try and keep this as concise as possible...

(Note the car was completely stock prior to install; about 4k miles).

Recently purchased the Ohlins R&T kit (for 2020 M2C) and the auto shop found the front tires making contact with the spring during install. Their recommendation was to fit 10mm spacers. This didn't seem right and I've not yet found on forums any owners who had to do this.

Contacted the Ohlins rep for North America who confirmed spacers should not be required. He also suggested that a possible solution if the install cannot be completed without spacers would be to use a shorter spring. Of course this would require spending more to have the springs switched out and new alignment.

The auto shop said there should be no issue with using spacers and would cover most of the cost of the parts and labor. As the car would be sat in the shop for another week or so (due to wait time of getting new springs) I decided to go with the spacers and hoped this could be a long term solution.
The auto shop eventually installed 12mm spacers. The ride height was also set 2mm lower than stock (as I had requested a closer to stock look).

1) Per the thread title, has anyone had to use wheel spacers to resolve such a clearance issue?

Now for some issues, some of which seem to be covered on other threads, but I'll include here anyway...

Issues started to development after my first test drive. (Side note - Started out with the 10 clicks out on the front, 12 on the rear, then went 9 all round for most of the drive which felt pretty good.)

2) At the start of test drive, noticed a slight rattle coming from the back right quarter and noticed it mostly between 15 - 35 mph and over slightly bumpy roads. The rattle (very much like something jiggling against a frame/chassis) got worse towards the end of the drive. Couldn't find anything loose where the battery resides.

3) A loud clunk/snapping sound (that can be felt through the steering), like the end of a spring rotating off the edge of a platform, when turning lock to lock. It does this fairly consistently.

4) Whilst reversing (slowly and with about 1/4 turn) could hear tire rubbing against the well liner. Grabbed a (more rigid) piece of paper and sure enough it gets stuck between the tire and liner. No doubt the spacer causing this.

Looking forward to some feedback, especially for point 1) so I can figure out the best path forward.

Cheers!

[bentom2]

I did have to run a 7mm spacer. That was all I needed with 255/35 tires on stock wheels, and wide for size 265 track tires on 9.5" et28 wheels. Turner makes one that takes advantage of the cuts in the hub center to remain hubcentric. Might fix your second issue #3 to switch.

No suggestions/ideas for #2.

The clunk sound in the first #3 sounds like an install issue. I’ve experienced this on other cars, but not the M2. Are you running stock top mounts, or camber plates? Either way, it’s binding in the top mount, probably from the spring seat contacting the top mount/plate, and causing the spring to skip with steering input. Folks might have ideas depending on your top mount situation.

[bentom2]

Oh, and it’s interesting to hear Ohlins suggested a shorter spring. I’ve considered this, but for the reasons you stated haven’t looked into it yesterday. I wonder why they didn’t use a shorter spring in the first place.

I’d also be nervous about coil bind on a shorter spring, but if Ohlins is suggesting it... I might look into this down the road when I have the camber plates apart for service.

[Montaver]

That's got to be an install issue.

Here is clearance on mine, stock wheels and tires. 10mm lower ride height, which is Ohlins recommended.

No noises from the front at full lock, I have GC plates. No rattling noises from the rear, occasionally I hear can hear a slight thump when I crab onto an incline and a lot of weight comes off a rear wheel.

[sdm2c]

Originally Posted by bentom2

I did have to run a 7mm spacer. That was all I needed with 255/35 tires on stock wheels, and wide for size 265 track tires on 9.5" et28 wheels. Turner makes one that takes advantage of the cuts in the hub center to remain hubcentric. Might fix your second issue #3 to switch.

No suggestions/ideas for #2.

The clunk sound in the first #3 sounds like an install issue. I’ve experienced this on other cars, but not the M2. Are you running stock top mounts, or camber plates? Either way, it’s binding in the top mount, probably from the spring seat contacting the top mount/plate, and causing the spring to skip with steering input. Folks might have ideas depending on your top mount situation.

Hi bentom2.

Thanks for the response. I'm running stock top mounts, no additional parts, just the supplied kit.

[sdm2c]

Originally Posted by Montaver

That's got to be an install issue.

Here is clearance on mine, stock wheels and tires. 10mm lower ride height, which is Ohlins recommended.

No noises from the front at full lock, I have GC plates. No rattling noises from the rear, occasionally I hear can hear a slight thump when I crab onto an incline and a lot of weight comes off a rear wheel.

Hi Montaver.

Thanks for the response. The picture you provided will come in handy. Perhaps I do need camber plates as part of the install?

[Montaver]

Originally Posted by sdm2c

Hi Montaver.

Thanks for the response. The picture you provided will come in handy. Perhaps I do need camber plates as part of the install?

That's only roughly -2.0 degrees of camber which you can probably get close to without camber plates, I havnt had the car properly aligned yet. Less camber will likely have more clearance as the top of the wheel will be pushed further out. The camber plates are the same stack height as OEM top mounts, so just installing camber plates probably won't solve your issues.

[K_C_]

Running Ohlins R&T in my M2 LCI for over 1 year here. No spacer required if you are running with stock wheels and tyres.

Did the shop pay attention that the shocks position are NOT the same as M3/4?

Also the Ohlins sticker is facing outwards?

Extracted from P.3 of the manual:

[nothingman]

Regarding your #3 knocking issue, I'm willing to bet you got a set with the bad bushings. Check out this thread. Mine were making the same knocking noises you describe but have been completely quiet ever since they did the fix.

Below is a pic of my front install on stock tires without spacers. It's tight. I don't see how a shorter spring would help.

[boony1968]

Originally Posted by sdm2c

Hi Montaver.

Thanks for the response. The picture you provided will come in handy. Perhaps I do need camber plates as part of the install?

Camber plates will not give you any additional clearance between the tire and the spring perch. Depending on the situation, additional preload may provide enough space.

[nothingman]

Originally Posted by nothingman

I don't see how a shorter spring would help.

So, thinking about it... if you were to get a shorter spring and move the lower perch up a bit it would give you more clearance for a wider tire. Anyone know what the downside would be? Would having less spring travel require a stiffer spring?

[Montaver]

Originally Posted by nothingman

So, thinking about it... if you were to get a shorter spring and move the lower perch up a bit it would give you more clearance for a wider tire. Anyone know what the downside would be? Would having less spring travel require a stiffer spring?

The issue with a shorter spring is it becomes unseated at full droop. 3DM make a spacer you can use with Vorschlag camber plates to increase the stack height of the camber plate I believe which allows you to run a shorter spring.

[NeilMFD]

Hey everyone, Thank you for your help on this. My name is Neil and I run Oceanside Motorsports who installed this suspension on Steve's M2.

We were working with Ohlins on this issue last week but they're closed for the week so it would be great to have some answers for them when they get back to expedite what they ship us.

I'm concerned that we have a strut that's incorrect or a spring that's been updated. We originally installed it exactly as the instructions stated which was supposed to lower the car 10mm. Instead it lifted the front of the car way above the stock ride height. Right now the strut is lowered almost all the way down and the spring pre-load adjuster is also all the way down and the car is at stock ride height. If we wanted to lower it we would only have about 10mm until the strut would be at its lowest position which would put the front of the car 10mm lower than stock. It seams like it should allow for much more lowering than that.

It also seams like this spring is slightly wider than some of the pics above which would explain why this spring is clunking back and forth when the wheel is turned (almost all the way)

All of these pictures are with a 12mm spacer installed. With a 5mm spacer the wheel would spin but was much too close to the strut for any type of driving. 8mm would probably be perfect but 12mm is the smallest hub-centric spacer available.

Here's a video of the clunk -

[sdm2c]

Originally Posted by K_C_

Running Ohlins R&T in my M2 LCI for over 1 year here. No spacer required if you are running with stock wheels and tyres.

Did the shop pay attention that the shocks position are NOT the same as M3/4?

Also the Ohlins sticker is facing outwards?

Extracted from P.3 of the manual:
Attachment 2350834

Hi K_C_.

Thanks for the response.

[sdm2c]

Originally Posted by nothingman

So, thinking about it... if you were to get a shorter spring and move the lower perch up a bit it would give you more clearance for a wider tire. Anyone know what the downside would be? Would having less spring travel require a stiffer spring?

Hi nothingman.

Thanks for the response.

[M2 GT]

Depends on which setup you go with, mine has a 6-inch main spring and a helper spring, and there is a lot more clearance compared to the original Ohlins springs.

[M2 GT]

Neil, are you sure that's the correct spring for the front? I'm seeing 190N/mm which I believe is the original spring for the rear.

[bentom2]

You have the rear spring on the front, and I’m guessing the front is on the rear. The part number visible on the spring in the second photo is the rear spring P/N.

Added photo of spec sheet. Part numbers and respective position are at the bottom of the document.

Originally Posted by NeilMFD

Hey everyone, Thank you for your help on this. My name is Neil and I run Oceanside Motorsports who installed this suspension on Steve's M2.

We were working with Ohlins on this issue last week but they're closed for the week so it would be great to have some answers for them when they get back to expedite what they ship us.

I'm concerned that we have a strut that's incorrect or a spring that's been updated. We originally installed it exactly as the instructions stated which was supposed to lower the car 10mm. Instead it lifted the front of the car way above the stock ride height. Right now the strut is lowered almost all the way down and the spring pre-load adjuster is also all the way down and the car is at stock ride height. If we wanted to lower it we would only have about 10mm until the strut would be at its lowest position which would put the front of the car 10mm lower than stock. It seams like it should allow for much more lowering than that.

It also seams like this spring is slightly wider than some of the pics above which would explain why this spring is clunking back and forth when the wheel is turned (almost all the way)

All of these pictures are with a 12mm spacer installed. With a 5mm spacer the wheel would spin but was much too close to the strut for any type of driving. 8mm would probably be perfect but 12mm is the smallest hub-centric spacer available.

Here's a video of the clunk -

[NeilMFD]

Originally Posted by bentom2

You have the rear spring on the front, and I’m guessing the front is on the rear. The part number visible on the spring in the second photo is the rear spring P/N.

Added photo of spec sheet. Part numbers and respective position are at the bottom of the document.

I think you're right! I'll look into it, fix it, then confirm after with you guys. So far this definitely looks to be what's wrong!