Lowering springs

[E36M3]

im looking at getting a set of eibach lowering springs, but do you guys think it would be ok to put them on my factory struts (which have 92,000 miles on them) the guy at sears said that they where fine when he put my new tires on but i hear that lowering springs will tend to mess up the original shocks. any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Pete

 

[vlad]

It would really depend on how far your planning on lowering the car. I would check with who ever you're buying the eibach springs from. Personally, I would recommend getting a new set of shocks and struts especially with the miles you state that are on the current ones.

 

[M3Aidan]

do it right...

I just lowered my 97' M3/2D last weekend... I would absolutely recommend changing out everything. You will thank yourself later. I actually went with H&R Street Performance series from BMP Design. http://www.bmpdesign.com/bmw/parts/catalog/suspension_5a.shtml
This is a really nice set up for the E36 models- supposed to be 1.5" (f) and 1.0 (r). Real world--> netted me about 1", both front & back. Although, I had to go with Koni adjustables in the front and the Bilsteins in the rear. The folks at BMP tells me that the Bilsteins struts (just for the E36) are undergoing some "engineering standards" changes and are not available anywhere. I checked... to no avail. Don't get me wrong, the Koni's are a really good strut, too. I was just looking to install Bilsteins @ all 4 corners. This (may) be the reason I did not get the full 1.5" drop in the front... which it really needed to off-set the drop in the rear. I have some pics of the lowered car on my camera right now..... but my wife threw out my damn cable that enables me to d/l the pics to my computer . I am going out to get a new one today and I will show you what you would be looking at with this exact same set-up.
Also keep in mind your wheel and tire combo... if your tires are +2, they will not fit. Trust me on this one! I run a set of set of Kumho 712's (235-40 & 245-40) on the factory 17" contours, and they just cleared the drop in the rear. Remember- your rear tires will be covered with these springs... so just keep all that in mind. Hope that helps a little! I will post some pics later on to show you the drop to expect. Later.