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      06-25-2013, 06:05 PM   #1
bl@ster
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Suspension upgrade options for my Luxury Line F30...

I have a 2012 Luxury Line 328i and I'm looking to make my ride a little sportier. I've got some new wheels coming and I'm interested in upgrading the suspension. I want to improve the handling and lower the car.

I asked the local dealership about the "M Performance Suspension" upgrade and he quoted me $2600 for parts (M-Sports springs, sway bars, shocks, spring pads, hardware) and $1850 for labor to install it. Does this sound right?

Are there any cheaper alternatives besides just installing H&R Sport springs? I've heard that just swapping the springs will stress my other components and is not recommended...

Thanks for the advice!
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      06-26-2013, 06:46 AM   #2
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So many other options that will cost far less than this. Your main cost is sway bars as it is quite an undertaking from what has been described on here. Springs will not stress anything badly. For best results coilovers are the way I would go. You get a much better ride and you can dial in the height to exactly what you want
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      06-26-2013, 06:13 PM   #3
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Lots of good options out there. You don't have to pay for high Markup BMW M Performance parts, nor that absolutely jaw dropping labor charge to install it.

You know about the H&R Springs already. The regular sport springs will not overstress your Stock dampeners. The Super Sport springs on the other hand, I wouldn't recommend installing them without an aftermarket set of shocks.

Like the previous poster said, Coilovers are probably your best route to get the most out of your handling without killing your budget. H&R Has their Street performance, and KW has their V1, V2 and V3 lines which all vary in price. You should be looking at around anywhere from $1400 - $2500 in parts depending on the vendor you go with. Install cost for coilovers will run anywhere from 4-6 hours labor. Usually that translates into $350-800 depending on your shop's labor rate.

Better bang for your buck going this route over the Stealership prices.
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      06-30-2013, 09:02 PM   #4
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^^^^^^^^^^^ what he said. Rich is very helpful so have a chat with him
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      06-30-2013, 09:34 PM   #5
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Best mod is to replace the RFT. Much more improvement in ride quality; tire noise and performance than I expected.
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      06-30-2013, 09:41 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mak135i View Post
Best mod is to replace the RFT. Much more improvement in ride quality; tire noise and performance than I expected.
That's exactly what I did. Replaced them with 20" Pirelli P-Zero RFTs
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      07-01-2013, 12:40 AM   #7
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Rich has been extremely helpful! Thanks Rich!
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      07-01-2013, 09:44 AM   #8
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Quote:
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Rich has been extremely helpful! Thanks Rich!
Glad to help dude! I'd rather help you find the right mods for your car than push something on you that doesn't fit your plans for the car
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      07-01-2013, 01:23 PM   #9
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baffles me the dealership can throw quotes like that with a straight face, i mean steelership***

I would at least hope they include an alignment with that price
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      07-05-2013, 10:12 PM   #10
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Just a quick update: I decided to go ahead w/ the H&R Sport Springs + some new 403m wheels. Here's how it turned out:
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      07-06-2013, 02:24 AM   #11
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Looks good, and the 403Ms look great on a luxury line.

Regarding the suspension however, I've done H&R sports on the standard suspension and there's no way I'd call it an upgrade quite frankly.
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      07-06-2013, 05:40 PM   #12
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Hey Blaster, Fellow Seattle-based F30 guy here...

Your car looks wet (meant as a compliment). Did you apply the Opti-Coat?

Are you a fan of your amber front reflectors? I just popped mine out of my grey luxury line the other day and am finding my eyes focusing on the angel-eye assembly rather than the "bike-flare."

Your wheels look sweet with the chrome accents (found only on the Luxury)
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      07-06-2013, 07:07 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glideslope View Post
Hey Blaster, Fellow Seattle-based F30 guy here...

Your car looks wet (meant as a compliment). Did you apply the Opti-Coat?

Are you a fan of your amber front reflectors? I just popped mine out of my grey luxury line the other day and am finding my eyes focusing on the angel-eye assembly rather than the "bike-flare."

Your wheels look sweet with the chrome accents (found only on the Luxury)

Hey Bro. I did not apply opti-coat, in fact it was kinda dirty when I took the shots. Only thing I did was amp up the highlights in Adobe Camera Raw a little bit...

I do plan on replacing the reflectors at some point. The "DIY" looks like a slight pain in the ass so I've been putting it off.

Got pics of your lux? You gonna lower and upgrade wheels?
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      07-07-2013, 12:10 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bl@ster View Post
Hey Bro. I did not apply opti-coat, in fact it was kinda dirty when I took the shots. Only thing I did was amp up the highlights in Adobe Camera Raw a little bit...

I do plan on replacing the reflectors at some point. The "DIY" looks like a slight pain in the ass so I've been putting it off.

Got pics of your lux? You gonna lower and upgrade wheels?


I've only had 'er for a couple of months, so I'm still in the honeymoon phase with her OEM equippage. One day, I may get antsy and look at 19" wheels and other mods (especially Coding to do the mirrors, etc).

So far, all I've done is the tint+half-wrap XPEL, killed the front signal egg-yolks, painted reflectors... and have HID fogs on order to match the color of the angel eyes (not that I get to use them much with sunset past 9PM).

The DIY reflectors were seriously easy if you use a hairdryer on the reflector for around 5 minutes. I literally only needed two thumbs to push it out (no prying, screwdrivers, etc)!

What did you do with your old stock rims? Winter tires?

Do you know any Seattle folks that do Coding (for a reasonable price)? I heard a guy in Renton that charges an arm an leg to connect the cable, then $20 for each feature. I'm sure we can do better than that!

Cheers!
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      07-08-2013, 09:20 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bl@ster View Post
Just a quick update: I decided to go ahead w/ the H&R Sport Springs + some new 403m wheels. Here's how it turned out:
Looks awesome dude!
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      07-08-2013, 01:56 PM   #16
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Looks nice, how's the ride quality? I'm looking to do the same but need some feed back since the roads here are not in good shape.
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      07-08-2013, 05:10 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glideslope View Post
What did you do with your old stock rims? Winter tires?

Do you know any Seattle folks that do Coding (for a reasonable price)? I heard a guy in Renton that charges an arm an leg to connect the cable, then $20 for each feature. I'm sure we can do better than that!
I'm going to try to sell my default lux rims. I grabbed a pair of the sport line wheels for winter wheels. No idea about coding... haven't tried that yet. The dealership coded the Auto Stop Start to "remember" the last setting. I always leave it off.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jrortiz View Post
Looks nice, how's the ride quality? I'm looking to do the same but need some feed back since the roads here are not in good shape.
The ride quality is ok. Been driving all around town with it for the past few days and you can definitely feel the road more but it's not that extreme. This is to be expected since it's still similar to the stock suspension feel -- just a bit less forgiving. The one negative I can find is that it does feel a little bouncy sometimes if you're going over highway expansion joints. I may upgrade to the Dinan Stage 1 Suspension if/when that ever comes out. For now, this will do.

Last edited by bl@ster; 07-08-2013 at 05:20 PM..
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