Well I finally got around to doing the upgrades this past weekend. Installed a sport suspension (135i I bought off of here with low miles) and the M3 front control arms. I had the struts assembled with new hardware but did the install myself.
It's done and the difference in ride is very noticeable. Stiffer and much better steering response. I am really happy. Nearly a rough ride as I'm still on run flats, but I love the road feel and tight steering. It's obvious the suspension was designed around run flats.
Didn't get much drop which is what I wanted. I'm actually surprised at the slight amount of drop. My car is an AT ( I know mistake ) and loaded up so it's as heavy as most 135's. Could be that my suspension had 40,000 miles and this one had around 10,000.
I turned the toe arms outward 3 turns as recommended by someone on this site and it worked great. I feel I don't even need an alignment. Will probably drive it a little bit to let things settle before getting an alignment. Or maybe leave it alone to wear out the tires to force me to buy non RF's.
I passed on putting on the 135i sway bar for two reasons. One I was just beat up from the whole job and tired of being under a car. Also, since the base 128i doesn't have a rear sway bar I was concerned about suspension balance by having the front so buttoned up with the stock rear. Does this make sense?