Another KW v2 fitted finally!

[sootyvrs]

Just had my KW v2's installed today by Motorscope in Northallerton UK and what a great service. They had a few small problems but what impressed me was how they handled them! I would recommend them to anyone wanting stuff done to their car in the North East England.

As some may already know this is the second attempt for me to have them fitted as the 1st garage was unable to get the OEM front struts off after 4 hours effort!

Anyhow on to the juicy stuff. The car now sits 35mm lower at the front and 15mm lower at the rear. The visual effects of this certainly took some time to get used to. A side of me was saying WOW, that looks mighty aggressive and hardcore and another side (my maturer side) was saying it looks too slammed for someone of my age :wink:

It was sitting a little higher when we played with the height at Motorscope but I think it's dropped around 5mm since the 25 mile drive home. The more I look now the more I'm warming to the current height.

Now to the ride...... All I can say is WOW. My first drive, I wasn't sure what to expect as I've heard coilovers can be a tad uncompromisingly stiff but to my surprise, they ride extremely well! I have my adjustable rebound setting to the KW recommended setting, which is around half way between hard and soft, with the rear 2 clicks harder. Overall I would say the ride is firmer (obviously) but only by a very small margin and would say that the damping is far superior and in some cases feels more comfortable than the stock M Sport suspension which was a shock!

Big test was to pick my kids up, who didn't know that I changed suspension and not one mention from them to say "Dad, the car is so bumpy!" when I took them for a slow short drive. So that's a big positive!

Now to the handling and all I can say is WOW again!!! The car now corners like it's on rails. I made a good mental note when travelling to Motorscope of how the car was handling and ride and how much body roll there was when pushing into a fast corner and also around roundabouts.

The car now just goes round corners which simply would have the std. M Sport suspension off the road! It really is that good with so little hint of body roll. Braking has improved with notably less diving under heavy braking.

I would easily say that it's the best upgrade I've done to the 130i by far and would recommend the KW to anyone. Pricey, yes but you get utter quality. Early days I know and I will post a further review after I get some further miles on them. As you can tell I'm very happy so far!

Can I also add a big thank you to all that have answered many questions that I had to ask regading the KW's

PS I also did the speed bump test and it passed

Here are some pics I took today just so you can see the drop -

[AchtungF80]

Looks fantastic!

[ulrichd]

Perfect stance. Does anyone know if the wheel fitments for the hatch and the coupe are the same?

[dyong]

Very nice drop. You may want to wait a month before going for an alignment. The height will change a bit. I just did mine after playing with the height adjustment for a month. I lowered mine by 1 inch front & rear.

Note: The rear height will differ by 1/8 of an inch between a full and empty tank of gas.

[modbargains]

Looking good!

[sootyvrs]

Originally Posted by ulrichd

Perfect stance. Does anyone know if the wheel fitments for the hatch and the coupe are the same?

Yes I believe they are the same

[SirPeter]

Was it really difficult to get the OEM front struts off? How did Motorscope solve this problem?

[///Mike135i]

Looks great sooty!!

[sootyvrs]

Originally Posted by SirPeter

Was it really difficult to get the OEM front struts off? How did Motorscope solve this problem?

I just left them to get on with it! I think a few who have done DIY have said that there is not much room to get the struts out and I think you have to ensure you get the springs compressed right and also you may have to undo some linkages?

I think there's a few threads here that might have more details on that.

[arrutled]

wheel offsets?

[sootyvrs]

Originally Posted by arrutled

wheel offsets?

18x8.5" ET43 front
18x8.5" ET43 rear with 7mm spacer = ET36 equivalent rear

[arrutled]

any rubbing up front?

[sootyvrs]

No rubbing at all inside or out. I have 225/40/18 tyres.

I have checked the strut clearance and on 8.5" rims ET43 there's not much room, perhaps 6-7mm at most.

My only problem so far is now my trolley jack is now too high! I need to look into getting a low entry one.

[Schnorbitz]

Well done mate, it looks proper bo!

[SV Concepts II]

If there was a drooling smiley, I would use it here.

[driftdriven]

The car looks awesome! I really wish they would consider bringing the hatch to North America and maybe even a 135i hatch!

[sootyvrs]

Thanks for all your nice comments.

I noticed that my drivers side front was 7mm lower than the other side so I just jacked it up, undo the grub screw and twisted the spring a few times, tighten screw and voila!

So easy to adjust the front height even for a non DIYer like me!!

I did have to buy a low entry trolley jack as my other ones doesn't fit under the car no more since lowering.