Öhlins Road & Track impressions

[Bimmer-Bob]

Just arrived, going on tomorrow:

EDIT: See below for initial impressions.

[doublevanosrc]

Open the box and post pics!!!

[DriveHard]

Yummy !!!!

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by doublevanosrc

Open the box and post pics!!!

Not a lot of time (headed to the shop now), but here you go:

[infinitekid2002]

Kermit's gonna be stoked brah

[pixelblue]

very nice! my next set. why did you switch out your pss9's? curious to hear your review comparison to pss9's

[doublevanosrc]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Not a lot of time (headed to the shop now), but here you go:

Very nice!!!

[BrokenVert]

Put them one! I really want a set of these.

Are you using the kit springs? Or did you swap out for another brand?

Can you also tell us where you bought them from?

[Angerman]

DO WANT!

Be sure to post before and after pictures of the height

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

Are you using the kit springs? Or did you swap out for another brand?

Can you also tell us where you bought them from?

Based on a conversation with Jeff from Öhlins USA I decided to stick with the kit springs for now. Bottom line is he said that he thinks the spring rates are adequate for our cars (especially since the kit is truly meant for the heavier 3 Series). He said not to compare their rates with other kits, because every kit utilizes different valving, and that Öhlins' was particularly unique due to the DFV tech they use. He also said the dampers would require revalving if spring rates were increased beyond 30%. The kit uses Eibach ERS springs, which are good quality, linear springs - I figured I'd start with the manufacturer's recommendations, play around with damper adjustments if needed, and kind of go from there.

I bought the kit direct from Öhlins USA. The price is the same wherever you go, but they were offering free shipping (I think it might have been a glitch, but they honored it).

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Angerman

Be sure to post before and after pictures of the height

You can see "before" pics in my sig and garage, but they're sort of meaningless because I'm going from another coil-over to the Öhlins.

[Bimmer-Bob]

From the shop's FB page:

[Bimmer-Bob]

So, just picked up my car a couple of hours ago. Didn't get too much of a chance to push the car, but my very early impression of these dampers is this: they are incredibly refined. At first they almost felt too soft because of the way they just soak up bumps (there are still occasionally "jarring" bumps, but much less frequently than before), but upon pushing the car it really does handle quite well in spite of the "softer" ride (bear in mind I'm comparing to PSS9's, not stock). The suspension is dead quiet, too.

I have since dialed in a bit more firmness in the dampers (I doubt I'm done tweaking yet) and now they feel even better - plenty stiff, super composed, but only the very worst bumps jar the cabin. What's kind of incredible is I swear I can feel the tires being pushed back into the road - grip feels great. I also had an alignment done and had negative camber maxed out (-1.8° with Dinan camber plates), so turn in feels very crisp, too. Overall I'm very happy and look forward to exploring what this set-up is capable of.

Now for the bad: ride height is not where I want it, at all. Just peeking into the wheel wells, it looks like the fronts are set all the way down, and I still have a two-finger gap all the way around. My Bilsteins had my tires nearly flush with the fenders, and I had gotten really used to that look. I don't know, maybe the springs will settle over the next few days, but I kind of doubt it.

I'm thinking about pulling the wheels off tomorrow to have a closer look - if I can get my car say 1/4" lower, will I totally ruin the alignment I just had today? And if I can't get the spring perches any lower, will different springs help? I was most likely going to upgrade to Swift springs from HPA at some point anyway, but I may end up doing so sooner rather than later if I can't get this car lowered any other way.

Thanks for any info. Will post pics tomorrow, by the way.

See my review of the shop that did the work, DBC Performance, here. Really good shop, IMO - a great resource for Central Texas.

[jsmonet]

my couple pennies: my car is survivable doing the commute across LA every day with these, and i'm tucking a little in the rear, 1 finger... barely in the front. I was a little hesitant to leave it that low, but I went ahead and took it for a test drive before insisting they raise it up... and i'm so glad I did. i've scraped once at a dip that had most of my other cars scraping at stock height if I mindlessly went through it.

the suspension *is* stiffer. it does remind you of it, but in a good way. everything about driving the car is more confident now, and those stupid little things that would get the back end bouncing no longer seem to unsettle the car.

--adult sexy chef costume-- alright, why my wife just said that...

for *my* use the stock springs are working out great. I cross LA daily to get to work and back. The roads are horrible, my ride height is right about an iphone and change, and I'm doing just fine

one huge disclaimer: these give you a little bit of a superman complex. try not to kill yourself doing something stupid haha

[Bimmer-Bob]

How are you getting so low on these? I'll post picks tomorrow, but I swear I'm dropped as far as I can go and it still seems too high...

Anyway, thanks for your input. The roads here are awful, too - very poorly maintained. I was eager to get into something that could handle it a little better - so far I'm very pleased.

[mike the snake]

Check to make sure the struts were inserted deeply enough into the hub clamps. The shop that installed mine simply slipped them up to the step in the strut, but the clamps need to be pried open and the struts then slipped another 2 or 3 inches deeper, and then there's a metal tab the notches into the clamp slot that properly aligns the struts.

I'm positive this is your issue.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Check to make sure the struts were inserted deeply enough into the hub clamps. The shop that installed mine simply slipped them up to the step in the strut, but the clamps need to be pried open and the struts then slipped another 2 or 3 inches deeper, and then there's a metal tab the notches into the clamp slot that properly aligns the struts.

I'm positive this is your issue.

Mike - thanks. I looked at the strut and it didn't seem abnormally high or anything, but I'm going to take a closer look after work.

[mike the snake]

There should be like 3" of strut sticking out below the hub clamp. If the bottom of the strut looks flush with the bottom of the hub clamp it is incorrectly installed. Take a look at the pics in this thread, the clamp clamps on to the area above the initial lower, smaller diameter portion of the strut, the strut then sits deeper in the hub, which lowers the car.
The clamp needs to be pried open, it's a tight fit.

[beau@performanceshockinc]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

There should be like 3" of strut sticking out below the hub clamp. If the bottom of the strut looks flush with the bottom of the hub clamp it is incorrectly installed. Take a look at the pics in this thread, the clamp clamps on to the area above the initial lower, smaller diameter portion of the strut, the strut then sits deeper in the hub, which lowers the car.
The clamp needs to be pried open, it's a tight fit.

yep...like he said!

[HP Autowerks]

The locator should sit in the open slot of the spindle and fully seated. You can also see in the photo the step on the strut body is past the bottom of the spindle.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Thanks for the pic. I took a picture of my strut - it's a crap pic, but I circled what I think is the locator, and it looks to me like it's flush with the pinch bolt (i.e., fully seated). What do you guys think?

[Focusedintntions]

Wow that really is a bad pic lol. I can't tell what i'm looking at b/c of the light washing out all the details of the picture.