Hi all
As some of you may know, I had been looking into a damper upgrade for my 135i earlier in the year. After contacting MCA Suspension here in Brisbane, Australia I’m happy to share that I’ve been a prototype tester for a new kit for the BMW 135i platform. Given there are relatively few options for our platform I thought I’d share my experience with you all and provide a review.
Why I chose MCA:
I had considered options such as KW, Bilstein and Ohlins initially but the AUD, overseas shipping, duty, GST etc led me to look into other options. I did consider Shockworks in Victoria but after some back and forth re a prototype kit I was getting the impression that while they were interested in developing a kit for our platform, it really wasn’t a priority for them and it could be a significant wait.
After these initial investigations I decided to contact MCA as I had heard they were starting to expand their range. I’m sure many of you have heard of MCA Suspension here in Australia. They’ve been achieving great things, primarily in the Japanese car scene. They also have a very strong reputation in the rally scene, and more recently in events such as World Time Attack with their ‘Hammerhead’ Nissan S13 Silvia.
Long story short, Josh Coote was prepared to undertake some R&D for our platform and I became a prototype tester. I was very much a guinea pig and taking a leap of faith given no previous reviews or established name in the BMW sector. Despite this I was confident in MCA’s reputation and wanted to support a local Australian company.
The purpose for my kit:
Let’s be clear from the outside that my 135i is a street car and not a compromised track only special. You can see from my build log that my car is tuned, has a good set of non-runflat tyres, 1M control arms and 1M strut brace. My suspension is otherwise stock, including the sway bars and subframe bushings (for now).
I had a number of goals for my kit.
• I wanted my kit to be track capable should I decide to take this path in future, though it is primarily a street car and must work on the road.
• I wanted the kit to be as stealth and OEM looking as possible.
• No ridiculous lowering or slammed stance. I am function over form here.
My kit and quality:
MCA offer four series of suspension at present going from basic to very advanced – Blue, X-series, Red and Gold. I chose a custom Red series kit for my 135i with the adjuster extenders and ‘stealth’ option. The stealth option essentially makes your whole kit black so that it looks OEM. Because I upgraded to the 1M strut brace with black plastic ‘M’ covers you can’t even see the camber plates or damper knobs i.e. very stealth.
Key features of the Red series kit:
• Custom springs
• Custom valving for your car
• Designed by MCA and assembled in Australia
• Each kit is dyno tested and tuned prior to being sent out
• 13 increment damper adjustable (0 = hardest; 12 = softest)
• Camber tops
I settled on 6kg/mm (200mm long) front springs and 11kg/mm (220mm long) rear springs. Note I initially ran a 12kg rear spring but we determined this was slightly too firm for my intended use. (Please ignore the numbers on the springs in the below pics as we swapped out the springs after the photos).
My kit arrived well boxed with each individual strut/damper in individual boxes. The kit also included height adjustment spanners, sway bar end links (which weren’t needed in the end) and an instruction manual with recommended damper/spring/ride height adjustment settings.
I was very impressed with the quality of the kit. All components looked very well made.
The install:
I elected to have MCA install the kit, set the ride height and perform a wheel alignment for me. They also installed the rear adjuster extenders in the boot of my car. The install took a few hours but went smoothly.
Side point but I didn’t realise how porky the 135i is in stock form. With all fluids and a full tank of petrol mine weighed 1533kg when being corner weighted (see scales image below).
Below is my initial wheel alignment. Keep in mind I wanted tyre life preserved rather than running huge camber. I was also very happy with the set ride height. The front is maybe 10mm lower than standard M-sport suspension while the rear is probably 30mm lower to eliminate that stock raked look. From a functionality perspective, it is not particularly low and speed bumps are no problem, especially with the firmer dampers. It does look mean though!
I couldn’t help but sneak a few photos of MCA’s workshop and cars (see install day pics below). They had a Subaru WRX being prepped for SubiNats and their Toyota 86 which I’ve discovered since my initial install day is now being prepped for a Nissan VQ37 engine swap and trip to World Time Attack later this year. Should be an awesome track toy!
Revision Number 2:
After receiving the car back and driving the initial setup for a few weeks I noted a few things. The rear adjuster extenders weren’t playing nice with the factory BMW boot trim material and were squeeking like crazy rubbing on the holes in the boot trim. I ended up pulling the trim out, drilling the trim holes slightly larger and wrapping the extenders in felt tape to eliminate the squeeking. Problem solved and something worth considering for anyone else running adjuster extenders, regardless of brand.
While the kit was very impressive from the initial setup, I did notice that the car was a little jittery at lower speeds, particularly on the firmer damper settings. MCA agreed to take the car back and have another look at the kit. They ended up increasing the rear rebound rate and swapping from the 12kg to a slightly softer 11kg spring which made a significant difference to ride comfort.
MCA also adjusted the wheel alignment for me after this tinkering. Below is the updated wheel alignment. The car was running slightly lower in the rear than revision 1 so an additional 0.5 degrees negative rear camber was added to avoid my tyres hitting the metal guards.
Customer service:
I wanted to address this point specifically given customer service is lacking in so many companies these days. I will go out of my way to promote a business that delivers on customer service as I feel it is crucial and should not be forgotten.
I have been dealing with Josh Coote from day one and he has been excellent. He was extremely patient with all my questions and borderline OCD requests when it came to the valving and balance between comfort and performance. Excellent communication with me throughout, though I will say Josh needs to clone himself judging by how busy he is and the time of some of his email responses (3AM at times!)
Josh and MCA went above and beyond with the fine tuning of my kit. For revision 2 Josh had my car for 2 weeks and drove 400km+ testing the revised setup. He was even kind enough to wash my car before he returned it to me. Now that is dedication and putting the customer first.
Kit performance:
Now you are probably wondering how does the kit drive after all this?
Well I’m pleased to report that I’m very happy with the finished product. You know you have a good kit when you’re itching to get the keys and take it out for a Sunday morning drive. Here are my key thoughts after several weeks of driving:
• The damper adjustment delivers tangible changes per increment. Some coilovers are either full hard or full soft and nothing in between. You can tell the difference with this kit.
• There is a really good range of damping from full hard to full soft. The car is very firm on full hard (0 setting) but I would still not say harsh on large bumps. It is very composed. The car is very soft and supple on full soft (12 setting). Some may think it is a little floaty on this setting but I like to think of it like a limousine or ‘wife friendly’ setting.
• I have found I’m running setting 6 front and 8 rear for general road driving. Firming up the front to say 4 results in a noticeably crisper front end with sharper turn-in though.
• I would say the dampers absorb large bumps better than stock M-sport suspension. The car is very composed over large bumps. You still feel them but there is less crashing.
• The dampers ride small bumps and road imperfections well. As stated earlier, I felt the car was a little jittery at lower speeds, particularly in the rear, until we softened the rear spring rate slightly. The jittery character is obviously most noticeable on the firmer settings (say 5 and firmer) but is very reasonable once softened a little for the road.
• At higher freeway type speeds the car is excellent. It is very civilised and rides bumps well while also feeling very planted.
• One of my favourite features of the kit is the crisp front end with very sharp turn-in response. The steering is perhaps slightly lighter than stock but you get a lot of feedback through the steering wheel. You can feel every road imperfection.
• There is noticeably less squat and dive under acceleration and braking. Body roll is reduced, particularly on the firmer settings, however, if you like a really flat car through the corners then perhaps thicker sway bars may be in order if you want to run on the softer damper settings. I understand MCA have designed the kit around standard sway bars so this is something to think about. I think they achieve their traction and comfort by not running super stiff so perhaps we need to recalibrate our thinking that a super stiff flat car with no compression is a ‘good’ car. I will defer to the experts on this one.
• Ride height is a very good compromise between performance, looks and practicality. As I mentioned I was not looking for a slammed setup. I wanted a functional street setup that would let me get up driveways, clear speed bumps etc which has been achieved.
• I have noticed that with 1+ passengers there is a little bit of rub on the inner felt guards in the rear at my current ride height. MCA have suggested I add an additional 0.5 degrees negative camber to eliminate (that will only be 2 – 2.5 degrees camber total which is reasonable). If that doesn’t eliminate the rub then I may raise the rear ride height slightly.
• Apart from the slight rub noise in the rear I have no noise complaints. The springs are quiet and there is no noise from the camber plates.
• Overall I am very happy with the kit and can highly recommend it as a very versatile kit that can be made an extremely comfortable street/family friendly setup with a twist of the damper knobs, or a controlled and precise track day toy with a twist in the other direction.
I’ll leave a few winter pics with my coilovers installed to finish up this review!
Contact:
Should you have any more questions on the kit I am more than happy to answer them. I hope my review has been beneficial.
If you are in the market for a quality set of coilovers for your 135i then I would highly recommend contacting Josh at MCA. They are well worth a look if you are currently considering overseas/European options.
http://www.mcasuspension.com/
As an aside, I understand MCA are also considering kits for the 335i as the 135i kit is very similar.
Justin
Now I know a thread is worthless without pics...
Unboxing pics:
Install Day:
Winter pics - post install:
