Mr Tidy's MC Thread - 4 Years On!

[MrPT]

Ah yeah but every 4 million fillups you get a free Costa coffee and 50p off a Ginsters, so it’s totally worth it.

It's every 10 fill-ups, and in-between the trigger points you get a random 10p off a tank off a £2 bottle of 20p/bottle water.

...and you get to offset your carbon emissions (I think they buy credits from Tesla) - so my 330D is cleaner than my Z4MC

Hah... don't get me wrong, I still buy the stuff. The free Costa usually ends up in the driver's door bin and footwell.

[blobslosak]

OP, good news on the MOT and the droop seems reasonable.

Did you notice any effect removing the CDV?

Cheers.

I'm trying to get my head around this droop business. Surely droop is the same whether the spring collar is in the lowest or highest position on the coilover body.

With the collar (and hence ride height) in lowest position, the spring is probably uncompressed and free to rattle by hand. The damper will fully extend under gravity.

With the collar in the highest position, the spring will be compressed, but pushes the damper downwards so the damper will be fully extended.

So in either configuration, with a wheel dangling in free air, either gravity or the spring will force the wheel and damper down to its full extension no?

What am I missing? Makes my head hurt

[Mr Tidy]

Well I've only done about 100 miles since the CDV came off and while but it does feel slightly better, it's not the sort of "Night and Day" difference I noticed on my 3.0Si.

The suspension thing had been doing my head in too!

But based on what I have been told even on the highest setting (like mine is) the spring isn't any more compressed because the piston in the damper extends - unless it reaches the end of it's travel, and if that happened then you wouldn't have any droop. Which is why I thought I would measure my droop.

So if you encountered a dip in the road the wheel might briefly leave the ground because there would be no downward suspension travel if the damper was at the limit of it's travel.

[bowser134]

How much droop travel do you have left on the coil-overs after topping them out?

Too little can be pretty disastrous for both ride and handling.

Have you tried to slack off the damping, particularly compression? Or tried different springs with them?

So a quick update on this as I had the trolley jack out today to swap the wheels on my 3 Series, and once I'd finished I put it under my MC.

Even topped out on the H & R coil-overs I've got about 70mm of droop on the front and 80mm on the rear, so I would have thought that should be enough.

The damping on these units isn't adjustable, only the ride height. I haven't tried different springs because the previous owner bought them as a complete set so I'd expect the springs to be matched to the shocks like a B12 kit.

Now I can use it to go further than the shops I'll see how they feel, but I'm starting to think the Eibach springs that came with the car may be the way to go for a bit of compliance and add some new shocks. Then I need to decide which shocks for longer trips and the occasional B road blast. Bilstein, KW or others? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Iain,

Was meaning to message you. I drove an MC a couple of weeks ago which had the Bilstein B12 kit fitted and it drove really well. Think that’s made up of Eibach springs and Bilstein B8 dampers so you’d only need the dampers.

[Mr Tidy]

Iain,

Was meaning to message you. I drove an MC a couple of weeks ago which had the Bilstein B12 kit fitted and it drove really well. Think that’s made up of Eibach springs and Bilstein B8 dampers so you’d only need the dampers.

Many thanks Ross, that seems to be the way I will be heading. On our lumpy roads with these H & Rs I keep seeing the T/C light flashing for some reason!

On a smooth road they are great but smooth roads are few and far between, and usually not the twisty type you would head to for some fun.

[blobslosak]

Well I've only done about 100 miles since the CDV came off and while but it does feel slightly better, it's not the sort of "Night and Day" difference I noticed on my 3.0Si.

The suspension thing had been doing my head in too!

But based on what I have been told even on the highest setting (like mine is) the spring isn't any more compressed because the piston in the damper extends - unless it reaches the end of it's travel, and if that happened then you wouldn't have any droop. Which is why I thought I would measure my droop.

So if you encountered a dip in the road the wheel might briefly leave the ground because there would be no downward suspension travel if the damper was at the limit of it's travel.

Ah that makes sense, if in theory you could pre tension the spring enough to get no displacement when you put the car on the ground, you'd have zero droop.

Out of interest, was your spring slightly compressed so you couldn't move it by hand?

[Mr Tidy]

Out of interest, was your spring slightly compressed so you couldn't move it by hand?

Sorry, I have no idea as Ross did it!

[Mr Tidy]

Well my car went to Ross for some surgery this morning!

Then this afternoon he sent me a photo of the bearing shells he took out, and I'm glad I decided to get them replaced as now I won't need to worry about them any more. (Mileage just short of 78K).

[MrPT]

Yep. Good call.

[Mr Tidy]

So I got the car back from Ross today complete with the old shells and engine mounts in a bag as trophies.
ETA He said my shells were the worst he has seen to date.

It took a bit longer than expected because he noticed the cam-cover gasket he fitted in April was leaking. Luckily BMW replaced it F.O.C. and agreed to pay his labour for swapping it.

So at the sort of mileage I'm doing these days all should be good mechanically for a couple of years!

Just got to sort out the suspension now. I'm thinking of having the H & R springs I've got fitted and buying some Bilsteins - B6 I think.

And as much as I like the CSP Reps there are loads of Coupes with them so I'll probably get the 224s I bought from ag51bye refurbed, but I'm not sure what colour to go for.

Definitely not black anyway! I like Shadow Chrome but I'm not sure how that would look with Silver Grey. I've also seen wheels in Hyper Silver which might work better - decisions, decisions.

[IRD]

It must all be very stressful Iain having to make all these important decisions.

[Mr Tidy]

Thanks for your concern, Ian.

But seeing as I'm no longer working hopefully I don't have so many decisions to make, so will hopefully manage to muddle through!

[MrPT]

Maybe going back to 18s will make the suspension a bit more tolerable?

[ColinBR]

Hyper silver without a doubt.

[Mr Tidy]

Well hopefully getting the coil-overs off and 18s fitted will make a noticeable difference to the ride quality, as I want to use my Z4 more than I did.

Previously I always did more miles in my 3 Series because it was my "Mum Taxi", but now Mum is in a care home I don't need a car for that role so I can use the Z4 to visit her - now that visits are allowed again.

So I'm thinking I might as well sell the 330i because all I need is a shed I can use for Tesco, B & Q, the tip, etc. without worrying about trolley rash and door dings!

Added bonuses are 18" tyres are cheaper than 19s, and 224s look easier to clean than CSLs.