Handling issues

[TomK]

something like £150 each. No more than an hour to swap.
http://www.bmwetk.info/parts-catalog/prd/BMW/VT/P/E86/Cou/Z4%20M3.2/ECE/R/N/2007/00/49422/33/33_1335/33507838645

edit: those are for e86 not 85

 

[McKoval]

If you have a roadster it is better to buy rouge engineering top mounts (or any other upside down design), as you wilk not have to dissasemble soft top compartment when replacing them again


TapaTalking

 

[tertius]

I think first of all you should examine your car to see if something is actually broken before taking up the widely spread advice here and ordering all sorts of upgrade parts and whatnot...
It makes absolutely no sense upgrading stuff while some other part is on it's way out.
So that means getting it on a ramp and start poking around to see if all the bushings are still ok, see if the shocks are leaking, if the springs, roll bar droplinks etc are not broken etc etc.
Eibach springs on stock shocks are not a problem.
I don't know how many miles your car has but somewhere between 40k-80k miles shocks will start to loose some of their effectiveness. Sometimes caused by the N2 gas dissepating out slowly causing cavitation in the shock oil (pressureless oil)
Worn shocks will cause bouncyness but not altered geometry or sagging while going through long corners

I think this is the best advice you have received - it's pretty hard to diagnose suspension issues over the internet ...

As for whether you should be able to compress the shocks by hand - do you mean *just* the shock or you trying to compress the whole corner? i.e. The shock and the spring? If both I'd be quite surprised if you could do that, it would be the same as trying to push down on the suspension with the car on the ground. Obviously you can do it, but it takes a fair effort and it would be harder without being able to put your weight behind it.

 

[ChawenHalo]

Sounds like your shocks are shot. I can't comment on the OEM/ Eibach combo, but in theory gas struts valving is in correlation with the springs and ride hight of the car but would imagine the Eibach springs are made specifically for OEM struts. All OEM whilst not perfect on track its not bad either (just plenty of playing with the steering wheel and throttle!). If you don't want to blow loads of dosh unecessarily try OEM set up first in good working order then build up improvements from there. A few on this forum have some decent set ups and other a bit more peculiar to their wishes, so its good advice to see a mechanic who do these things on track / race cars and who know what they are on about and just for your needs, instead of trackday goers who think,they're Schumaker...