poking a stick through the bars a bit.

R

road warrior

Senior member
 Burton On trent
having acquired A 3.0 se, with toys, and having either fixed or about to fix the remaining niggles im turning to tyres and wheels due to the impending winter. The setup in existence is 225/40/18 & 255/40/18 which would be fair enough if the tyres are decent but they are not. I initially fitted the rears with 255/40/18 as the fitted 255/35/18 were giving a ride akin to barnie rubbles car but still remaining is a worn winter on one front and M&S tyre on the other side, clearly something has to be done. Now as i now have a "spare" car with 2 sets of decent tyres i will be putting the 225/40/18 wheels and alloys from the unsuspecting "doner " car. But wait.. the previous numpty owner has lowered the suspension so it "looks" good for the wonderful streets of warrington, well known for good roads with no speed humps and potholes.. :headbang:
so lets ask the good and great, are you all mad ?? I constantly see members mentioning they have lowered the suspension at great cost and i wonder why - i mean really ? the z4 is known to have a hard ride, so you then put low profiles on to avoid the rubbing that ensues as a result of lowered ( and presumably stiffened ) and i hope you have all changed the shock absorber's to a shorter stiffer length to compensate for the shorter travel of the shock absorber piston. Because I bet my grannies gravestone my own numpty didnt.
ayes to the left we have lowered suspension cus it looks good, and we are always to be found on the local racetrack burning rubber arent we..
ayes to the right, its expensive, gives a harsh ride, wonderful on potholes and speed bumps and mounting curbs when parking, adds to the likelyhood of curbing our heartstoppingly expensive alloys. and best of all - likely to give zero roadholding benefits. in the real world - you know - pot hole land :poke:

those with knuckedusters and baseball bats will be seen immediately, those with sawn off shotguns will need to wait while i tool up :) :evil:
 
It's a aesthetics thing. Can't say I get it either but plenty of good folk do. :wink:
 
Love your posts fella. Always a good read!

I wouldn’t lower mine either because when I drive it, still want a good level of comfort... particularly on the roads in my area.

Never mounted a curb on it tho, I’d be worried about taking out the front bumper. As well as potentially destroying the tyre. Lower profiles is a accident waiting to happen if you’re in the curb mounting game.
 
road warrior said:
having acquired A 3.0 se, with toys, and having either fixed or about to fix the remaining niggles im turning to tyres and wheels due to the impending winter. The setup in existence is 225/40/18 & 255/40/18 which would be fair enough if the tyres are decent but they are not. I initially fitted the rears with 255/40/18 as the fitted 255/35/18 were giving a ride akin to barnie rubbles car but still remaining is a worn winter on one front and M&S tyre on the other side, clearly something has to be done. Now as i now have a "spare" car with 2 sets of decent tyres i will be putting the 225/40/18 wheels and alloys from the unsuspecting "doner " car. But wait.. the previous numpty owner has lowered the suspension so it "looks" good for the wonderful streets of warrington, well known for good roads with no speed humps and potholes.. :headbang:
so lets ask the good and great, are you all mad ?? I constantly see members mentioning they have lowered the suspension at great cost and i wonder why - i mean really ? the z4 is known to have a hard ride, so you then put low profiles on to avoid the rubbing that ensues as a result of lowered ( and presumably stiffened ) and i hope you have all changed the shock absorber's to a shorter stiffer length to compensate for the shorter travel of the shock absorber piston. Because I bet my grannies gravestone my own numpty didnt.
ayes to the left we have lowered suspension cus it looks good, and we are always to be found on the local racetrack burning rubber arent we..
ayes to the right, its expensive, gives a harsh ride, wonderful on potholes and speed bumps and mounting curbs when parking, adds to the likelyhood of curbing our heartstoppingly expensive alloys. and best of all - likely to give zero roadholding benefits. in the real world - you know - pot hole land :poke:

those with knuckedusters and baseball bats will be seen immediately, those with sawn off shotguns will need to wait while i tool up :) :evil:
Click to expand...

Wot u not stancing it bro' ? :roll: :rofl:
 
road warrior said:
having acquired A 3.0 se, with toys, and having either fixed or about to fix the remaining niggles im turning to tyres and wheels due to the impending winter. The setup in existence is 225/40/18 & 255/40/18 which would be fair enough if the tyres are decent but they are not. I initially fitted the rears with 255/40/18 as the fitted 255/35/18 were giving a ride akin to barnie rubbles car but still remaining is a worn winter on one front and M&S tyre on the other side, clearly something has to be done. Now as i now have a "spare" car with 2 sets of decent tyres i will be putting the 225/40/18 wheels and alloys from the unsuspecting "doner " car. But wait.. the previous numpty owner has lowered the suspension so it "looks" good for the wonderful streets of warrington, well known for good roads with no speed humps and potholes.. :headbang:
so lets ask the good and great, are you all mad ?? I constantly see members mentioning they have lowered the suspension at great cost and i wonder why - i mean really ? the z4 is known to have a hard ride, so you then put low profiles on to avoid the rubbing that ensues as a result of lowered ( and presumably stiffened ) and i hope you have all changed the shock absorber's to a shorter stiffer length to compensate for the shorter travel of the shock absorber piston. Because I bet my grannies gravestone my own numpty didnt.
ayes to the left we have lowered suspension cus it looks good, and we are always to be found on the local racetrack burning rubber arent we..
ayes to the right, its expensive, gives a harsh ride, wonderful on potholes and speed bumps and mounting curbs when parking, adds to the likelyhood of curbing our heartstoppingly expensive alloys. and best of all - likely to give zero roadholding benefits. in the real world - you know - pot hole land :poke:

those with knuckedusters and baseball bats will be seen immediately, those with sawn off shotguns will need to wait while i tool up :) :evil:
Click to expand...

Mines lowered and I did replace the shocks and did put bigger alloys with lower profile tyres. It handles better looks better and is a weekend toy. I love the way my Z4mc handles looks and feels.
Personally I don’t get what ur banging on about!
 
I have 255/35/18's on the back of mine, combined with Eibach lowering springs. I can't say the ride is majorly bad.

I have replaced the shock absorbers all round with Bilstein B4's though, which improved the ride hugely, compared to the 125,000 mile old original shocks.

So yeah, sort your suspension out is my advice to you :lol: :thumbsup:

If you think Z4 has terrible ride quality, go take a previous gen Fiesta ST (180) for a drive. They're ridiculously firm as standard. Handled great, but wasn't kind on the bum :cry:
 
Truth said:
road warrior said:
having acquired A 3.0 se, with toys, and having either fixed or about to fix the remaining niggles im turning to tyres and wheels due to the impending winter. The setup in existence is 225/40/18 & 255/40/18 which would be fair enough if the tyres are decent but they are not. I initially fitted the rears with 255/40/18 as the fitted 255/35/18 were giving a ride akin to barnie rubbles car but still remaining is a worn winter on one front and M&S tyre on the other side, clearly something has to be done. Now as i now have a "spare" car with 2 sets of decent tyres i will be putting the 225/40/18 wheels and alloys from the unsuspecting "doner " car. But wait.. the previous numpty owner has lowered the suspension so it "looks" good for the wonderful streets of warrington, well known for good roads with no speed humps and potholes.. :headbang:
so lets ask the good and great, are you all mad ?? I constantly see members mentioning they have lowered the suspension at great cost and i wonder why - i mean really ? the z4 is known to have a hard ride, so you then put low profiles on to avoid the rubbing that ensues as a result of lowered ( and presumably stiffened ) and i hope you have all changed the shock absorber's to a shorter stiffer length to compensate for the shorter travel of the shock absorber piston. Because I bet my grannies gravestone my own numpty didnt.
ayes to the left we have lowered suspension cus it looks good, and we are always to be found on the local racetrack burning rubber arent we..
ayes to the right, its expensive, gives a harsh ride, wonderful on potholes and speed bumps and mounting curbs when parking, adds to the likelyhood of curbing our heartstoppingly expensive alloys. and best of all - likely to give zero roadholding benefits. in the real world - you know - pot hole land :poke:

those with knuckedusters and baseball bats will be seen immediately, those with sawn off shotguns will need to wait while i tool up :) :evil:
Click to expand...

Mines lowered and I did replace the shocks and did put bigger alloys with lower profile tyres. It handles better looks better and is a weekend toy. I love the way my Z4mc handles looks and feels.
Personally I don’t get what ur banging on about!
Click to expand...
And no pot holes and speed bumps eh?, the clue was in the title, try not take yourself so seriously, although, If you feel the m division cant make a good enough car for you maybe my joking comments were too close to the truth., and I'm not banging on..Im having a laugh and poking fun at the things we do to our cars.
 
Hehe what fun eh.. I'm glad most enjoy my sense of humour, I'm sorry if not all see the fun . Speaking of which I went out in Neil's supercharged beast yesterday and promptly s**t myelf. :rofl:
He did it on purpose the bastard :rofl: he knew I would be thinking my very newly acquired 3.0 was quick coming from a 2.0. So now after that drive I will thinking mine is slow :headbang: :rofl: :rofl:
Anybody got any go faster stripes? Back in the days of my yoof it was worth 5-10 bhp... :rofl:
Hands up who put go faster stripes back in the day.. I know I did. I always wanted a starkers and crutch white stripe...
 
You mean am I blingin my ride bro?
It already well blinged MAN.
It got stick on carbon fibre engine covers, it got stick on carbon fibre handbrake console, I mean, he could have fixed the handbrake instead, but nah, he blinged it up instead. Well hard bro. :o
 
road warrior said:
You mean am I blingin my ride bro?
It already well blinged MAN.
It got stick on carbon fibre engine covers, it got stick on carbon fibre handbrake console, I mean, he could have fixed the handbrake instead, but nah, he blinged it up instead. Well hard bro. :o
Click to expand...

As long as you like it, that’s all that matters :thumbsup:
Rob
 
Nah, I don't like stick on fake stuff, if I find a neat way of removing it I will, but I have other priorities ATM, and just having a giggle :wink:
But yes I'm happy with the car, it puts a big smile on my face, a big six howling, what's not to love?
The reason I posted this is because I'm lucky enough to have a very state of the art pirelli centre in Burton, I take all my cars there and know them well. and so I took my new pride and joy there to be tracked up, the latest hunter that takes a pic they load up the car with simulated people (containers of rocks) connect it up and it puts in the right tyre pressures, lasers scan the tyres and report tyre tread depth. And Lo, camber was off the scale. So they looked at standard setup first and it off off the scale, so they tried it sport lowered mode and one side was in the other was off the scale. So I said I would return with the 225 40 18 square set up and try again this week, as they very politely refused to even try to straighten it out. But I wondered if people would mess with their cars if they had access to equipment like this and could see the pigs breakfasts they were creating for themselves .
 
road warrior said:
Nah, I don't like stick on fake stuff, if I find a neat way of removing it I will, but I have other priorities ATM, and just having a giggle :wink:
But yes I'm happy with the car, it puts a big smile on my face, a big six howling, what's not to love?
The reason I posted this is because I'm lucky enough to have a very state of the art pirelli centre in Burton, and so I took my new pride and joy there to be tracked up, the latest hunter that takes a pic they load up the car with simulated people (containers of rocks) connect it up and it puts in the right tyre pressures, lasers scan the tyres and report tyre tread depth. And Lo, tracking was like a dogs breakfast and camber was off the scale. So they looked at standard setup first and it off off the scale, so they tried it sport lowered mode and one side was in the other was off the scale. So I said I would return with the 225 40 18 square set up and try again this week, as they very politely refused to even try to straighten it out. But I wondered if people would mess with their cars if they had access to equipment like this and could see the pigs breakfasts they were creating for themselves .
Click to expand...

State of the art , takes pics & simulates passengers but can't actually do the job :P sounds great :cry:
Id find somewhere a bit more "hands on" if the car handles that badly .
As for your original musings , you can't judge all cars that have had springs or shocks changed on your own experience .
H & R lowering springs are great for retaining the original compliance & characteristics for normal everyday drives , Eibachs i find can be crashy , cheaper springs id avoid completely .
Choice of tyres & tyre sizes can negate any harshness in ride when stepping up from 18s to 19s so the answer is you can have the looks without spoiling the ride & in fact many times it will be enhanced , you sound like you bought a badly tweaked car but i'm sure it can be fettled
 
Indeed Mr wilks, yes it will, as you say they are merely musings and I'm sure it will get sorted, as you say many fine mods can be done, and aside from putting some issues right like alternators and brakes ihavnt had any time or place to test it's roadholding ability yet, it only had decent tyres on it yesterday so any kind of "testing" was not on. I have only had the car 8 days today... :driving:
And once more I refer folk to the title, please be careful of the humour bypass, it has been known to be irreversible in severe cases. :rofl:
Everybody has a perfect right to do whatever they l Iike to their cars and makes us very happy.
Once upon a time I had a Lexus soarer uzz32, and I had at the time a caravan, so I offended a couple of poe faced members of the soarer fraternity by putting a tow bar on and joyously outdragging cars with the van on the back...
 
road warrior said:
Truth said:
road warrior said:
having acquired A 3.0 se, with toys, and having either fixed or about to fix the remaining niggles im turning to tyres and wheels due to the impending winter. The setup in existence is 225/40/18 & 255/40/18 which would be fair enough if the tyres are decent but they are not. I initially fitted the rears with 255/40/18 as the fitted 255/35/18 were giving a ride akin to barnie rubbles car but still remaining is a worn winter on one front and M&S tyre on the other side, clearly something has to be done. Now as i now have a "spare" car with 2 sets of decent tyres i will be putting the 225/40/18 wheels and alloys from the unsuspecting "doner " car. But wait.. the previous numpty owner has lowered the suspension so it "looks" good for the wonderful streets of warrington, well known for good roads with no speed humps and potholes.. :headbang:
so lets ask the good and great, are you all mad ?? I constantly see members mentioning they have lowered the suspension at great cost and i wonder why - i mean really ? the z4 is known to have a hard ride, so you then put low profiles on to avoid the rubbing that ensues as a result of lowered ( and presumably stiffened ) and i hope you have all changed the shock absorber's to a shorter stiffer length to compensate for the shorter travel of the shock absorber piston. Because I bet my grannies gravestone my own numpty didnt.
ayes to the left we have lowered suspension cus it looks good, and we are always to be found on the local racetrack burning rubber arent we..
ayes to the right, its expensive, gives a harsh ride, wonderful on potholes and speed bumps and mounting curbs when parking, adds to the likelyhood of curbing our heartstoppingly expensive alloys. and best of all - likely to give zero roadholding benefits. in the real world - you know - pot hole land :poke:

those with knuckedusters and baseball bats will be seen immediately, those with sawn off shotguns will need to wait while i tool up :) :evil:
Click to expand...

Mines lowered and I did replace the shocks and did put bigger alloys with lower profile tyres. It handles better looks better and is a weekend toy. I love the way my Z4mc handles looks and feels.
Personally I don’t get what ur banging on about!
Click to expand...
And no pot holes and speed bumps eh?, the clue was in the title, try not take yourself so seriously, although, If you feel the m division cant make a good enough car for you maybe my joking comments were too close to the truth., and I'm not banging on..Im having a laugh and poking fun at the things we do to our cars.
Click to expand...

Yes springs that snap. M division, well done. Improvements can be made to the car. Anyway aslong as u are amusing yourself, well done. Maybe one day you’ll be able to have an ///m too and won’t have to complain so much. :rofl:
 
hahaha - damn.. gettin a 3 was hard enough ..
:rofl:

i know its a bad show about these breaking springs, is my memory playin with me or did we not have these problems in the old days ?

i suppose M only made the spec, someone else made the fragile springs - as you say.. there are better out there sadly ..
 
I know what ur getting at though with your original post. Some cars on here and on the road look like they just crashed through a Halfords. U can’t buy taste but u can buy a load of crap and stick and bolt it to ur car!! Sometimes less is definitely more! All the best
 
grins
Truth said:
I know what ur getting at though with your original post. Some cars on here and on the road look like they just crashed through a Halfords. U can’t buy taste but u can buy a load of crap and stick and bolt it to ur car!! Sometimes less is definitely more! All the best
Click to expand...

soo true.. but its all in jest with tongue firmly placed .. :lol:
 
does this mean i can start playing that game where you list all the toys and bits you bought in halfords ? :o ya know like, B&Q oil and halforsds car wash n stuff ? nodding dice anyone ??
erm.. how do you carbon fibre your seats.. anyone ??
 
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