What have you done to your car today?
- Thread starter Buckz
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Derby
Fitted Koni Sports shocks all round last weekend, this weekend replaced the top mounts and made sure the spring upper rubbers were seated correctly to remove a knock from the driver's side. Possibly the lower seat on the shock had been knocked (ha) out of alignment as well, they're only press fitted on to the shocks. Few gentle taps seated that back on, reassembled and … no knock!
Wish I'd fitted them a while back to be honest, night and day compared to the Bilstein B4's on M Sport springs.
Wish I'd fitted them a while back to be honest, night and day compared to the Bilstein B4's on M Sport springs.
Very interested in this as I’m literally about to replace it all and was going b4! How much did it cost for the Koni setup?
Fronts are 8741-1450LSPORT & 8741-1450RSPORT, Rears are 8240-1208SPORT twice. Set me back £800.90 from Demon Tweeks with standard delivery. Didn't bother replacing springs, they've only done 10k miles since being fitted. (Lemforder 4008510 x2 & 4208484 x2 for reference.)
The four Bilstein (22-164568, 22-164575, 19-158983 x2) cost me £360.29 in March 2025 for reference. Autodoc, so likely on some sort of discount.
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Thanks for that. Apparently there’s an autodoc offer on where the B4 are about £150 for all 4. Hard to ignore that!
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Planning to Lanoguard mine in the next few weeks - any tips?
Gothenburg
How are they compared to B4? Sportier/stiffer? Are they comparable to B6/B8?
Get your mechanic to do it
. I asked him to do it the same time he put the new Vanos units in. To be honest, I think it's much easier that way as he can get it up on the lift and work on it from underneath, so it's only a few minutes work then. He used to use Waxoyl but finds Lanoguard less messy and he thinks it's better anyway 
.I bought the Lanoguard Regular kit which includes 2L of sprayable stuff, a tub of Lanoguard grease, spray applicators, a brush and clean cloth. I've done two treatments so far and there is still quite a lot left.
Much better but not stiffer, at least in suggested 3/4 front, 1 1/2 from soft rear settings. B4 is a less progressive damping I think, certainly with the M-Sport slightly shorter spring. It’s almost like the damper is slightly compressed and thus only has a stiff damping effect. Haven’t had B6/8 to compare.
The “buzz” from slight bumps and divots in the road has gone almost entirely, large bumps are still nicely damped. You can feel the road underneath you, but aren’t thrown around or impacted as much. Pretty sure my top mounts have degraded quicker in 10k miles because there were harsher impacts through into the body.
B4/MSport were good with big impacts but pretty poor with the smaller stuff.
Since changing them even on a 5 mile shakedown there’s been a few bits of road both myself and @CaroleHeidi drove over and winced pre-emptively because it was crashy before and .. it just rode over it nicely. (We’ve probably done 4k on B4/MSport driving in a spirited manner between us.)
I had B4/SE Springs on the 2.5i (and 16” wheels) and that rode nicely. Occasionally crashy, but it is a sports car after all. I read up on it before fitting the 3.0si (18” wheels) with the slightly shorter springs and thought it would be fine. I’d now strongly recommend not doing B4/sport springs, koni’s are much better. Or B6/8, whichever is less stiff and handles shorter springs (B8 I think) as UK roads are pretty terrible.
Upside is the money I’ve spent on the Koni’s means I no longer need to spend money on 17” wheels to make it ride nicer
(I’ve forgotten who you are to tag you, but was speaking to someone on the Nationals who said a 3.0si on Koni’s was the best ride you’d had in a Z4 - I completely agree and am so thankful you mentioned it.)
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Installed my first 'Frankenseat' last weekend.
Biggest learning point - the convertible seat covers have a more different shape where they meet the backrest than the E46 sedan/touring/coupe/compact, so the leather ended up a bit pushed together and wrinkled there. More a 'looks' issue than comfort or functionality. I knew the convertible shape was a bit different but I couldn't find any other covers at a reasonable cost in the timeframe I was looking so I gave it a try, but the difference in shape was a bit more than I expected.
First seat probably took me if you add it all up about a weekend, but spread out over 3-4 weeks as I was learning, waiting for tools and little parts. Fun project though! But therefore I started with the passenger seat first to give me time to figure it out, drivers seat should be done in a weekend.
- E85 seatbacks with the 'side bolster mod' for more lateral support.
- E46 sport seat bottom. Combination of cheapo cloth E46 sport seats for the cushion and pan, and leather heated covers from E46 convertible sport seats.
- OEM BMW lumbar support as used in E46/E53 and more.
Biggest learning point - the convertible seat covers have a more different shape where they meet the backrest than the E46 sedan/touring/coupe/compact, so the leather ended up a bit pushed together and wrinkled there. More a 'looks' issue than comfort or functionality. I knew the convertible shape was a bit different but I couldn't find any other covers at a reasonable cost in the timeframe I was looking so I gave it a try, but the difference in shape was a bit more than I expected.
First seat probably took me if you add it all up about a weekend, but spread out over 3-4 weeks as I was learning, waiting for tools and little parts. Fun project though! But therefore I started with the passenger seat first to give me time to figure it out, drivers seat should be done in a weekend.
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