Anyone planning on installing lowering springs on their new MCS? If so, any recommendations? Would most/all lowering springs stiffen the ride to the point of being uncomfortable for daily use?

 

Morning Bob ...

In my case I ordered the, (Active Suspension).

So, ain't no way I'll change springs.

Also from my personal experience as well as a lot of my Buddies.
(Don't go there)



T.

 

I wouldn't mess with the active suspension much, maybe a rear sway bar. But if you don't get that I'm sure the 3rd party parts people will come up with some suspension options once they go over the car. For all we know the springs are the same as the R56 with or without the adjustable dampers.

 

Back in '08 I installed lowering springs on my R53 MCS. After a year I couldn't take the hassle of poor ride quality and constantly scraping the front spoiler on parking curbs and speed bumps...so I sold the car. :( This time will be different!

 

Terry, you ordered Active Suspension? I don't see that option anywhere. Is it standard with the MCS?

I do now understand that lowering springs are not recommended. It would have been done more as an appearance mod. I'll avoid it now.

 

ordered the car with active suspension AND planning to install lowering springs with slightly higher rate.

I installed 1 1/4" lowering springs, KONI Sports, and 22mm rear sway bar on my 08 R56 and it kicked ***! Lower center gravity, firmer ride (not stiff), a lot less body roll!

In my opinion there are two ways where you can screw up your shocks; A) bottoming out caused by too much drop, or B) Spring rate to high and over powers the valving.

As long as you do your research and don't pick the lowering based on cosmetic reason i think you'll be ok.

My $0.02

 

Hi Bob,

Look at #223 ... Dynamic Damper Control below.



And also below as an Option for $500.00 dollars






T.

 

Ah, I had a feeling it as the Dynamic Damper Control. I didn't go with that option. Hope I did the right thing. I won't be doing any road racing. Just a daily driver.

 

It would be purely cosmetic if I did it. But I don't want to risk bottoming out, either. The car is probably low to begin with. So I believe I will still to the stock springs.

 

Hi Bob ...

Here is my thinking on why I decided to go with the, "Option" Dynamic Damper Control.

I also chose the, "Option" for the 18" wheels and tires.

We both know as you increase the wheel size and decrease the sidewall thickness, what happens usually ???

Harder ride !!!

So, that being the case, usually, I also added the "Option" for the, Dynamic Damper Control for the suspension.

So hopefully I can simply adjust the suspension to a softer setting if necessary.

That's my Story and I'm sticking to it.


T.

 

I am looking to get back into a hardtop in the future, but on the adjustable damper control, it is one option I would skip base on personal experience on my 2008 M5. The EDC system on it just not worth the trouble down the road of ownership. The ride always hard, not much difference between the modes and if you leave in normal mode and it will automatically adjust the hardness of the dampers and the car feels never the same from one moment to other when drive aggressively also the steering feel inconstant, don't know if mini's system the same. it will cost arms and legs when time comes to replace. But of course you can replace just the springs, just like any suspension, that's what i did on the M5 and the ride is actually better the original. Just my .02.

 

^Adjustable electronic dampers are constantly evolving (at an insane rate). What you experience in your 08 M5 no longer applies to new models. They work much better now.
The EDC in the new 2 series is better than the EDC in the current F30 3 Series. That's just one year of difference.

You can get lowering springs with EDC. Lots of people have done them on their F30 3 Series with EDC. It does compromise comfort a little bit, but it's the only way to lower your car (slightly) without making EDC useless (i.e Coilovers). If you plan on getting coilovers, just don't get EDC.

 

I wouldn't get any of the suspension options. Aftermarket coilovers is how I'd be rollin'.

 

There might be improvements, but the fact still the same, it will be costly to replace and your options will be very limited.

 

Do any of you know what kind of EDC the cars comes with? Is it conventional valving like the Bilsteins or Teins where they put servo on the adjuster, or the electromagnetic fluid that changes viscosity with electric current? Both are standard applications on high end cars like the Cadi CTS-V and Porsches.

If they are in fact conventional hydraulic type then it should not be that bad to replace the shocks or even bypass the servos. If they are magnetic then I'm screwed

 

If its the same as BMW's, they are semi-magnetic.
They have a passive valve like any other shock absorber, with the addition of an active valve in parallel. The active valve is what makes the damping force change.