Suspension Fitting Coilovers to an F56 with DDC
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4th Gear
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 359
Likes: 104
From: United Kingdom
Fitting Coilovers to an F56 with DDC
Hi all, I thought I would post up my experience to help others who may be in the situation I am in. In purchased a 2016 F56 JCW a few weeks ago and it happened to have DDC. This isnt an option I am bothered about so am happy to lose when fitting coilovers to improve handling and lower the height of the car. So this thread covers when you are happy to lose DDC to fit coilovers. No I dont want to just change the springs, I want the option to go lower than that, before people tell me to just change the springs on the stock suspension. Therefore I started researching kits but there isn't a lot of information out there. So I started speaking to both KW and BC UK to get their point of view.
Firstly I was looking at kits that came with front top mounts, so first option was the ST XTA kit which is pretty much the V2 KW kit with top mounts and a different coating. This kit is not listed as fitting an F56 with DDC, speaking to KW it can be done but it wont fit out the box.
The front units will go straight on to the car according to KW, the rear is the issue. Cars with electronic dampers come with a rear top mount that has a 12mm diameter hole, this allows the threaded part at the top of the piston rod to go through so the damper can be fixed in place with a nut.
The ST XTA kit for the F56 JCW comes with a 10mm diameter threaded part on the top of the rear piston rod so if you try and install this damper with your rear top mount the nut will not tighten the piston rod into place, it will be able to move that’s a big safety issue and cause knocking noises. To get over the rear issues you can purchase the rear top mount for F56 JCW without electronic dampers this then has the correct diameter hole for the rear damper. This logic should apply to other coilover manufacturers that dont offer DDC specific kits.
Now onto BC’s. I have the BC Racing BR DDC kit on the way to me, now they can’t confirm if they come with rear top mounts or not, they have had to write to BC global to get this answer, however they can confirm the rear shocks on a DDC set of BC’s comes with a different sized thread to accommodate the larger hole in the stock rear top mount using a 12mm thread rather than 10mm with non DDC cars. Their none DDC set come with the 10mm tread to suit the non DDC stock top mounts.
Moral of the story seems to be you can buy any aftermarket coilover kits for the F56 with DDC from factory and the fronts should fit based on the information above from KW, again please check before purchase. However the rears will need a DDC specific kit or you buy new/used non DDC stock rear top mounts and they will bolt straight on. Again do your researching before relying on the information above as this is just theory based on what KW have said.
The issues this doesn’t resolve is the potential warnings from disconnecting the DDC cables. I now have a number of sources that have ran their DDC cars with them disconnected with no dash warning lights, it will throw up a warning on an expensive diagnostic tool but not on your dash. I have ran my car with them disconnected at the front for 3 days without issue, again I will report back as I have the coilovers hopefully arriving today from BC and being fitted tomorrow. From what I can see the KW DDC cancelation units fool the car using resistors to trick it into thinking its not connected which in turn means zero warnings on dash or diagnostics tools. Again will report back on what I find after installing coilovers without any cancellation modules etc
I will continue to update this thread with any extra info I discover while we are fitting the coilovers from BC to my car that has DDC, any issues we come across etc.
Firstly I was looking at kits that came with front top mounts, so first option was the ST XTA kit which is pretty much the V2 KW kit with top mounts and a different coating. This kit is not listed as fitting an F56 with DDC, speaking to KW it can be done but it wont fit out the box.
The front units will go straight on to the car according to KW, the rear is the issue. Cars with electronic dampers come with a rear top mount that has a 12mm diameter hole, this allows the threaded part at the top of the piston rod to go through so the damper can be fixed in place with a nut.
The ST XTA kit for the F56 JCW comes with a 10mm diameter threaded part on the top of the rear piston rod so if you try and install this damper with your rear top mount the nut will not tighten the piston rod into place, it will be able to move that’s a big safety issue and cause knocking noises. To get over the rear issues you can purchase the rear top mount for F56 JCW without electronic dampers this then has the correct diameter hole for the rear damper. This logic should apply to other coilover manufacturers that dont offer DDC specific kits.
Now onto BC’s. I have the BC Racing BR DDC kit on the way to me, now they can’t confirm if they come with rear top mounts or not, they have had to write to BC global to get this answer, however they can confirm the rear shocks on a DDC set of BC’s comes with a different sized thread to accommodate the larger hole in the stock rear top mount using a 12mm thread rather than 10mm with non DDC cars. Their none DDC set come with the 10mm tread to suit the non DDC stock top mounts.
Moral of the story seems to be you can buy any aftermarket coilover kits for the F56 with DDC from factory and the fronts should fit based on the information above from KW, again please check before purchase. However the rears will need a DDC specific kit or you buy new/used non DDC stock rear top mounts and they will bolt straight on. Again do your researching before relying on the information above as this is just theory based on what KW have said.
The issues this doesn’t resolve is the potential warnings from disconnecting the DDC cables. I now have a number of sources that have ran their DDC cars with them disconnected with no dash warning lights, it will throw up a warning on an expensive diagnostic tool but not on your dash. I have ran my car with them disconnected at the front for 3 days without issue, again I will report back as I have the coilovers hopefully arriving today from BC and being fitted tomorrow. From what I can see the KW DDC cancelation units fool the car using resistors to trick it into thinking its not connected which in turn means zero warnings on dash or diagnostics tools. Again will report back on what I find after installing coilovers without any cancellation modules etc
I will continue to update this thread with any extra info I discover while we are fitting the coilovers from BC to my car that has DDC, any issues we come across etc.
Thread Starter
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4th Gear
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 359
Likes: 104
From: United Kingdom
So a quick update on my experience. I now have the BC BR Coilovers "for a car with DDC" fitted. We re-used the rear top mounts as explained in my previous post. The rear DDC wire end has been wrapped in tape and stored in the rear. The front DDC cables were disconnected from the loom. I have had absolutely zero errors etc thrown up on the dash since with the car driven a number of times since. The BC coilovers have the ability to go super low if required, and the supplied spacers come in handy as they dont come with the indent the KW/ST coilovers come with. I have around 5mm clearance from the wheel lip to the locking collar at my current height with the supplied spacers fitted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PMy1VNoIOQ
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