318is springs ??

[paulf]

can anyone help, i am changing shocks, inserts & springs on my 318is, Motormec say according to their info, that the springs are the same as those for the standard 316 & 318......
i was lead to believe that the is' had m-tech suspension and that the springs were shorter, is this true ?, if so, are they only available from the BM main stealer ??
cheers, Paul.

[sportscarfan]

They are 15mm lower at the front and 17mm lower at the rear (or the other way around) than standard 316 and 318, and I haven't found anyone other than dealers supply them.
Additionally, 318is have 51 mm front struts, so I'm not sure if the standard springs would even fit.

[Bob_S]

20mm lower all round of to the dealer for you

[E30Mark]

Motormec are wrong, as the others have said, the 316/318 uses a 45mm front strut, the 318iS uses a 51mm strut.

[Ajay325]

yep, they are talking sh!t, 15mm up front and 17mm back as said above...

[Bob_S]

i'm intreagued, where have those figures come from?

[maxfield]

I believe 318iS uses M3 front springs.

[SPADGE]

There is no reason at all why you can't fit an iS spring to a 45mm strut and vice versa

[Ajay325]

i'm intreagued, where have those figures come from?

Bob, i found these figures on Brendan Purcell's iS site. I've spent too much of my life on this site in the last 2months!

http://www.esatclear.ie/~bpurcell/318ischassis.html

Ajay

[Bob_S]

oh right... according to said BMW brochure of correct era 1990- the 325i and 318is is 20mm lower than a standard e30

[paulf]

thanks for all the feedback gents,
off to the dealer for me then...think i'l try new shocks / inserts first and see if that tightens things up !

[Gwynleym10]

Motormec know they are wrong! My new IS springs came from motormec, they originally supplied standard 318i ones and had to exchange for 318is (which they just got from BMW)

I would try ZimmerBimmer1 in the parts section first though, least you should get the right part...




On the other note I have put IS springs on 45mm struts, that bit doesn't matter.

[E30Mark]

On the other note I have put IS springs on 45mm struts, that bit doesn't matter.

Didn't know you could interchange the springs between the 45 / 51mm struts - The fact that you and Spadge both say so, I'm convinced!