re: Hacked Spring and Shock Installation

[jkerouac <jkerouac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

re:  Hacked Spring and Shock Installation:

    I would personally not trust the safety of any work done by the 
initial shop, given the description you posted.  If I were a tech 
inspector, I would give your car a long hard look before appriving it to 
run on a track.  From your description, it also sounds like you're 
installing the parts without serious understanding of what they will do 
to your car road manners, as well as effects on tire wear.
    Also, do you know what the initial stiffness settings out of the 
box were for the struts and shocks?
    IMO since the stock springing is as good as it is, there is no need 
to replace the stock springs in an //M3 until you've already learned how 
to drive it at its [substantial] limits of adhesion.
    In my 97, I have Koni sports too. With that plus GC RTAB shims and 
different alignment, I get all the handling and road manner improvements 
I could ever want in this street car.  Just putting in Konis will 
stabilize the car enormously.  Adding negative camber in a number of 
various ways according to your budget will give better steering response 
than any stiffer front spring will produce.
    My springs are still stock, and will be as long as I'm the owner. 
If you want to lower the car a bit, you can remove the rubber spring 
spacers from top and bottom of the front springs, and either top or 
bottom from the rear springs.  Koni Sport struts and shocks will have a 
slight (~3mm) lowering effect over stock because they are low pressure 
versus the high pressure design of the stock units.
    I would suggest rather than risking trouble later, that you either 
get a reputable set of springs, or reinstall the stock ones and bite the 
bullet paying an honest labor cost to a shop that you have seen other 
//M3 that they have done shock./strut/spring installs to the customers 
full satisfaction.
    Both shops you mention sound like they're full of it.  The first 
one for the mechanics lack of knowledge, the second one both for the 
load of crap they told you and for putting you off about doing the job. 
Many shops would gladly book in a strut/shock/spring job because it can 
be done for easily less time than the book hours which the labor charge 
would be based.
    If you ask around in your area, you may find enthusiasts who, like 
myself, have installed their own suspensions and would be glad to help 
out others in installing their own.  With the money you save, you could 
buy them some nice gearshift knobs or other appropriate thank you present.
    In rereading this posting, I hear the condescending tone I wrote 
into it.  Sorry about that, not sure there's any nice way to suggest 
that some start over and get it right rather than throwing good money 
away after bad.
Good Luck,

'jk
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