[Blue Angel]

F10/F11 owners who have lowered their cars - how much camber did you gain when lowering and how low did you go, both front and rear?

If you had your car aligned afterwards your rear camber may have been corrected, so I'd like to know what the "before" measurement was.

For the front, which cannot be camber adjusted, what's the after measurement?

I've searched and haven't found much info.

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by Blue Angel

F10/F11 owners who have lowered their cars - how much camber did you gain when lowering and how low did you go, both front and rear?

If you had your car aligned afterwards your rear camber may have been corrected, so I'd like to know what the "before" measurement was.

For the front, which cannot be camber adjusted, what's the after measurement?

I've searched and haven't found much info.

I'm lowered about 25-30mm (I still have one finger gap approx) and I picked up -1 in the front (reportedly). I'd have to go digging for some "before" numbers on the rear.

[BimmerHausPerformance]

I just got an alignment and I am T -2.3 I think in the front... rotate every 5k and budget for tires!!!

[Unspec]

I went from -0.9 at the front to -1.4.

Not sure about rears.

[Blue Angel]

Thanks for the replies!

Originally Posted by Surly73

I'm lowered about 25-30mm (I still have one finger gap approx) and I picked up -1 in the front (reportedly).

Are you an M-Sport? If so, spec is 0 to -0.5 degrees (I think), so are you sitting at -1 now?

Originally Posted by BrowBMW

I just got an alignment and I am T -2.3 I think in the front...

Do you mean -2.3 degrees of camber? How low are you?

Originally Posted by Unspec

I went from -0.9 at the front to -1.4.

Sounds like you may have been out of spec before lowering, assuming 0 to -0.5 is the correct front spec. How low did you drop?

[BimmerHausPerformance]

Yes, negative camber. I am about as low as you can go without scrapping on every single thing you go over. I am on coil overs so I do not have an exact measurement, that's why I included the pics.

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by Blue Angel

Thanks for the replies!
Are you an M-Sport? If so, spec is 0 to -0.5 degrees (I think), so are you sitting at -1 now?

"M Sport" is completely meaningless, and is mostly stickers, badges, wheels and a nicer steering wheel. The only variant that will mean something to suspension is if you have option S704A, which was never available on any X-Drives. Everything else has the same stock ride height according to TIS and front camber is not adjustable. S704A is 10mm lower than the others.

I started with a non-sport, no-DHP X-Drive and have fitted KWv3s. I have set ride height so that it measures only about 25-30mm lower than factory, which still leaves me one finger fender gap.

[ey2001]

Originally Posted by Surly73

"M Sport" is completely meaningless, and is mostly stickers, badges, wheels and a nicer steering wheel. The only variant that will mean something to suspension is if you have option S704A, which was never available on any X-Drives. Everything else has the same stock ride height according to TIS and front camber is not adjustable. S704A is 10mm lower than the others.

I started with a non-sport, no-DHP X-Drive and have fitted KWv3s. I have set ride height so that it measures only about 25-30mm lower than factory, which still leaves me one finger fender gap.

Wow that's crazy I always thought the m sport/sports suspension sits lower but i guess they changed it on the f10... my e46 and e60 sports suspension sat lower.. but then again I swapped out to coilovers on all my cars

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by ey2001

Wow that's crazy I always thought the m sport/sports suspension sits lower but i guess they changed it on the f10... my e46 and e60 sports suspension sat lower.. but then again I swapped out to coilovers on all my cars

Yep - I'm an E46/E39/E90 fan too. The F series cars do not follow suit! I have had 704 variants of all three of those in my garage or in the family and they were definitely lower and stiffer.

When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do, I built a table of all factory ride heights I could find for different options in TIS. They measure differently than I remember (bottom lip of rim to fender) so to the right of the grey line I did the math to translate that to what I'm used to (from spindle center to fender).

Despite finding it on the list, I have never seen an F10 AWD "low slung sport" and don't know what that means. Even if it did exist, it's still only 10mm lower. F10 Sedan "low slung sport" = option S704A

[Blue Angel]

OK then! I guess I was wrong. The only thing that still confuses me then is why there are different shocks for M-Sport and standard variants? If you look on Rockauto, Bilstein makes two different front shock absorbers; one for the "standard" suspension and one for the "sport" suspension...

OK, after checking it out on RealOEM you're absolutely right. A RWD 535 can be ordered with the 704 suspension but the X-Drive cannot. Strange that Bilstein would make a replacement shock for the rare 704 variant and not any of the X-Drive models. In Canada these days pretty much every BMW you see is X-Drive yet there seems to be no aftermarket shock absorber options? Weird.

Anyway, thanks for the info!

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by Blue Angel

OK then! I guess I was wrong. The only thing that still confuses me then is why there are different shocks for M-Sport and standard variants? If you look on Rockauto, Bilstein makes two different front shock absorbers; one for the "standard" suspension and one for the "sport" suspension...

OK, after checking it out on RealOEM you're absolutely right. A RWD 535 can be ordered with the 704 suspension but the X-Drive cannot. Strange that Bilstein would make a replacement shock for the rare 704 variant and not any of the X-Drive models. In Canada these days pretty much every BMW you see is X-Drive yet there seems to be no aftermarket shock absorber options? Weird.

Anyway, thanks for the info!

xDrive shocks require a complete redesign of the mounting arms to clear the front axles, instead of just different damping/valving/etc.

[Surly73]

Indeed, the highlighted bits are the expensive, X-Drive only bits that most damper companies aren't bothering to produce. KW is only offering the v3 variant. When I ordered mine they needed to be made in Germany and shipped to me so I think the volume is pretty low even for KW.