F30 SE suspension ,horrible

[pauldavies85]

I've owned two f30 generations, one saloon and now the touring. Both have been equipped with adaptive sus.

My slalom, was the ED Varient, and even with aftermarket 19"alloys, the ride was superb. I assume this set up is similar to the SE.

MY M SPORT touring was horrendous, until I gave in and took it to the dealership after 3000 miles , a few weeks back. It was so bouncy on uneven roads I could literally leave the seat, no joke. My GF said it was the springiness car ever.
I was really disappointed and my friend who recently got a420d reported the same. He had come from the previous gen 320 coupe, which had a pretty harsh ride.

Anyway, my local garage had a look, and apparently something wasn't attached correctly - my GF took the car in so can't recall the details!

Now, the car is brilliant, silky smooth ride riding on 19" alloys and run flats.

Hopefully, similar issue for you. However, your local garage may not be so decent. My friend took his 420d in to be told nowt wrong!

[smashy]

Hello paul,thanks...but my deposit is down and Im off to kings lynn when it all arrives from Germany,and TBH Im looking forward to it.

http://www.ac-schnitzer.de/en/bmw-cars/products-mo...

[James_G]

Will be very interested to to hear your thoughts once everything is fitted. Some photos of the car would be good too, as it sounds like a nice spec.

[Wills2]

smashy said:

Hello paul,thanks...but my deposit is down and Im off to kings lynn when it all arrives from Germany,and TBH Im looking forward to it.

http://www.ac-schnitzer.de/en/bmw-cars/products-mo...

Are you getting the middle one of the three options?(sports suspension)

[smashy]

Thats it wills ,a lot of chats with Lorcan at Rossiters,he said he would personally go with that and not the RS adaptive unless I was tracking it.Its all ill ever need he said.


Ive seen so many BMW Forums post after post saying how great the Springs alone are ,but I decided as Im going up there from London I might as well just go for it and get the Dampers as well.He said the SE dampers just arent up to the job and I reckon hes not wrong.

Edited by smashy on Friday 31st October 20:18

[Wills2]

Looks like a good option Smashy, I'd go with that if you could have it on the xdrive models but for some reason you can't.

[smashy]

Wills doing a bit of hunting,

http://www.jaginfo.org/showthread.php?9-Jaguar-XF-...

Posters are going to Spires http://www.spires-st.com/ paying £1500 for their XF suspension upgrade to get a decent ride...what gives with these car manufacturers?...and these are 50K cars!!

Re your car, lorcan did say the Xdrive was as bad as mine because as you know its SE suspension ,would you ever consider having a punt with just the springs bearing In mind many BMW dealers will fit for you.I think many owners just change the springs.

Edited by smashy on Friday 31st October 22:57

[Wills2]

To be honest I don't find the suspension bad at all it rides well and handles well (to me anyway!) but I would like the lowered look that the suspension you're going for gives plus it would handle better into the bargain so would be worth the outlay.

Just getting the springs on the xdrive gives the car an unbalanced look as it sits higher at the front than the back, which would erk me.

[ORD]

Like a few people on here, I just could not understand the gushing reviews of the 3 series until I drove one with M Sport suspension. Night and day. On standard suspension, the 3er is one of the least confidence-inspiring cars that I have ever driven; with the firmer suspension, it handles and rides very nicely indeed. It is bizarre that the standard set up is so very bad- perhaps even worse than a C Class (which is embarrassing given that Mercs are as soft as pillows and drive like bathtubs on cushions).

[anonymous-user]

ORD said:

Like a few people on here, I just could not understand the gushing reviews of the 3 series until I drove one with M Sport suspension. Night and day. On standard suspension, the 3er is one of the least confidence-inspiring cars that I have ever driven; with the firmer suspension, it handles and rides very nicely indeed. It is bizarre that the standard set up is so very bad- perhaps even worse than a C Class (which is embarrassing given that Mercs are as soft as pillows and drive like bathtubs on cushions).

Are you sure you've actually driven these cars? Little,of what you say makes sense.

[anonymous-user]

smashy said:

Wills doing a bit of hunting,

http://www.jaginfo.org/showthread.php?9-Jaguar-XF-...

Posters are going to Spires http://www.spires-st.com/ paying £1500 for their XF suspension upgrade to get a decent ride...what gives with these car manufacturers?...and these are 50K cars!!

Re your car, lorcan did say the Xdrive was as bad as mine because as you know its SE suspension ,would you ever consider having a punt with just the springs bearing In mind many BMW dealers will fit for you.I think many owners just change the springs.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 31st October 22:57

I think one of the issues, for what it's worth, is UK roads. The manufacturers probably don't get the same grumbles from any other major market. We all know how different cars feel on French roads don't we? (Or Belgian, German, even Italian). Same story with RFTs, cracked rims etc. by all accounts.

Maybe the problem is that we just can't lay Tarmac properly in the UK.

[335d]

Wills2 said:

Just getting the springs on the xdrive gives the car an unbalanced look as it sits higher at the front than the back, which would erk me.

I do know what you mean. The ACS springs do tilt the car backwards to a small extent - the reason for this is to shift the weight from the heavy nose and thereby improve the weight distribution. The M Sport division have done exactly the same on the M3 to improve the handling with similar results:



While it would be possible for ACS to have avoided this tilt, they seem to value function over form, along with the M Sport division. The 330d sDrive M Sport avoids this, but also doesn't handle as well as the 335d with ACS springs.

[Wills2]

A side view rather than a front on wheels turned out shows the m3 isn't that much different, a smidgen higher, that wouldn't be an issue need to get a picture of a 335 xdrive with them on I guess

Edited by Wills2 on Saturday 1st November 12:57

[335d]

Taken from here

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=...

Looks pretty similar to me. There was a thread on that forum which included a picture of a 335d with ACS springs parked next to an M3 - they also looked similar, but I can't find the thread

[Wills2]

That looks good doesn't it I love the shadow chrome grill and M performance splitter.

No excuses now have I

[ORD]

REALIST123 said:

ORD said:

Like a few people on here, I just could not understand the gushing reviews of the 3 series until I drove one with M Sport suspension. Night and day. On standard suspension, the 3er is one of the least confidence-inspiring cars that I have ever driven; with the firmer suspension, it handles and rides very nicely indeed. It is bizarre that the standard set up is so very bad- perhaps even worse than a C Class (which is embarrassing given that Mercs are as soft as pillows and drive like bathtubs on cushions).

Are you sure you've actually driven these cars? Little,of what you say makes sense.

Yep. Weird, isn't it, that people can disagree with you? Almost as though some things are partially subjective and, even more strangely, you might not be God.

I like the M Sport suspension so much that I have just bought a 3er with it.

[smashy]

On the M25 yesterday ,a situation with a lorry pulling out ,I gave it some right foot,and as this car can go a bit (330d) I ended up not hanging about.Now Ive been driving for 38 years since I was 17 and I have to say I was as spooked as Ive ever been,
I suggest if pushing on the SE suspension in a new F30 is dangerous.....It was like I had lost contact properly on this flat dry road ,so floaty and wallowing,I thought I would lose control.Difficult to explain,but very unnerving.

All I know is thankfully Im booked into Rossiters to have the AC schnitzer suspension next friday

Edited by smashy on Thursday 6th November 17:57

[ORD]

smashy said:

On the M25 yesterday ,a situation with a lorry pulling out ,I gave it some right foot,and as this car can go a bit (330d) I ended up not hanging about.Now Ive been driving for 38 years since I was 17 and I have to say I was as spooked as Ive ever been,
I suggest if pushing on the SE suspension in a new F30 is dangerous.....It was like I had lost contact properly on this flat dry road ,so floaty and wallowing,I thought I would lose control.Difficult to explain,but very unnerving.

All I know is thankfully Im booked into Rossiters to have the AC schnitzer suspension next friday

Edited by smashy on Thursday 6th November 17:57

That was my perception of the SE suspension, too - it inspired no confidence at all, and the car felt as though it would roam without any change in steering inputs. My wife, who is normally a fairly confident driver, refused to drive our 320d courtesy car after 10 mins on country roads, saying that it made her feel unsafe at well below the speed limit. Either some SE set ups are worse than others (unlikely), or lots of people don't know bad suspension when they feel it.

[Urban Sports]

I had a 320d Sport loaner whilst my 320d M Sport was in for some work, I genuinely couldn't believe the difference, where the M Sport was composed the Sport was wallowy and lacked confidence. On one of my usual routes home where my car would grip and grip and corner very well the sport had it tyres literally howling, clinging on with loads of body roll.

The cars were literally night and day when it came to the driving experience, it would seem that in the F30 at least that non M Sport cars really cannot take being driven too hard whereas I find my car has a very competent set up.

[Lorcan]

Wills2 said:

Looks like a good option Smashy, I'd go with that if you could have it on the xdrive models but for some reason you can't.

My ears are burning

The reason is most x-drive cars are specced with adaptive. The market for x-drive non-adaptive dampers is too small to justify the development cost in addition to our RS (adjustable) suspension kit which already caters for this.