E46 broken front spring

[JPJ89]

I appear to have snapped the front offside spring on my e46 325i saloon with sport suspension, after hitting a massive pothole at speed on Sunday. Drivers side is sitting a touch lower and was hearing a rubbing noise on tighter corners with the window down. Haven’t jacked the car up yet but guessing that’s what’s wrong, assuming it is broken then what do people tend to do nowadays? Springs from BMW are extortionate, over £100 for just one. Was thinking of going for Eibach pro kit springs and a new set of dampers all round, as currently the front and rear springs are different sets, and dampers are a bit mismatched. Want to retain the OEM feel, don’t want to compromise the smooth ride quality in any way, are the Eibachs likely to achieve this? Was looking at Koni FSD dampers as well although they are quite pricey themselves. Any opinions appreciated, I understand this has probably been done to death as well, cheers!

[JPJ89]

d_a_n1979 said:

Personally I'd go Bilstein B4 dampers with Eibach Pro kit springs; unless you want lower, then it'll be the B6s with the Eibach Sportline springs IIRC

However, don't discount coilovers to sort this too; the likes of AP coilovers would do a great job and not at a silly price either: http://www.venommotorsport.com/suspension/ap/coilo...

Give Richard at Venom a call; he knows what he's talking about and you'd need new top mounts all round IMO as well as drop-links

You can set the ride height to what you want then and the APs don't give a stupidly hard ride either!

However, OEM spec shocks with the Pro kit springs will work just fine, I'd still renew the top mounts and drop links all round though

Cheers, Bilstein B4 are the black struts and shocks, not the yellow ones is that right? Tbh I haven’t considered coil overs as I thought they were more suited towards the track...All I’m really after is the cheapest solution while maintaining the original comfort/sport balance and ride quality, more of a comfortable cruiser than a 10/10ths car! Droplinks were done very recently and are almost brand new so that would leave just the top mounts to add to my list. Are Sachs any good compared with Bilstein? As the previous owner did change one strut up front with a Sachs item before I purchased the car, so alternatively could find 3 matching Sachs dampers if they stack up compared to the Bilsteins? New strut below

[JPJ89]

Looking on Autodoc I found the damper that has been recently fitted to my front nearside, except it’s Sachs on the website and labelled Boge on my car, apart from that all the numbers on the stickers are exactly the same!

So I’m swaying towards another Sachs damper on the front offside and 2 new Sachs shocks on the rear, it says on Autodoc that these particular Sachs ones are for cars with M-tech2 pack, so looks like whoever fitted the damper not long ago actually fitted the right part which is a bonus. Will get new bumpstops and dustcovers all round, should I renew all top mounts and get these reinforcement plates or anything else while I’m in there? Looking to pair these dampers with Eibach Prokit springs, this seems like the most cost effective way for me to refresh the lot and keep it as close to the original ride quality as previously!

[JPJ89]

Just to confuse things further possibly, just had a look on c3bmw there, and they list different boge/sachs front dampers for cars with sport suspension, and then cars with m-sport suspension, what’s the difference there if anyone knows? The new damper I have already fitted is one they state is for Sport suspension, not M-sport. My car is registered as a Sport on the logbook, but has both options s226a - sports suspension, and s338a - m-sport package 2...would that mean I have m-sport suspension? Too confusing this e46 suspension!