Since this is daily driven, I have no problem replacing the struts with factory pieces. Helena has the Sports Suspension package on it already. Several different sites have struts specifically for this. They range anywhere from $120-$200 per strut from the decent manufacturers (Bilstien, Myle, Sachs, KYB). Some of these feature a 4 year warranty and better than stock performance. Unfortunately I just wasn't familiar enough with them to know which to choose. The OEM BMW struts we $250 a piece. I definitely wasn't going that route.
I just needed to get some struts that would do the job. As I'm a car guy, going stock isn't always the easiest option. The premier strut, spring package for these cars are either the Bilstein Sports Struts with the H&R Sport Springs or the Koni Sports with H&R Sport Springs. There seems to be a huge following for either strut choice. It depends on who you talk to.
This leads to a whole different conversation. The front end of a stock 328i differs from the M3 just a bit. I'm strictly speaking of the 96-99 M3 here. Key differences:
- The sway bar end link attaches to the strut itself. This allows for more control as opposed to a control arm mounted link. The M3 also has a lighter, smaller sway bar because of this.
- The upper strut mount is different. It is offset allowing more camber and castor.
I tend to follow the Bilstein crowd for the E36. I have nothing against Koni. I have a set of sports on my Honda and I love them.
- The Bilstein Sports(Left Part #: 35-044024, Right Part #: 35-044031) run on average at about $200 each. They are a direct bolt on to the 328i.
- Bilstein also offers Sports for the M3(Left Part #: 35-105855, Right Part #
These have the mounting tab for the End Link on the strut housing.Going price is around $250.
These will bolt to your 328 just fine. You can choose to run the M3 end link or keep the stock 328 ones. In terms of how this effects the performance of the car, I'm not sure. It depends on your driving style. The M3 was designed differently for a reason. I don't have much more than that really.
I dug in and began to check the forums, group sites, and internet for nicely used Bilstein Sport struts for an M3 or 328i. I searched for quite a while. I found some decent deals on some but, nothing really worth pulling the trigger for. I had some other stuff to keep me busy as well (see my stereo related posts) but, the suspension as whole was over do for a replacement.
That's when I stumbled upon a craigslist post for a set of used 96-99 M3 front struts and a set of H&R Sport Springs. Nice! The price was right as well. One problem, they were located in Pennsylvania. Not to worry, I have some good friends that live there. I called up my buddy Mike and asked him if he would be kind enough to take a look for me. He kindly obliged. He being a man of knowledge in car related things, I trusted his judgement on these. After a bit of schedule maneuvering he was able to meet up with the seller and make the deal. I was the happy owner of the lot.
Next up was to get them down here. I talked to our shipping guru, and friend Barry, at my work place. I'm able to ship stuff through work but, I wasn't sure if/how this would work. After a quick conversation, an address, and a form, I had a printed shipping label ready to go. Barry, you da man! I emailed that up to Mike and away we went.
They arrived 3 days later. Freshly wrapped and well packed. They were looking pretty for sure. I was holding off on looking at strut mounts to see how these looked. The M3 strut mounts still attached, looked pretty good. I'm going to get the expert opinion from my buddy Jeremy before we proceed with the install.
All they needed was a little clean up and some paint. Then, they would be ready for install. More to come on that.
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