| 03-27-2023, 08:19 PM | #1 |
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KW Coilovers on an M550? Anyone done them yet?
I was thinking of doing springs on my M550…. But I know that if I just do the springs, my stock adaptive dampers are going to go out sooner vs later. I already have 70k on the car..so who knows how much life is actually life is left in my stock dampers. I don’t want to spend all the money on install just to have my dampers crap out… and the OEM setup is $$$ to replace.. I have seen pricing as high as $1600 PER damper!
That got me thinking maybe just go KW V3 now. I would lose the adaptive aspect of the suspension…but I suspect the car woudl handle WAY better all the time. I normally drive my car in sport or sport + mode anyway… I do comfort mode on the freeway but I would happily sacrifice the comfort mode to get handling that is better than what I get in sport+ mode. Anyone done them? How did the handling change? Was it “a little better” or “night and day” Anyone who has experience please let me know. Thanks.
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Sean
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| 08-26-2023, 10:32 PM | #2 | |
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I'm asking the same question. I'm in dire need of reduced body roll and faster rebound. |
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| 08-26-2023, 11:06 PM | #3 |
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Does anyone know if the KW coil overs work with the factory adaptive system? Meaning - do the Kw’s adjusts dampening just like the factory shocks by pushing the buttons on the center console..or do you lose all that adjustability?
If/when the adaptive dampers go out on an M550…the OEM shocks are insanely expensive… like $750-1000 each.. so it’s ridiculously expensive to replace them and going with KW would be cheaper than OEM…and probably better..but it would suck to lose the on the fly adjustability of hte stock setup.
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| 08-27-2023, 02:14 PM | #5 |
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I’m sure the KW V3 will make the car handle better than OEM.. I was just wondering if you lose the adaptive damper feature? I did some research last night and it looks like you do.
there is a version of the KW that is plug and play with adaptive dampers, but it does not appear to be available for the G30 M550… there is a standard system, that is adjustable, but they are manually adjustable..looks like the rebound is adjusted via a knob.. it’s hard to tell from pics as each site uses different stock photos…some show an adjustment that is down at the bottom of the shock tube that you woudl access from under the car and other photos appear to show adjustments at the top of the shock that you would access from under the hood (front) and from the rear - probably hidden under/behind the rear seats..so if that is the setup forget ever adjusting them once installed. For me - on a DD car, the adaptive system is a feature i would NOT give up - i don;t care how well the KW system handled…I’d much rather keep the adaptive system..and for resale you would essentially kill any resale value by removing the OEM system..so unless you can get the Plug and play system on our cars, i’ts a no go for probably 90% of possible buyers… Looks like the plug and pay system is available for an F90 but not an M550i… Half the time i think about upgrading my M550 i just think it woudl make way more sense to just sell it and get an F90..hell, even stock it would be a massive upgrade in EVERY performance metric. On an M550 you’d be doing suspension, tuning, blah blah blah.. or ust get an F90 and it’s all better even stock. 
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