[Rudz]

Going to get the Birds B3 kit installed on my car soon, bought it from Gaz on the forums, needed a bit of advice

Is it best I get it installed at birds ? Are there any special Geo/spring/damper/cast/camber settings for this kit? I want to get the best out of it so want the install to be spot on

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks OldGreySteve, u've made me think bud..

[doughboy]

I had the Birds B3 kit, in fact my tourer was the trial car for the rear setup in 2010. So I had a few spring combos to try and we did it all by post from Birds and I used my Indie in Manchester (Darren Wood).

it's a regular replacement item for standard, no special tools etc.

Just make sure who ever fits them that they DO NOT refit the standard bump stops from the original damper rods, no external bump stops are needed on the shorter modified Birds / Bilstein dampers, whatever your mechanic tells you.

Most important to get a GOOD 4 wheel alignment done afterwards. Somewhere that will get the settings spot on rather than just in the "pass" band somewhere.

The only normally adjustable settings on an E9x are front toe and rear toe&camber, so ask for M3 settings, they will transform the car by quickening the steering no end, and the extra stability of the B3 kit will amaze you.

The fixed front camber will naturally increase due to lowering, so you will probably be near M3 front camber setting anyhow.

[old grey steve]

That's good advice I thought personally that they had a slightly different set up to stock which doughboy's confirmed which is great so M3 spec looks like the way to go with this set up Rudz, something that I didn't know but at least I was on the correct track re the fact that standard 335i settings wouldn't be the best move for getting the best from this kit.

[Rudz]

Thanks a lot Doughboy, great help, appreciate it mate..

Steve, with the useful information we've got from Doughboy, are u happy now to take this on mate ?

[danb21t]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Just make sure who ever fits them that they DO NOT refit the standard bump stops from the original damper rods, no external bump stops are needed on the shorter modified Birds / Bilstein dampers, whatever your mechanic tells you.

Just the front bump stops... or the rear as well?

I know you don't reuse the front bumps as they don't fit on the thicker Bilstein dampers.
The rears however are required as per the Bilstein fitting instructions.

Unless of course the Birds kit is miles different from Bilstein kits.

[wallsmk2]

I thought the rear B8s with the B12 kit came with bump stops, pretty sure I saw them on mine

[whateva411]

Is it better to get the birds suspension kit alligned withthe m3 settings?

I need to get mine alligned later this week and may opt for that!

[danb21t]

Originally Posted by wallsmk2

I thought the rear B8s with the B12 kit came with bump stops, pretty sure I saw them on mine

Ignore my post I am wrong the part that is needed is the bump stop cup on the rear. They do supply a new bump stop itself.

[Phil325i]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Just make sure who ever fits them that they DO NOT refit the standard bump stops from the original damper rods, no external bump stops are needed on the shorter modified Birds / Bilstein dampers, whatever your mechanic tells you.

That's odd. I was emailing Kevin Bird only a couple of weeks ago and he said they always use bump stops with their B3 kit, either the original OEM ones or those supplied with the new dampers...

[doughboy]

Maybe things have moved on since 2010...

My B3 kit had no bump stops (proper name is "additional damper") and Kevin expressly said not to use any external stops at all as they will mess up the damping in the final few cm!!!

Definitely don't use OE ones, they will be too long and meant for controlling long travel soft OE dampers. The oe ones will start compressing almost immediately on a lowered car.

They're not simply limit stops , they are meant to slow the travel of dampers as they compress.

If you check on realoem you can see they change bump stops (thus real name "additional damper") and not dampers across model variants, so there are dozens of stops in use, used to give extra compression damping effect for cheap so they don't have to have dozens of dampers developed.

If you're fitting a used kit, best check with birds I suppose to be sure.

[crypticc]

In my box of parts removed the old bump stops were there on the end of the old dampers. So either they remove them and replace or leave off. They didn't charge me for any new ones.

Regards