[bsmoov]

So I just finished installing the bilstein b6 and eibach pro-kit setup this past weekend.

Being it an xi, I already knew that the rear was going to be a tad lower than the front, but this is kind of extreme. The front looks like there is no drop at all (possibly higher than factory) and the rear is almost tucked. I thought that the fronts would settle a bit, but damn, it's still high as hell.

The rears are installed 100% correctly.

The fronts however, seems weird. The struts don't seems to be fully in the knuckle, but apparently due to many pictures and confirmation from a lot of people, that's how they are, which is just slightly underneath the line on the bottom of the strut. I find it weird because the oem struts are longer and the strut bottom goes deep and past the bottom of the pinch bolt opening knuckle. Either way, I installed them correctly.

The spring however is off by maybe a quarter (1/4") inch. I guess when I was putting everything back together the spring slid a bit, so the end of the spring is not against the end of the spring pad pocket, but like i mentioned before, it's very minimal. Would that cause it to sit super high? I think I'm going to remove the upper metal spring spacer too to get it to sit a little lower.

Any info on the spring sitting a little off? I tried to compress the spring and move it, but it's not budging and the eibach has only like 2 accessible coils I can get my spring compressors on and it's not enough room to move the spring a quarter inch so it sits against the lower spring pad stop. I thought a quarter inch wasn't a big deal so I just reinstalled. Any insights on this?

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[andykrow]

Can you get a view of the strut in the knuckle from the back and see if the locating pin is seated all the way down? Maybe use a mirror or something idk. Make sure the higher pin actually went in the slot and isn't sitting next to it.

I just did my struts and it was a pain to get them fully seated in the knuckle. Eventually I loosened the strut bolt and used my jack under the knuckle to lift it until the car basically came off the jack stand. Only then did the struts seat all the way.

I don't think the spring shifting by a 1/4" would cause trouble in this way. Trying to think of something else that could be assembled incorrectly but nothing comes to mind. Top cap upside down I guess but it would be really hard to do that.

[bsmoov]

The strut is all the way in. Both guide nipple pins are in all the way. It actually took a while and a lot of work to get it in all the way.

Yeah I don’t think the minor spring sitting a quarter inch would have that much of an effect, but in way it does make the spring a quarter inch longer in height, right? Because if it was pushed all the way to the edge of the end slot of the bottom spring pad, there would essentially be less spring, or am I really overthinking it?

I guess I can remove the spring upper metal spacer as that’s like 1/8 of an inch to bring it down some and other ppl mentioned that you don’t really need that piece.

This top cap you speak of? What is it and how would one put it upside down? I believe I carefully put everything back the same way it was oriented.

Is this how your setup looks? I feel like it’s sitting way too high.

[andykrow]

The top cap being the upper spring seat. Would be extremely bone headed to put it in upside down lol.

Hard to tell that close what the ride height looks like. Can you upload a side shot of the car?

I'm on stock springs so I can't really comment on your height. (In Colorado, rough roads and snow, can't go low...)

I don't think the spring rotated 1/4" would correlate to an extra 1/4" in height. That said, you might want to pull it and get it correct. Without the spring seated correctly it might focus the force in a weird way on the spring pad and do damage? Just a thought. I don't really know..

[bsmoov]

andykrow did you install bilstein b6 as well?

There was a metal spacer on the bilsteins, did you use that? The package came with the strut body, a chrome spacer on the top portion, and the strut nut.

I left that chrome spacer on there as it looked like it was supposed to be there, but anyone else have any input on that?

[andykrow]

bsmoov no I did the B4. I was just looking for a slight upgrade over stock (again, it's the rough roads where I am!)

Once consideration is the B6 are supposed to be for stock height, not lowered. I didn't catch that at first in your post...

Not really sure if there's a difference in terms of strut body size (probably not), but the B8 extended length is shorter and it likely has stiffer compression to account for less travel. With the strut body being the same I can't see how that would affect your ride height though.

[bsmoov]

There was also another oem washer that looked like a dish plate. Did you install that convex side up or concave side up?

It was strut, lower spring pad, strut washer, spring, upper spring pad, the dish plate washer, then the upper strut mount.

[andykrow]

That convex washer is a thrust washer that pushes against the bearing in the strut mount. It needs to be convex side up or it won't contact the bearing properly. You'll know if it's backwards because the strut mount won't rotate freely.

[bsmoov]

The washer stays on apparently after doing more research.

I reassembled my strut/spring assembly and the springs are at the correct locations directly ending at the upper and lower pad end slots. Did not make a difference in ride height.

I removed the strut mount washer plate and that lowered it slightly by the thickness of that plate which is very minimal.

everything is installed correctly, but the front is still sitting really high, maybe it's because they're brand new struts, but it's still really high.

I tried to compensate by using e30 upper rear spring pads in addition to the factory ones and it raised up the rear a little bit, but the fronts are still high as well.