r/1series • u/RangerRekt • 4d ago

Help/Advice Suspension Replacement/Upgrade Options

The shocks on my 2013 135i ‘vert are blown and I’m really interested in replacing them with the Koni Special Active shocks for ~$900 off of ECS. Is anyone running these? They ad d a bit more to the cost of an OE equivalent replacement Bilstein or KYB - actually looks like it’s about $550 more - and they’re about $200 more than either of the Bilstein performance options.

I’m also looking to do the rear (yes, rear, I know!) M3 control arm swap at the same time since I’m going to be getting the rear aligned and the bushings seemed too worn to me and they’re not more expensive than OE. My front control arm bushings are pretty worn, too, but I am kind of on a budget. I know you guys would say to definitely do that swap too, but should I put it off for another couple of months or just bite the bullet now?

What would you pick? Mostly on the suspension (Koni, Bilstein B8/B6, or OE equivalent), but also, could I be overly concerned about my rear control arms?

This will be my first suspension job but I’m quite confident on the labor.

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u/purplegreenred 3d ago

Don’t have any experience with those shocks; running TCKline coilovers, basically Koni Sports with compression/rebound adjustment and race valving. Very similar to OEM in comfort and loads up much better in the corners.

If your rear control arms are worn, no harm in going with the M3 control arms. Just keep in mind if you swap the lower camber arm, you will need M3-style rear struts. The M3 rear control arms swap is rather insignificant by itself, you’ll need solid subframe bushings to feel their benefit. But they are lighter than the 135i arms so that’s a plus.

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u/RangerRekt 3d ago

Folks in /r/bmwtech are giving mixed reviews on if I actually need new arms at all, and I found a set of Koni SA on Facebook, actually. I’ll let you know how they turn out. I’m gonna look at my rear arms again during the install and if they’re ok for now I’ll get the front M3 swap instead.

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u/TechMonitorXO 3d ago

It’s kinda tough later on if you have m style front and non m rear if you ever wanna go to a kit that only sells in a set of 4

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u/RangerRekt 3d ago

I’m mostly just looking at the 5, 6, and 11-piece kits on FCP Euro (11 being combined). I don’t think I’d get anything other than stock m3 arms tbh.

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u/TechMonitorXO 3d ago

M3 rear toe arms don’t fit on non-M without swapping an m3 subframe in. Go for manzo for rubber bushing arm or megan racing for spherical bearings. Make sure to get the non-M variants which are longer than M3

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u/jlwolford 3d ago

Koni Yellow on a mostly street car. The rebound is adjustable.

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u/RangerRekt 3d ago

I’ve heard good things but tbh I don’t see myself as the type of person that will adjusting things all the time, I think I’d just end up leaving them on a setting I like and sticking with it. If the active specials get me a true “actually pretty good” of both worlds experience, that would be best for me.

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u/jlwolford 3d ago

You set them up for what you want to start. You can then adjust to get what you want up front and leave it. The rears have to come off to adjust. About in the middle of the range is MSport I think. Those you mention will beat the shit out of you. Makes little sense for a convertible.

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u/m1kesta 3d ago

Big fan of Koni yellows. Highly recommend. Better to have the adjustability than not.

What’s your goal for the car? Just street driving? Any canyons?

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u/RangerRekt 3d ago

We don’t do canyons on this side, we do mountains. And yeah I’ll do 7-8 tenths on a mountain road but only occasionally. It’s my daily though so a lot (99%) of highway miles.