My KW v3 Coilover Impressions
It's been roughly two weeks now since I installed KW V3 coilovers on my X3M. I wanted to give myself enough seat time to get used to the ride before giving any impressions on them.
A little background, I've had my fair share of lowered cars. On springs, height adjustable springs and JDM coilovers (BC, Tein, etc). The KW V3's are by far the best that I've experienced. My goal with the X3M was to lower it as much as I possibly could. This was my first SUV/SAV and I cannot stand how high they sit off the ground. The stock suspension is quite good in terms of comfort and handling but the wheel well gap bugs the hell out of me lol. So with the very limited options on this platform that landed me with the KW's.
Ride Height:
To achieve my ride height, I set the front struts to show roughly 0.75" worth of threads from max low and roughly 1.75" in the rear. The stance is nearly perfect. It looks aggressive as hell and currently does not rub at all. I may push my luck and see if I can go a touch lower, just to the very top of the tire. There is a ton of unnecessary and useless plastic that can be trimmed out of the fender-wells to ensure no rubbing so I may end up giving that a go.
Damping Adjustments:
The roads around me are incredibly shit so take this part into consideration in comparison to where you live. I can almost guarantee my damping adjustments wont apply to someone in FL with nice and smooth roads.
The V3's have two way adjustments, Rebound and Bump. These took me a little while to dial in and if I'm being honest I still don't think I'll keep these where they are but they are like 85% of the way there. The best way I can describe it is; Bump/Compression- The amount of force applied to compress the strut. Rebound- The amount of force applied to extend the strut back out after compressing.
"Clicks from open" means going to full stiff and dialing it back X number of clicks.
KW Recommends:
Front Axle- Rebound 9 clicks open / Bump 5 clicks open
Rear Axle - Rebound 6 clicks open / Bump 5 clicks open
For the time being I kept the same F:R ratio except went a little softer on each.
I'm running:
Front Axle- Rebound 13 clicks open / Bump 7 clicks open
Rear Axle - Rebound 9 clicks open / Bump 7 clicks open
These have felt really good for me in terms of comfort and maintaining tight handling. I did not want to sacrifice one or the other and I don't think this setup does. These will likely change as I'm always looking for improvements but it's a safe starting point for anyone interested.
Comfort & Handling:
In terms of comfort I think of two things; 1) How well does it do absorbing rough roads and 2) how well does it rebound from those bumps. If I had to quantify these two, I would say;
- 1) it absorbs bumps just as good as the OE competition suspension, maybe 5-10% better, even at the ride height that I'm currently at. I'm sure it would be a little softer if you don't go this low.
- 2) it rebounds 20-25% better than the OE competition suspension. I found the damping and rebound on the stock suspension can be very bouncy and rough at times. This is not like that. It is a very pronounced up, down and settle. I'm sure this can be improved even more with fine tuning the rebound adjustment further. I'm not an expert so I'm taking this solely based on what I've felt along the way.
The handling on the OE competition suspension was already very good. It's hard to keep tight characteristics on this size of vehicle but BMW did a great job with that. However, it did get that much better. The car feels incredibly direct and connected. It's like a point and shoot type of feeling anytime I want to enjoy a spirited drive, regardless of the iDrive steering settings. The car feels like it's magnetized to the ground. The body roll is virtually non existent now and corners can be taking with confidence. I truly didn't expect this vehicle to turn out to be this good. Like I said this is my first SUV and my impressions of them have always been sub par in this category. Some of this has to do with the engineering behind the platform in general but KW nailed whatever they did.
I've also experienced MSS springs and while they are quite good, don't get me wrong, they just aren't in this league. I think the damping control really set the KW apart. If all you want is comfort with a little lowering than MSS definitely makes sense but for those that want more and want to get the most of the suspension, handling and height; KW all the way.
I'll circle back and reserve the next post for an update after say 3k-5k miles but thus far I am incredibly pleased.
Enjoy a few photos!
