XRatedM's Alpine White E70 X5M

[argento]

I did the DIY in my thread, you can do it!

[///SY33]

Do you have any other pics of your drop on the Dinan springs? Also, what sizes are your spacers?

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by ///SY33

Do you have any other pics of your drop on the Dinan springs? Also, what sizes are your spacers?

This was right after the springs, so I'm guessing they'd need more time to settle in (I had also replaced spring shims, they'd be compressed a little over time). Front spacers are 13.5mm and rears are 17.5mm.







argento - apologies, I haven't had the time to measure the height, will be taking it to the dealership for an alignment follow up and will ask them to measure, I figure my garage floor is not very level

[///SY33]

Thank you! These help out a lot since I've been going back and forth on this set-up. I like that it gets rid of enough of the gap without looking too lowered keeping the OE/stock look. Looking great!

[argento]

Hey, your M looks fantastic! Those are great pix.

No worries, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I believe I got about 5/8" drop max. When I get to it I'm going to buy some nicer rod sensors b/c the ones dinan provided feel sloppy after a few adjustments.

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by ///SY33

Thank you! These help out a lot since I've been going back and forth on this set-up. I like that it gets rid of enough of the gap without looking too lowered keeping the OE/stock look. Looking great!

Thank you, I would've liked it more if it had dropped a little more (a bit less of the fender gap) but my main reason to choose Dinan was the ride quality. A lot of folks said H&Rs were slightly harsher than Dinan. After I had put everything back together I found out the strut mounts are shot, so I'll have to probably get in there again, so I've been going back and forth on switching out to H&R 1.2" or 2" ones. I haven't been able to find a lot of photos of either.

So it'll be coming up. Can you share photos of yours with spacers? I'm thinking to switch them out to 15mm fronts and 20mm rears.

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by argento

Hey, your M looks fantastic! Those are great pix.

No worries, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I believe I got about 5/8" drop max. When I get to it I'm going to buy some nicer rod sensors b/c the ones dinan provided feel sloppy after a few adjustments.

Thanks man, I'm still dealing with floaty drive - it's probably the crappy alignment the dealership did. So will be taking it in for a re-alignment and I was thinking to readjust the sensor rods, I feel rear is slightly higher than front.

I have to replace strut mounts, steering column shaft and wheels. Issues ain't coming slow! Haha

[argento]

You're right, the rear does look a bit higher in the pix. I know they provide sensor rods to avoid the rear calibration effort, but if you have ISTA or some equivalent you can adjust the rear more accurately with ride calibration. I had bmw lower the rear to a height I measured. Protool has the feature, but it didn't work...they offered to help me troubleshoot the app, but I haven't done it yet. I'm probably about 1/8 lower in the rear hoping the front will settle a bit more. But it looks good to me and hard to tell it's lower.

[XRatedM]

Oh that's interesting, I'll give protool and ISTA a go and report back. I'll find out the exact height on all four corners.

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by "argento;28312255"

Looking great! Really like what you've done, well cared for M.

Your stance on Dinans looks nice. What are the dimensions center hub to fender?

I'm assuming it's ground to arch.

[argento]

For ISTA+ ride calibration I believe it's from the bottom wheel edge to the arch.

See here at 3:05m:

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by argento

For ISTA+ ride calibration I believe it's from the bottom wheel edge to the arch.

See here at 3:05m:

Thanks for sharing this, Jeremy!! I'll definitely give this a go.

[XRatedM]

Update: So I've had the Dinan suspension for about 2-3 months now and it drove like crap, would float all over the road and did not feel planted at all and has a clunk on passenger side going over small bumps.

Diagnoses: It's been aligned by BMW twice and I gave them Dinan specs but they just wouldn't align per those and give me crap reasons that -1.7 camber at the rear will wear out tires much quicker (even though I told them I don't care about the tires, they just wouldn't) - I'll take it to another shop to align per Dinan specs but for now I figured I'll tackle the clunk. Checked all suspension components and they are tight and nothing seems to be loose or out of order. I rested the case thinking it's the strut mount that may have gone bad or close to going bad that's causing the clunking noise but before I ordered them for $150 a pop, I thought to backtrack the process of installation, just to rule out that I installed them per spec and did not mess up in the process.

For the floaty drive, I was running incorrect tire pressure - I was running 38 psi on all corners, and after a little bit of research, I dropped it down to 32 psi and there is a significant difference in terms of handling and how planted it is now.

Spring installation steps per ISTA - I was more focused on aligning the original markings that I didn't pay much attention to how the springs/shims were installed. Luckily I'm good on the driver's side but I'm mainly screwed up on the passenger side, that could potentially be the reason of the clunk. So I'll be fixing the passenger side (I hope I can do it without removing the entire strut and the driver's side camber is a little out of spec, so I'll try to address that too.



Driver side is installed correctly - and if you notice the spring shim is seated properly and spring is sitting flush on the shim.



Whereas on the passenger side, one the shim is installed backwards and it's not sitting flush and the spring seems to be flopping around at the top.



Lastly I don't think E70 X5M struts use support bearing flanges, would appreciate if someone can confirm that.

argento I hope yours are installed correctly.

[argento]

Originally Posted by XRatedM

argento I hope yours are installed correctly.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll jump under there and check it out.

[///SY33]

Originally Posted by XRatedM

Thank you, I would've liked it more if it had dropped a little more (a bit less of the fender gap) but my main reason to choose Dinan was the ride quality. A lot of folks said H&Rs were slightly harsher than Dinan. After I had put everything back together I found out the strut mounts are shot, so I'll have to probably get in there again, so I've been going back and forth on switching out to H&R 1.2" or 2" ones. I haven't been able to find a lot of photos of either.

So it'll be coming up. Can you share photos of yours with spacers? I'm thinking to switch them out to 15mm fronts and 20mm rears.

I'm considering the 1.2" H&Rs as well but don't want to look too noticeably lowered which is why the Dinans intrigue me so much since they're subtle. Probably too subtle though because I'm finding many who are left wishing for a bit more of a drop like you.

Here's mine w/ 25mm spacers F&R:

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by ///SY33

I'm considering the 1.2" H&Rs as well but don't want to look too noticeably lowered which is why the Dinans intrigue me so much since they're subtle. Probably too subtle though because I'm finding many who are left wishing for a bit more of a drop like you.

Here's mine w/ 25mm spacers F&R:

I think I'd agree with you, I wanted to mainly improve the handling with a slight drop, nothing too noticeable. I looked at some photos with 1.2" kits and I'd probably stick out with Dinans for now.

I have to fix the passenger side and will loosen up front and rear end and re-torque to spec - to see if settles a little more.

And yours looks clean!! Love the color!

[argento]

^Wow super clean! What a gorgeous example of an E70X5M! Thanks for sharing

I plan to keep the Dinan too and I think the only next step if I wanted lower would be coilovers. It is quite subtle though.

[///SY33]

XRatedM Thanks! Looking forward to seeing whether there's an adjustment in height. Regardless, it looks good where it's at now.

argento Much appreciated, thank you! Really enjoy going through your build thread also. Your car is incredibly clean and I love the attention to detail

[XRatedM]

I had been tinkering on the idea of painting the calipers a different color and the standard Estoril Blue Metallic is great but is too dull in my opinion. So I've decided to paint them Phoenix Blue Metallic. I bought all the supplies and figured I'll upgrade the lines too to steel braided and maybe do a caliper service (with pins and greasing, etc.) anyway that in itself has become a week long or more project.

In the meanwhile, I had looked at intake scoops from NJBimmers but I couldn't find them anywhere anymore, Dawgz was kind enough to send me his old ones.

I wanted to test out Phoenix Yellow color and thought it'd be a fun quick project.

Started off by cleaning the scoops and sanding them down (sorry about the orientation of the photos)





2 coats of primer



3 coats of paint



Final product with 2 coats of clear.



Caliper project coming soon!

[XRatedM]

I haven't had the chance to detail the exterior but took some photos. I feel it's slightly hunched down from the front, have to re-adjust rear links.

[argento]

How you keeping it so clean around all that snow/ice??! GREAT Pix! Love the black 20s...

[XRatedM]

Originally Posted by argento

How you keeping it so clean around all that snow/ice??! GREAT Pix! Love the black 20s...

Thank you! Drive slow around snow and slush. Lol it's garaged for the most part, drive it once a week.