E90 Ground Clearance

[Mntltan]

Several months ago I purchased a new 335d which, by the way, is a great car. The only concern I have is the front ground clearance which is just over 6 inches. Try as I will, I have been unable to avoid occasionally hitting a curb or one of those parking barriers which stick up, yes, about 6 inches. When this happens, as you can guess, the paint is scratched off the soft plastic bumpers.

As a remedy to this I would like to raise the front of the car about 3/4 of an inch and it looks like this can be done by simply loosening the clamping ring around the MacPhearson strut housing and raising the car to the desired amount and re-tightening it. The usual struts have flanges which allow the hub to be bolted on. The E90 has a circular clamp. The question is: has anyone tried this? It looks like this would have no effect on the alignment and would only affect the headlights. Any thoughts on this?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

I really don't reccomend trying it.

The strut needs to be seated all the way down in the steering knuckle. I understand what you are trying to do, but you would also need to have a spacer at the bottom of the strut to take up the 3/4" of space. I don't think you can do this anyway, as the thru bolt for the knuckle should pass through a plate welded to the back of the strut. You'd need to cut off the plate and re-weld it 3/4" down the tube.

If you hit a bump hard enough, it would probably seat itself down in there anyway (hence the need for a spacer). Keep in mind that this is a diesel as well. Which means the front end is probably heavier then a regular engine. You need that strut firmly secured in the knuckle.

A better option may be to put spacer plates above the upper shock mounts. This may be something that you would have to fabricate though. You would also have to address the angle of the tie rods relative to the struts. They would no longer be level.

Take a look at this..

RealOEM.com * BMW E90N 335d GUIDE SUPPORT/SPRING PAD/ATTACHING PARTS

It looks like there's a difference in the mounts for your car and M/Sport suspension equipped cars. Might worth investigating if there's a significant difference in height.

You would also need to have the car re-aligned because you would be altering the camber and steering angles on the car.