Feal 441s and Super Pro control arms on our BMW335i Project Car

Our BMW 335i is a 2007, and even though it handles great with the stock suspension installed, there were starting to be some signs that it was time to go in and start replacing some of the stock bushings at a minimum. The main issue that I noticed was that the car seemed to be very sensitive to bumps in the road, especially in corners. If I was going around a sweeping corner, any seam or bump in the road would unsettle the car, and cause it to feel unstable, and drift to the outside.

The 335i has a Macpherson front suspension, but it is a little unusual in that the knuckle is held in place by two separate suspension arms: a lower control arm, and a tension arm. In looking at the bushings that were on the car, it looked like it was possible that what was causing this handling behavior was actually the stock suspension arms allowing movement of the knuckle when the car hit bumps, etc...

In looking at options to replace the stock front control arms, there were two main options, first the E90 M3 arms because of an improved design that gave a little extra camber and that used stiffer bushings, or the Super Pro lower control arms. The Super Pro arms were based on the E90 M3 arms, but they also added an eccentric bushing in the tension arm that allows you to add or adjust Caster. Given that the Super Pro kit gives some extra adjustment, that was what Idecided to install.

The other thing that I had noticed was that the stock suspension on the 335i seemed to bottom out fairly easily. And at this point, the stock struts and springs were 12 years old or so. Given both of those factors, I decided to look for a set of coilover suspension to install when we put on the front control arms. After looking around at options, I decided to go with the Feal 441 suspension. We have worked with Feal for suspension on a couple of cars that we sponsor and had good luck with them, so I decided to try them on the 335i as well.

One quick note on installing these parts. If you are going to be putting on coilover suspension, and front struts especially, that really is a perfect time to put on new front control arms. In the process of removing those, all you need to do is to remove the tie-rods from the front knuckles, and you can then pull the entire strut and knuckle off of the car. That makes it much easier to remove and re-install the new struts.

Now that everything has been installed for a few weeks, I can tell you that first, the Super Pro lower control arms are a very good up-grade for the 335i. The front tires now feel completely planted, and there is not more issue with going over bumps in corners, etc. Not only that, but they were very easy to adjust, and the car now has 7.5* of caster up front, which makes a nice difference. In short the car feels like it has tons of front grip.

The Feal 441 coilovers have also worked out quite well. The set that we put on the car were the standard 441's with Swift springs. The spring rates that Feal included with the kit are 9kg/mm front springs, and 14kg/mm rear springs. I was initially a little hesitant to go with those rates because it seems like they might be too stiff for the car. We have worked with Feal on a few cars that we sponsor now, and one common thread between them all has been that the car rides much more smoothly for a given spring rate than you might expect. With that in mind, I decided to give them a try.

And I am glad that I did. Once again, Feal has worked their magic on this kit. The only situation where the stiffness of the springs can be felt is going over railroad tracks. Everywhere else, the 441's just feel slightly stiffer than stock. But in the corners, the car feels very flat and stable, and this suspension is a perfect complement to the Super-Pro front control arms.

In short, these two modifications work together to make the 335i feel much more like an "M" car, than a standard 3 series.

If you have a 335i or a 135i, and you are thinking of up-dating or upgrading your suspension, I would definitely recommend both of these options. I am pretty happy with the car at this point, and I think that the only other thing that might need to be addressed is some of the bushings in the rear.

- Jon Cooley