E36 suspension, front strut choices

[Rusty Bavaria]

97 328i
What is everyone running for front struts? This is for my wife's car, so we're going to be sticking with stock springs...

Bilstein HD
Bilstein touring
Sachs (OEM)
KYB
Monroe (HA!)
Tokico

I'm going to replace the strut mounts also while I'm in there, control arms and control arm bushings seem OK right now so I'm going to wait on those.

I'd like to hear good and bad for these strut choices.

Thanks in advance
Jim

[bjl4776]

I would go with either sachs, bilstein, or koni. I know you said you're keeping stock springs but im running koni coilovers and so are almost everybody that is into the track from either ground control or tckline. I also know alot of people running bilsteins too, but be careful when you buy them because you can replace the insert but requires some cutting and grinding and in my personal opinion isnt worth the extra money for the ease of replacement of the entire strut. If your looking for an OEM replacement than go with Sachs or Bilstein HDs, if you want something sportier there is a whole world out there and you will need to look around.

[winfred]

sachs suck! boge kinda suck, id go kyb or bilstein, and you gotta pick which bilstein, daily transport blah mobile get tourings, go flog it on the weekends and or carve corners hd's adding some lowering springs too get sports, kyb's are kinda between stock and bilstein hd's and tourings are around stock to kyb, sport are slightly shorter hd's for drop coils

[bmwrp8]

sachs suck! boge kinda suck, id go kyb or bilstein, and you gotta pick which bilstein, daily transport blah mobile get tourings, go flog it on the weekends and or carve corners hd's adding some lowering springs too get sports, kyb's are kinda between stock and bilstein hd's and tourings are around stock to kyb, sport are slightly shorter hd's for drop coils

true!sachs sucks!BIGTIME!!! I killed my bnew OEM sachs for less than 2months!