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Thread: The Official KIDO Coilover Thread

  1. #1
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    The Official KIDO Coilover Thread

    Introduction:
    Well, I know that people have lots of questions about this setup. My goal here is to be able to answer some of your questions and lay out my install.

    Let me preface this by saying that I was very thorough about the whole job and made sure that everything was up to snuff! Im a perfectionist when it comes to certain things, and when Im spending this kind of time and money on my car it had better be done right!

    What you need:
    Kido coilovers, currently you can acquire these from AquilaBMW. Est. $900 (price varies)
    Strut housings, I HIGHLY recommend that you pick a spare set up out of the yard.
    Tools:
    Sockets: 3/8"- 13(deep)
    3/8"- 3/16 HEX Bit
    1/2"- 17,19&22mm
    3/8"- socket wrench
    1/2"- socket wrench and breaker bar
    Monkey wrench for 2" od
    Hand files
    Angle grinder
    Saw zaw: (1)Diamond tip blade, (1)File blade
    Welder capable of bonding carbon steel
    Orbital w a sanding pad
    Table Vice Grip
    Jack and jack stands
    High heat primer spray paint
    High heat Spray Paint (color of choice)

    If you want to change the wheel bearings while you are at it here is the link for that and the additional tools you will need:
    Front Wheel Bearing Replacement - I highly recommend doing this as well if you are unsure of the last time the bearings were replaced!


    Lets get started:

    I started by grabbing an extra set of strut housings from the yard. This is almost required unless you can plan on your car being down for a few days.
    Heres a side by side:


    Modification:

    I will be referring to the stock strut housing the 'base', it needs to be altered. As you can see there wis not enough clearance for the tubing to fully slide down to the base.

    The instructions that I got said to cut off the strut tubing off and leave 50mm at the bottom. 50mm was too much, it left to big of a gap at the bottom to properly weld up. So I ended up cutting it down to 44mm, filing away some of the base so that the tube could sit flush, this worked for me.

    However after looking back and if I had to do it again, I would have left 60mm on the base. Going this route would have eliminated any modification to the base of the strut. This would also be a lot cheaper for anyone taking there housings to a shop. Less fabrication time. Just make sure that its a perfectly straight cut at the 60mm mark and just weld the seam of the kido tube to the od of the base tube. This extra 10mm would have put the bottom locking collar nut just above the tire. It would solve ANY clearance issues and you can still get super low.



    Finally got a good fit to the base so I adjusted and adjusted. Again and again, until I got the tube good and straight. Then I held it as my buddy tack welded it into place. Double checked it, good to go. Weld up. Looks sloppy but its a damn good weld. I found it very helpful during this process to use the other housing as a guide to make sure the housing was straight.

    Next step was to take off the sway link mounts of the oem housings and put them on the new kidos. Unfortunately I didnt take any pictures during this mock up. The bottom side of the brackets need to be welded 60mm up from the bottom of the Kido tube. (catching the 60mm vibe?) As you can also see I cut off the existing sway bar mounts and reattached them to the Kido's.



    Heres how it looks after it got everything welded into place.

    Here they are together.

    Finally all put together! New wheel bearings and all! This job would probably take a professional a complete 8/hr day because of all the fabricating that was done. Like I said earlier though, if you leave 60mm of the original strut housing you can avoid all this trouble.

    And all together! Well kind of.



    Comaprison:
    I wanted to document the difference between the NEX setup and this one. Since as far as I know Im the only person that has had both of these setups in hand at the same time. Hopefully this will be beneficial to someone. If anyone has questions please feel free to ask here or pm me.

    I took a couple pics for comparison, Ive got the kidos ALL the way low in these pics, but obviously you can see how much more adjustable they are!

    Here is whats amazing about the Kido's:
    They are almost infinitely adjustable. Seriously. Notice on the NEX coilovers that the spring sits on the perch that you would adjust for ride height. Now look at the KIDO. The KIDO has a fully threaded inner sleeve so that you can adjust the height without adjusting the preload. Just spin the threaded sleeve to the desired height and lock the bottom collar in place. So nice and easy.
    They have 40 way dampening. It literally takes all of 1 minute to adjust the dampening settings on all four corners. From fully soft to hard and reverse. This is truly awesome. Track stiff to daily driving in just a few seconds. I was floored by the difference in the quality! NEX does not have this.
    The perch is much smaller. For those of us who have clearance issues or are running large wheels these precious extra mm's of space are invaluable. No longer will you have to worry about space in your wheel wells when you want to go MOAR LOW! NEX doesnt have this either.
    They come WITH camber plates. I mean seriously, whats not to like about this. As if I didnt have enough this to mess with before. Just one more thing that the NEX cant compete with. I honestly dont know how this setup is as cheap as it is, they could ask for more money easily.




    So anyways, I started the install on the Kido's, several things didnt work out, I ordered the correct wheel bearings but was sent the wrong ones. The difference in the actual bearing is huge! The problem was that the abs sensor sits just to the outside of the bearing. On the early models the sensor housing on the base is pushed out to make room for the 95mm bearing. The later models (post 92?) have the 83mm bearing and the abs housing is tucked in more. So I thought about ditching the brake dust cover and modifying the position of the abs sensor.


    In theory it would have worked but I didnt like it one bit. It needs to be done right and this was just sloppy or worse UNSAFE.

    I also thought my measurements for the sway bar was off, this scared me. In the end though it turned out to be correct. Bottom of the bracket is 60mm up from the bottom of the tube. You can see the side by side.




    Installation Steps:

    Since its been documented quite a few times im just going to post this link and you can go from there. Its really not that difficult! This link is for shocks but it exactly the same for this install as well.
    Easy Installation Guide

    Final Installation and Thoughts:
    So I got everything installed last night. Let me just say that it is a very impressive setup. The adjustability on these is bar none. Its crazy. Unlike most other coilover setups, preload is not effected by ride height. It is completely independent. I got everything installed put the damper settings to full hard and took it out for a nice little spin. Wow, lets just say that it definitely felt like it was ready to just be thrown straight on the track. Made a pit stop switched it to all the way soft. The difference was night and day, made me smile like a kid again! This makes the ride incredibly smooth! Almost like having the factory suspension on.
    Last edited by redimension; 04-20-2012 at 02:39 PM.


  2. #2
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    awesomesauce.. ill post my build up in here when mine arrive too, if thats ok with you.

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  3. #3
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    setup looks great
    F*CK

  4. #4
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    nice job I will do the same in a near future... I just realised yesterday that my bilstein shock has leaking and I will buy some coilovers to replace

  5. #5
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    OP updated with comparison pics w the NEX co's and some install fails!


  6. #6
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    My main concern is how are the rear lower mounting bushings? I had to deal with the fiasco of mine failing on the Nex's. I don't want to deal with that b/s ever again.
    "...there’s nothing like the scream of an old straight six, a sound only comparable to a monster that eats children and rocks for breakfast and howls like a banshee when the loud-pedal is mashed." - Mike Burroughs

  7. #7
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    @bmwwheelman, i have some spax rear struts and they look to be exactly the same as these in the lower mounting setup, and i have them on for 2 years now no problem, and they are pretty stiff, so i wouldnt worry.

    thanks for the update! i actually don't think im gonna bother with the bracket now, since they turned out to actually mount up to the kido bracket (even if only just :P)

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  8. #8
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    been running mine for over 300 miles now. the ride is WAY better than 22 year old OEM.
    Just waiting on spacers for the front so i can get my one piece style 5s on and lower it more.
    good write up OP

  9. #9
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    very cool


  10. #10
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    how come the sway mount that was on the tube didnt work? the sway mounts, without a doubt, are what took me the longest to do when i installed my ksports. the weldings easy, getting those mounts tacked justtttt right it tough. once i got the first side done, the other side didnt take nearly as long.
    -Alex

  11. #11
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    They will fit, that was a dry fit and I didn't try to hard, it scared me tho!. I know what you mean about making sure everything was just right. That probably took me the longest. You can see in the following pic that the measurements are spot on I'm sure everything will be good to go once I have the correct bearings.


  12. #12
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    installed the rear ones yesterday.. still waiting on my fronts from the welder

    old vs new




    Suspension fully extended with the shock wound all the way down.. (full tank of gas)

    on the ground..


    and i can't seem to brake the collar nuts for the preload loose at all... feels like im breaking the collars.... any tips? >.<

    Got alot better turn it :o
    Last edited by SmurfeN; 04-06-2012 at 07:00 AM.

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by AHenry014 View Post
    how come the sway mount that was on the tube didnt work? the sway mounts, without a doubt, are what took me the longest to do when i installed my ksports. the weldings easy, getting those mounts tacked justtttt right it tough. once i got the first side done, the other side didnt take nearly as long.
    That my question as well. I thought the sway link on there was good to go

  14. #14
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    if i had the choice between these or the ksports, i would have chose these to not have to worry about the sway brackets, so im curious. (other than the fact that i think the blue looks dumb)
    -Alex

  15. #15
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    Looks good. Thanks for the updates and am looking forward to the finished product. I kinda like the blue... just me.

  16. #16
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    AquilaBMW is offline Mad Bimmerist BMW CCA Member
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    I really appreciate everyone posting their experiences and sharing the knowledge on these kits. Thanks very much.

    If there is additional interest and enough numbers, I might try to see what we can do about keeping at least the last lowest price paid.

    Cheers - Keep up the good work guys! And thanks a mill for the support.

    Michael



  17. #17
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    Just picked up my fronts from the welder... will be installing later today

    Sent from my NexusHD2 using BF.com

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  18. #18
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    Damn man ur a bigger man than i lol. With suspension i would never cut and weld other than cut springs! Lol. Looks like it turned out well for you though!

  19. #19
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    lets kick of with how low you can go with the kidos



    i ended up not getting the sway mounts fixed up.






    here you can see the clearance from the steering arm to the sway bar.. not much.... this ended up not working.. the sway bar was rubbing the steering arm when you steered... i disconnected the sway links and i will order some lengthened once from turner and leave it at that... driving around without the sway bar til that...




    how it ended up looking for today, gonna fine tune it tomorrow or something... this is with full negative camber:


    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  20. #20
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    Nice! Is the rear super high or something? Looks like it in the 2nd to last pic. I like the Kidos though, they look nice. Definitely a better option than Nex IMO. Interested to hear the long term reviews
    '88 s54 e30, '00 m5

  21. #21
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    rear isnt super high, but its higher... weird thing is ive seem to hit the bottom for the strut adjusting downwards..

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  22. #22
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    A quick report on my KIDO's...

    They've been on the car about 3 weeks, but I just got to give it a good test run over the last few days with two trips to Atlanta and one to Alabama. First off, I love the ride compared to my previous mis-mash of Vogtland/Koni fronts and stock rear shocks and springs. The KIDO's are set to full soft and the car just plops right over old bumps that were so harsh with my previous set up that I would want to cry. Once I get a solution for easy access to the rear strut mount adjust points, I'll start playing with the damper settings. Overall though, the car handles MUCH more composed and flatter than my previous mismatch setup, and feels much more forgiving. I do feel it is just a tad bit bouncey, but I'm not going to worry much about it until I can play with the spring pre-load and damper settings some. Currently, ride height is set close to M5 touring specs (judging by pics), which means it's raised a bit above the previous Vogtland level in front, and lowered a little from the stock set up that was in the rear.

    In the last six months, I've installed the Meyle HD 10 piece front end kit, the KIDO's, 4 new tires, and an alignment, and I can't be happier with how smooth the car is riding now. I'd have to guess it's 95% of what the car felt like new in 1995. This weekend, I plan on taking apart the rear cargo area and figuring out a way to make inserting the damper adjusting knobs as easy as in the engine bay. I'm currently thinking drilling two small holes just above the shock mounts will do the trick. I may have to extend the adjusting knobs to make this work. If the nice weather holds out, I'll try to snap so pics of ride height and any solution for rear damper adjustments for touring owners.

  23. #23
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    the rears doesn't really go that low imo, i have the strut threaded all the way to the bottom and they are just basically the same height as my spax 35mm setup... will i have to adjust the preload? >.<

    92' BMW 525i E34, Calypso Red (dead) & 91' BMW 520i E34, Calypso Red

  24. #24
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    Here's an update on modding the touring's interior to allow for easier adjustment of the KIDO's.

    After doing some lining up, I drilled a small 1/4" hole in the interior panel. The hole is only noticable when the seats are down, and barely noticable even then.








    Next, I drilled a 3/8" hole in the rubber strut surround that is under the interior panel.





    The issue now is that the adjustment knob is too short. Since the kit comes with four of them, and you only really need one, I am going to canabalize one of the extras and have it welded to the end of another knob, thus doubling the length. BUT, this will only be temporary, as I have an even newer plan involving a microcontroller, four stepper motors, and two in car adjustemnt knobs for the front and rear

  25. #25
    AquilaBMW's Avatar
    AquilaBMW is offline Mad Bimmerist BMW CCA Member
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    Nicely done there Sir M. I have SLS on my rears otherwise I would be looking into this. That is quite innovative.



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