When you cut a spring, you DO increase its rate (stiffness). But often times this increased rate is not enough to offset the much more dramatically altered ride height, and the car will ride poorly, bottoming out frequently. Classic rice-boy syndrome.

as has been mentioned, use a cut off wheel: heating can affect the characteristics of the spring, and you can't do this to the rear of the car, as the top and bottom coils are what actually centers the spring on its perch.

this spring cutting deal with BMW's is really only popular with the iX guys as far as I know. As far as I know, the iX front springs are identical to other e30 springs in all ways except for a taller ride height, to give the iX a little more "rugged" look. So since the rest of the front suspension is similar, cutting down the springs by .5, 1, or 1.5 coils will not hurt much. But I wouldn't do it on most cars, sportier lowering springs aren't really that expensive anyways.


Mac
87 325is