I reserved my RWD M3 in November and immediately bought the Eibach Prokit lowering springs for it (after many months of research). I had to buy the 2022 springs, as their 2023 products weren't out yet. I figured that was fine since it's fundamentally the exact same car. Lift Kits, Lowering Springs, Race Springs, Shocks & Sway Bars
WELP, turns out that I have the LFP battery version (I find out when I pick my M3 up in Dec and go thru the first time car setup). I realized it because it says to charge the battery to 100% which is the exact opposite of everything I've ever ready about Teslas (with 80% being the safe charge point). But the LFP batteries are different it seems. I did a metric ton of research on Teslas' but didn't know anything about LFP batteries in the RWD 2023 model. Oh well. All good. So far.
BUT, after having the springs installed, the lowering was much lower than Eibach indicated on their site (on the front), and honestly has caused us to scrape the bottom of the car A LOT and caused some damage to the under side skirt of the car (pic attached) not to mention the bottom of the front lip of the car and probably the skid plate. Eibach says the lowering should be 1.3" in the front and 1.1" in the rear. My front is 2" lower and the back is only .5" lower.
Photos attached for reference. You can see the front is pretty slammed with negative room between the top of the tire and the outside of the wheel well (tho it still fits fine inside the wheel well).
The shop that installed them is a reputable performance shop that works on high end cars (tho not a ton of EVS - but he has lowered a few Plaids and done work on Tesla's in general).
NOW that I go back to the Eibach site: Lift Kits, Lowering Springs, Race Springs, Shocks & Sway Bars it now specifically has a note that says "Note: Tested with factory dampers. Excludes vehicles equipped with LFP batteries. LFP batteries start in 2022".
I'm 99% sure that note wasn't there when I bought the springs in November. Tho even if it were I dunno if that would have stopped me since I wasn't aware my car would have LFP batteries.
Anwwhoooo, I have a few questions and concerns:
Basically if the springs ARE installed correctly and this is 100% because of the LFP batteries, I will probably have the shop remove them and but the factory springs back in because it's just too low for daily driving, especially where I live. Then wait/find springs that 100% are built for LFP battery M3s. Hopefully tho, he can do...something...? to modify the ride height. Or they are installed wrong, and he can fix it.
I've lowered all my cars before this (with Eibach springs actually) and never had this issue before, so I'm not new to the lowering game, but this is particularly frustrating since it's a brand new car and it's getting F'ed up because of this.
At the end of the day, it's my responsibility to know what goes on my car, so just trying to figure if this is because of a bad install or the LFP batteries, then what action to take to fix it.
Any thoughts and/or suggestions.
Thanks all!
WELP, turns out that I have the LFP battery version (I find out when I pick my M3 up in Dec and go thru the first time car setup). I realized it because it says to charge the battery to 100% which is the exact opposite of everything I've ever ready about Teslas (with 80% being the safe charge point). But the LFP batteries are different it seems. I did a metric ton of research on Teslas' but didn't know anything about LFP batteries in the RWD 2023 model. Oh well. All good. So far.
BUT, after having the springs installed, the lowering was much lower than Eibach indicated on their site (on the front), and honestly has caused us to scrape the bottom of the car A LOT and caused some damage to the under side skirt of the car (pic attached) not to mention the bottom of the front lip of the car and probably the skid plate. Eibach says the lowering should be 1.3" in the front and 1.1" in the rear. My front is 2" lower and the back is only .5" lower.
Photos attached for reference. You can see the front is pretty slammed with negative room between the top of the tire and the outside of the wheel well (tho it still fits fine inside the wheel well).
The shop that installed them is a reputable performance shop that works on high end cars (tho not a ton of EVS - but he has lowered a few Plaids and done work on Tesla's in general).
NOW that I go back to the Eibach site: Lift Kits, Lowering Springs, Race Springs, Shocks & Sway Bars it now specifically has a note that says "Note: Tested with factory dampers. Excludes vehicles equipped with LFP batteries. LFP batteries start in 2022".
I'm 99% sure that note wasn't there when I bought the springs in November. Tho even if it were I dunno if that would have stopped me since I wasn't aware my car would have LFP batteries.
Anwwhoooo, I have a few questions and concerns:
- Could the shop have installed them wrong? Is that even possible? There actually is a .25" difference between the left/right rear ride height. He said he didn't have time to balance them (and I was taking it back this week for the balancing) but I dunno if this would effect the ride height so significantly.
- Can the springs (or something) be adjusted so the car sits closer to the Eibach spec (higher in front, lower in back)? I feel like the answer is "no".
- Is this purely because of the LFP batteries?
Basically if the springs ARE installed correctly and this is 100% because of the LFP batteries, I will probably have the shop remove them and but the factory springs back in because it's just too low for daily driving, especially where I live. Then wait/find springs that 100% are built for LFP battery M3s. Hopefully tho, he can do...something...? to modify the ride height. Or they are installed wrong, and he can fix it.
I've lowered all my cars before this (with Eibach springs actually) and never had this issue before, so I'm not new to the lowering game, but this is particularly frustrating since it's a brand new car and it's getting F'ed up because of this.
At the end of the day, it's my responsibility to know what goes on my car, so just trying to figure if this is because of a bad install or the LFP batteries, then what action to take to fix it.
Any thoughts and/or suggestions.
Thanks all!
. They would be willing to swap it out but I am apprehensive and might just go back to the 4X4 stance...
