What kind of springs do I have?

[sharkhog]

I have searched like crazy, and have a lot written down now on the best combos of springs and shocks, but have not seen one important thing. How in the heck can I tell what the springs are on my car? Should the spring itself have something on it to indicate manufacturer?

If I missed that within the threads, I apologize. I know how everyone is about threads that are not needed. ;)

Cheers

[sharkhog]

forgot to add one more thing. Does anyone know why the front drivers side would be about a half inch lower than the front passenger side? The lower side randonly scrapes the tire. The previous owner stated the schocks were Bilsteins if that helps.

[Kalevera]

Factory springs will usually have a part number printed on them, but if the car's been subjected to salt, it may not be legible. When the spring's removed from the car, you can measure the height and determine the basics, but probably not the brand -- there have been a lot of different options available over the years.

Height discrepancies between front left and right can be any number of things. Can happen due to a spring being installed upside down, a broken spring, an incorrectly preloaded control arm, tire pressure differences (unlikely, but it will mess up an alignment), I suppose in theory a completely dead strut with an internal bump stop (bilstein -- not unlikely as they fail all the time) could give a 1/2" discrepancy.

There's a picture of a stock spring versus a lowering spring (sachs kit's Eibach) in my suspension writeup at bmw4life.com.