Hi all,
I would like to upgrade rear spring to the overload ones. Both IPD and FCP sells them with marginal difference in cost. My question is regarding FCP's set. Has anyone used these and how do they compare to IPD's? Any other place I can find them cheaper?

TIA!
SM
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90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL

Is your 240 a sedan? If it is wagon rear springs work very good. You can get them cheap. They are a bit heavier. FCP sent me wrong parts before, but they corrected it and paid the shipping both ways. I will be putting a set of wagon springs on ebay shortly.

iPd overloads on my 245 and 745. Slightly stiffer, but not by a whole lot.

Can't comment on FCP's. The price difference wasn't great enough for me to consider.

-- Kane
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Blossom II - '91 745Ti/M46 ... Bubbles - '74 144GL/BW35 ... Buttercup - '86 245GL/AW70 ... The Wayback Machine - '64 P220/M40

I had the IPD overload springs in my 1988 245 because we pulled a utility trailer and a small boat (not at same time). The springs felt a little stiff when the wagon was unloaded. Really paid off when towing or hauling a load of stuff. No experience with the FCP springs, but am interested to hear differences.

The 745 needs overload springs - bottoms out mostly due to the mother-in-law effect.

I have FCP's on my 93 245. Don't know about iPD's springs, but suspect they're the same. It raised the rear about an inch and a half so it's now slightly higher than the front. The ride is difinitely more harsh. Going over a bumpy road on a turn sometimes produces a feeling of uncertainly in the rear, as if it could come around, but I use my car to hauls stuff so much I'm willing to accept that. Besides I putter along most of the time anyway. One alternative I did explore was to keep the existing springs and just add air bags. More expensive, but more controllable.

Thanks for that reply....I drive it mostly on the thruway, which has its shares of nasty bumps. SO I am not really sure if I should do this. The rear doesn't sag, but when I have someone in the back, it sometimes bottoms out when going over small bumps (especially with my mother-in-law back ther... :-) ). By the way what are 'air-bags' for the suspension?

Cheers,
Raj
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90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL

I reread your posts and assumed you were talking about a wagon but now am not sure. Just in case, I would never put the overload springs on a sedan - if you want something stiffer go w/ the regular wagon springs. If you have a wagon and it bottoms out with just people in the back seat, then I'd guess you just need new wagon springs. If this isn't enough for you, then add gas shocks like KYB as they will give you a bit more boost.

The air bags are like the ones you see on 18 wheelers. They go either inside the coil or outside via a seperate bracket. They are inflated via an onboard compressor. You just dial in the pressure you need from the driver's seat. I never found anyone that had used them on a 240, but had made some calls to some suppliers and could have put together a kit, but it would have involved some experimentation. Don't have any links to pass on - just Google for "car springs lift air bags" and you should get some hits.

The overload coils are good for me because I regularly tow trailers and haul stuff (16 bags of mulch). Last week I towed a 16' double axle trailer (empty) from Dallas to NW Arkansas and the car did great in the Ozarks.

I put a set of these overload springs on my 83GL. I got them from IPD. They helped to bring up my sagging rear end and the ride is just fine. My other suspension mods are: Boge turbo gas shocks,IPD sway bars,upper strut brace,lower brace,upper tie bars,15" Virgo wheels,and Michellin MXV4 tire's running at 35psi all around.