Swamper
Fitted my B12 Kit (Bilstein B8's and Eibach -30mm springs) and H&R ARB's last weekend.
It took me three hours start to finish.
The rear is easy, remove the rear ARB first (support the axles x 2 trolley jacks), undo the top mounts from in the cabin (4 nuts), undo the lower strut bolts and remove the strut (make sure the strut is max extension), lower the axle down and wiggle the springs out, i left the standard spring pads in, but i do have the thinest pad thickness ready if i di not like the rear ride height (it looks good standard pad). Now place your new spring in place. Assemble the new rear strut to the new top mount, note i used the heavy duty Meyle top mounts. mount the top strut into place and ensure you torque up nuts and bolts as per the TIS guide, Note you will also have to fit a spacer to the bottom bracket of the strut of the Bilstein (supplied in box).
The front was straight forward, car on axle stands, hub carriers supported (trolley jacks) at full extension.Remove the various brake tubes and sensor wires from their carriers on each strut, undo the top three nuts on each turret. Undo the top lower shoulder bolt on the strut and drive out with a suitable punch, note this bolt has a ground shoulder, one snapped taking it out due to corrosion, but i had spares to replace all fixings as new. Now undo the lower two bolts holding the strut to the hub carrier, Note these two bolts have an Adhesive Thread Patch on them as new which works like Araldite in that the hardener is held in microcapsules which break on hardeneing and mix with the paste to glue the bolts in place, these bolts are a one time only fit due to this, you will need to replace with new (note it takes 24 hours for the adhesive to reach full strength once installed). Now extract the full strut assembly from the car. Now the tricky bit, you will need spring clamps a modified 22mm socket and hex key. If you have these you can undo the top mount nut and swap over. However I forgot to get my 22mm socket modified, so i took the old and new struts down to National Tyre who swapped them over greased and tightened the bearings for £20 (Bargain), refitting is a reversal of the removal as thy say, but dont forget new lower bolts and use the torque figures as per the TIS guide.
The ARBs front and rear were simple, remove the front engine tray, undo the 4 nuts to the brackets, undo the front drop links and remove, fit the new bushes and refit as per removal, the rear is the same but becomes a fully bolted joint to the drop links so no walking off of the drop links, all hardware is supplied, but i did buy new ARB brackets and nuts.
I have to say that the transformation is phenomenal, there is virtually no body roll, the car will corner 15mph quicker than normal without the feeling of tipping over, the ride is quite smooth considering, braking distances have reduced, and the car just looks right, will post some pictures shortly (when the rain stops), all in all it is now what i expected a sports car to be like when i bought it, very pleased. Of course mine is not an M, but i expect you will notice the same benefits.
I also no longer have any tramlining I have put this down to two things:
1) addition of the H&R Roll Bars, the rear OEM on the 1.9 is very springy, and was actually distorted when removed, the H&R are thicker and more resistance to bend / twist
2) tightening of the front top mount bearings, when they were removed there was quite a lot of play in the bearings, i would say that this is probably a good contributor to wandering steering, so is worth a look if any one is suffering the tramlining effect.
