Five. There are Five different front springs for a 320i.

[SteveJ]

OK. I was recently made aware of mid-run production changes on my E30. Luckily, I had the old part and set it beside the new part to see the difference before I had gone through the install.

But what do you do when the old parts look like this:

Well, you install the new parts because they are gobs better than the crap you just took out. Afterwards, the nose of the car sat a little high. That's normal because the old springs were crap. Also, I figured the nose would settle in after a little bit.

It's been a few weeks and I really started scrutinizing it. The nose is up high. I can put my whole fist sideways between the tire and the top of the wheel arch. I do some research and find there are 5 different front springs for the 320i's. Early/Euro versions, and late/North American versions, and then all the different rates. I thought we were set, as the crap springs I pulled out had red dots on them, and the used replacement springs I got also had red dots. A little more reading in the Haynes book and I see that the Late/NA springs were 13.68 inches in height, and the Early ones are 15.57 inches. tHIS would explain why the nose is 2 " too high. Duh.