Two days ago, I swapped in the new coilovers. I decided on Racelands only after reading many reviews on a number of different forums (BimmerForums, VWVortex, Audiworld, Toyota forums, etc.) and came to the conclusion that at this time, the Cabrio doesn't necessitate paying for H&R's or a high-end suspension. I'll save my $$$ for my Rabbit.
I installed everything myself and since it was my first time installing any type of suspension on any type of car, I'm a little worried on how I did.
I consulted my Bentley manual and numerous DIY's, but I may bring it to M1 just to give it a once-over. It's kind of bizarre to do this work my own for the first time and not have anything go wrong... I keep expecting something to break.
This is what each shock looked like, and the struts weren't any better:
Here's after I installed the suspension (15 threads left in the front, 20 in the back):
This was way too low for me, so I raised the suspension about 10 threads. I took it for a test drive down my steep driveway and around the neighborhood and didn't hear anything rattling or smelled anything burning from rubbing. So far so good.