Agree with this.

Rear springs are prone to snap on the E46's. Quite a common issue on them for example.

Just wondering why I need a wheel alignment when I would change the shocks.
From that picture I would believe that everything stays in place when replacing them.

http://www.autokrake.de/img/129/opt_a-3595gr_wm_01.jpg

I've been doing my suspension now for two weekends in a row (parts issues from the shipping company). What did you do about the rear self-leveling? I've got BC Racing coilovers I'm installing and the guy who was going to help me fix the issue has disappeared...short of disconnected the pump and getting an error code on the OBC, there must be a way to address having a lowered X and still have functioning self leveling.

That's outrageous....it IS the dealer though. If they can actually get someone to pay that, my hats off to them! Lol.

If you're doing just the front struts, an alignment is not necessary....if you were taking apart any more than that on the front, I'd get it don't for piece of mind.

Tbh after doing any sod of suspension work you should ideally get an alignment done. New parts will potentially give different geo. It's your call really.

I had full air suspension front/rear. Going to coilovers (or standard springs even on the rear) will remove the ability of self levelling on the suspension (or have I misunderstood your question). Going to coilovers you can code out the check control message from appearing on the dash and you just leave the sensors connected as the readings are used for other aspects like DSC, etc.

Is there any way to protect the springs from rust?

Mine only came w/ rear air suspension, so I've still got airbags in the rear. There are little arms that connect to the control arms to little sensors that read when the truck is too low. A member here was going to help me w/ custom made smaller arms and some Romanian software that would allow the car to sit nice and low on the coilovers, but then I'd still have use of the airbags for things like towing, lots of girls in the backseat, etc ;) At this point I'm just going to leave the power to the pump disconnected, but I know I'm going to get an error message until I address it properly.

Until this thread, I've NEVER heard of that in the years I've been on these or any BMW forums, and even then it's only been mentioned here that it's something that happens on E46's. I don't think you need to start worrying yourself about it. I just removed my springs and I've got almost 140k and there wasn't rust on anything and I live in Seattle where it never stops raining.

If you want you can spray the coils with some underbody coating, or rust killer paint, and touch up whenever.

Also im not 100% sure on coil model e53.

But there is a front camber adjustment and i believe it is performed up top where the 3 bolts are in the engine bay, so you may need one.

Otherwise it should just be the tierod adjustment.