clavinZERO's 5-lug swap with *PICS* and details galore!

[atmosferas]

By the way, what side skirts are those you have ?

I have a Racing Dynamics rear apron that I have not installed yet because I have not found the right side skirts for it. I also have a set of IX side skirts and flares, but am not sure if they would look good on a lowered car with the RD rear apron and IS front lip...

[clavinZERO]

My skirts are the factory "iS" skirts. Just a BMW option for the E30. Still available brand new (and freshly made too!!)

[Chuzo]

what springs are you using? :)
I'm doing the same to my e30 and the height of your car is just perfect for my taste

[clavinZERO]

You know what, I don't easily see that info in here, sorry... I need to go back and reformat some of the text and fix some stuff and clean up the original posts...

E30 (325is) H&R Sport springs, about 1.3"-1.5" lowering.

[clavinZERO]

Bump for this link added to original post and this post:

http://www.clavinzero.com/e30-5-lug/

The link is for my new site put together in conjunction with user Aptyp. The goal is to consolidate the available information from many, many threads as well as maintain and echo this information-bank that holds first-hand or second-hand data from people who have done the work and done the measurements. It's a work in progress. More photos to follow soon. Information is still being updated and added.

Also, I STILL have not gone back in to re-wire the front E36 M3 ABS sensors as mentioned above.

[bimmer630]

My skirts are the factory "iS" skirts. Just a BMW option for the E30. Still available brand new (and freshly made too!!)

Do you have part #'s? I cant find rocker trim on REALOEM

[clavinZERO]

Do you have part #'s? I cant find rocker trim on REALOEM

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=1113&mospid=47309&btnr=51_0669&hg=51&fg=20

</thread jack> :P

[alexth1]

I've actually seen your car in person @ Santa Barbara and Rose Bowl and car looks amazing. Perfect example of a a cleen car.

[clavinZERO]

Thanks man!

[bmw-slangen]

E36 M3 struts yes.

E36 M3 ('97 or late '96+ I think) control arms also... why? Visual placement of wheel in fender arch AND of course actual caster setting is affected. I am well within original caster spec using this setup.

I don't know about my stupid ABS yet. I don't know what I want to try yet.

An absolutely great writeup!

But have some questions (and some info as well).

1. What's all this about '97 or later control arms? All E36 M3 (and Z3M) used the same control arm throughout their entire production.
It only existed the 31 12 2 228 461 / 462 control arms, see below. So what's all this '97 talk about?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BG91&mospid=47433&btnr=31_0242&hg=31&fg=05

2. As far as I understand, the damper and strut housing is one single unit on the E36 (which is not the case in for example E30). But is the E36 M3 strut housing different in any way (except for that the lower spring pad is unique for E36 M3 compared to E36 Non-M3)? I mean, if I took a E36 Non-M3 strut housing+damper (item #1 in picture below) and added the spindle (item #2) - whould I still get the same front wheel alignment/angles?
The E36 M3 spindles are unique, so it looks like they are the one that creates different front wheel alignment/angles - not the strut housing/damper itself.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BG91&mospid=47433&btnr=31_0419&hg=31&fg=10

3. You mentioned a small rubbing happens at full hard lock left/right. What parts are rubbing against each other and were? Any pictures?



And finally, some summary about rear wheel bearings.

When talking about E30, E36 Compact and Z3, there exists two different wheel bearing sizes.
Small = 39x72x37 ( 33 41 1 124 358 )
Big = 42x75x37 ( 33 41 1 130 617 )

The Z3M has extra big wheel bearings (45x85.05x41) but I leave that out of this summary.

* All E36 CPT have the small bearings - except E36 323ti which has the big bearings.
* All Z3 4-cylinder (Z3 1.8, 1.9) have the small bearings - except Z3 1.9 that got the big bearings from 04/99 and onwards.
* All Z3 6-cylinder (Z3 2.0, 2.2, 2.8, 3.0) have big bearings.

* Most E30 up to 09/85 have the small bearings (exceptions are for example 325i)
* Most E30 from 09/85 and onwards have the big bearings (exceptions are for example 316i without ABS)

The wheel bearing info at the different rear options is not absolutely correct at this excellent summary page

http://www.clavinzero.com/e30-5-lug/

It says the smaller wheel bearing is 70mm and the larger wheel bearing is 72mm. That's not really true - it should be 39x72x37 vs 42x75x37.

[bmw-slangen]

Please ignore my first concern regarding pre/post '97 control arms.

Just me that was sloppy in the ETK... I was looking for a break/cutoff date in ETK. But the new control arms came at the same time as the new engine - so they use different production codes instead.

Old control arm

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partxref.do?part=31122227249&showus=&showeur=1&series=E36

New control arm

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partxref.do?part=31122228461&showus=&showeur=1&series=E36

It's a bit confusing in ETK, because here in Europe we kept using the S50 engine (but increased the volume a bit) - but in the US you switched over to S52 which is easily seen in ETK.

[clavinZERO]

Slangen... Let me check on that stuff and get back to you. Thanks for making a clear, understandable post.

[Aptyp]

bump for this thread. Should be stickied as well

[Baron87e30]

EDIT Aug. 2011:
This information is also being compiled in conjunction with user Aptyp (Art M.) and put into a new website for easier viewing. In addition to the "Extra Drei" site, mine is in progress and available here: http://www.clavinzero.com/e30-5-lug/

Thank you.

I converted my car to 5-lug in June/July of 2007. I had access to a shop, which made things a lot easier. I also had some help from some R3V members. Cahomey (Aaron), JustinB (Justin) and my uncle were instrumental in completing this project. Oh and my girlfriend helped me bleed the brakes so I could actually drive, hehe. After much research and weighing my options, I took the plunge. About $4500 later, she is a rolling beauty! I went with E36 M3 front and Z3 1.9L rear setups.

The following is a complete list of the parts I acquired for my swap. I am listing most of these items with their part numbers. If I have forgotten anything, I will add it later, and please don’t hesitate to ask anything if you feel I have left it out or if you just need more information. Items that were NOT NEW are listed as “USED” or are included in the “OTHER” section.

WHEELS:
-BMW wheels, Radial Spoke Style 32, 17x7.5 et41(36111091869)
-BMW center caps (36131095361)
-215/40/ZR17 BFGoodrich G-Force Sport tires

SUSPENSION:
-’97 E36 M3 complete strut/brake aseemblies, from brakes to wires to bearing caps (USED)
-’97 Z3 1.9L complete trailing arm assemblies, from calipers to discs to brake lines (USED)
-Ireland Engineering E30/Z3 rear camber/toe adjustments kits (02adjrt + e30adjsf)
-I.E. E30/Z3 rear trailing arm bushings (black), soft (street) urethane (e30rearbush)
-I.E. E30 rear sub-frame bushings (green), urethane (e30urethanerear)
-’97 E36 M3 struts, Bilstein Sport (VE3-A585-H0 + VE3-A586-H0)
-’97 E36 M3 control arms with ball joints (31122228461 + 31122228462)
-’90 E30 Cabriolet rear shock mounts (33521128819)
-’90 E30 rear axle nut lock plates (33411124945)

BRAKES:
-’97 E36 M3 front brake discs, Brembo (34112227171 + 34112227172)
-’97 E36 M3 front brake pads, Hawk HPS
-’97 E36 M3 front brake anti-rattle springs (34112227670)
-‘97 E36 M3 right front brake backing plate
-’97 Z3 1.9L rear brake discs (USED) (34211164399)
-’97 Z3 1.9L rear brake pads, Pagid OEM pads (34216761239)
-’90 E30 parking brake cables (34411158421)

OTHER: items I already had on the car that are relevant to the swap
-E30 offset control arm bushings, urethane
-E30 strut bearing caps/mounts
-E30 Eibach sway-bar kit, 22mm front + 19mm rear, stock links
-E30 I.E. urethane sway-bar bushings
-E30 I.E. rear sway-bar reinforcement kit, bolts through trunk floor
-triangular-style rear sway-bar mount reinforcements, welded to trailing arms

SPECIAL:
-22mm Craftsman socket, ground down to hell to fit into front bearing cap to tighten top strut nut.

ClavinZERO, so I found your website last weekend, and I have a few questions. do you use the strut mounts off the e36m3 or the ones for e30s. also for the rear did you use the z3 and shock mounts and springs spec or e30 mounts and springs spec because i saw h&r springs in a pictures. Anyways awesome write up and I am start to collect pieces for my swap but I want to do a z3m rear

[clavinZERO]

Hello Baron!...

I used stock E30 front strut mounts mated to E36 M3 Bilstein Sport struts. For the rear, I used stock E30 cabriolet rear shock mounts. The rear shocks are E30 325iS fitment Bilstein Sport. The springs are E30 325iS fitment H&R Sport Springs on BOTH front and rear. I hope this clarifies... I will have to go back and make sure this is included in the original posts. Thank you.

To the others waiting on information or clarification, I am still planning on making this happen when I get some time with the car again soon.

As always, thank you all for viewing, adding, questioning and helping with this on-going project!