Quick Answer Needed, E36 front arms onto E30?

[DmcL]

need to know if i can use an E36 front control arm on my E30. have a bad ball joint on one of the arms on the car and i dint want to pay a buttload for a new E30 arm and the only second hand ones are not local. there are plenty of E36's in the local yard so im thinking i could fit an arm from an E36... will it alter any of the geometry on that side? looks the same to me but havent done a side by side comparison.

[lifeiskaos]

definitely dont use one side from an e30 and one side from an e36. that is a bad idea. i do not know how bad it would be if you used two e36 control arms, but i'd definitely recommend just replacing them with e30 control arms......

[z31maniac]

$90 is a boatload of cash?

[Dominic49]

definitely dont use one side from an e30 and one side from an e36. that is a bad idea. i do not know how bad it would be if you used two e36 control arms, but i'd definitely recommend just replacing them with e30 control arms......

as long as its a pre 96 control arm from any 3 series your ok

[whiltebeitel]

Because I'm curious, what's wrong with the '96-'99 Front control arms on an e30?

[jamiholzbach]

Stick with E30 parts

The E36 balljoints are weak, the fix for e36's is to use E30 balljoints.

[motorsports_3]

Wow so swapping in e36 control arms works perfect? It doesnt mess with the suspension geometry?

[NC325iC]

they are the same up until 96 when m3s had caster offset built into the arm instead of the bushing

[chau]

I'm not sure about e36 control arms. I heard they were the same. e36 control arm bushings definitely work and they're cheaper than e30 bushings

[Hellabad]

e30 control arms don't necessarily have stronger ball joints, they have BETTER ball joints that are stronger. Don't use the regular e36 front control arms on anything.

95 M3 or 96-99 M3 is what you could use from an e36 , but you won't find those in a junkyard.

[motorsports_3]

But in theory an aftermarket one should be the same, correct?

[chau]

they probably are the same. You can get the balljoints from Napa if you dont want to replace the whole arm.

[motorsports_3]

Yeah im pretty sure that the company making the after market ones, arent going to change them between the models. Plus I am getting the e36 ones for free, so I will try them out. :)

[Chris F.]

I discussed this with Bimmerworld the other week, since I'm looking to upgrade the control arms on my track car and don't want to shell out for another set of E30 M3 aluminum arms.

You can replace the E30 arms with the regular 3 series E36 arm or the 95 M3 arms and retain the same suspension geometery. The Mehle Heavy Duty e36 3 series arms have an stronger ball joint similar to the 95 M3 arms, for about $10 more than regular E30 arms.

If you have a regular, non offset control arm bushing, you can use the 96-99 M3 arms and achieve the effect of having the offset bushings.

Since I already have the offset bushings (though may upgrade to the THR lollipops), I'm going with the Mehle HD arms.

Hope that helps,
Chris

[kishg]

Chris is right although there won't be a cost savings over regular e30 arms which seems to be what the OP is looking for.