Control Arm Swap Questions

[hteverow]

Hi All--

I'm a new member of the E30 community, having recently acquired a 1993 Laguna Green 318iT. I've been reading about how you can swap various E36 and E46 control arms onto an E30 to give more steering angle, more track width, more camber, and more caster. I'm wondering if someone can provide me with some more details about this stuff.

I'm curious about someone installing the E46 control arms onto an E30, giving it increased front track width, but how do people increase the track width at the rear? Spacers? Or is there something with the rear suspension that gets modified from stock?

I'm also curious if there's a control arm upgrade for the E30 that retains stock geometry / track widths while reducing weight and increasing reliability--I know the E30 M3 control arms are lightweight aluminum vs the regular steel stuff used on the other arms, but are the Lemforder ones or the Meyle HD ones a little more durable than OEM, and a little lighter weight? I know they're supposed to be more reliable on the E46 chassis because of the ball joint being a little sturdier, not sure if that was an issue with the E30s, though.

Thanks for the info!

HT

[roguetoaster]

What are you actually looking to achieve?

[hteverow]

I'm looking to keep this a lightweight, not-super-grippy street car built for a blend of performance and comfort. I am hesitant about creating too much of a wider track, because at a certain point, too much grip ceases to be much fun, but some amount more width in the track would improve the stance of the car. I'm curious by how much the E46 FCAs increase the track width of the car, relative to the E36 FCAs and the stock E30s.

[Northern]

I don't think you need to worry about too much grip, I think the E46 arms are going to hurt that. Having like 6-7 degrees of camber and way less caster can't help?
There are some extreme offset CABs out there to try to gain caster back, and some camber plates will let you remove some of the camber/add caster, but E46 arms seem like shooting yourself in the foot.
TBH there are a lot of better options - adjustable control arms, bump steer/roll center correction kits from SLR or MRT, wheel spacers, lower offset wheels, etc.

If you really want to do this, there are some rear hubs that are wider. Most will be 5-lug, full trailing arm swap from a Z3 or Z3M, I think some e36 hubs might add some width but then figuring out rotor/caliper combo might be difficult.
For 4-lug, 325ix hubs/rotors would give ~10mm and retain stock calipers.