E30 Suspension Refresh Question

[Coldpasta]

I’m going to be refreshing the suspension of my late model e30 325i and am wondering what all parts y’all recommend? I have a list already and am wondering what else could possibly be needed.

Billstein b8 shocks
IEM sIII springs with front and rear spring insulators/bushing
Front and rear shock mounts
Front and rear adjustable sway bar links
Control arms with lollipops
80a Durometer control arm, rtab, trans, and subframe bushings

An upgraded sway bar for front and rear is just a little too much money and is getting increasingly hard to find. Besides that what else am I forgetting?

[It's Soda Not Pop]

Order all the bushings and mounts. Except for the front control arms just order new arms. Do your inner and outer tie rods. I used condorspeedshop for my bushings (delrin). I went solid but if don't want things hard mounted and you some play in your bushings, either go soft poly or oe rubber.

There are a handful of companies that sell kits. Garagistics, Condorspeedshop, VAC, Powerflex, Revshift, FCP Euro, ETC.

[moatilliatta]

AKG bushings.

[roguetoaster]

Diff mount bushing, bolts for the lolipops, new dust caps for the new front strut mounts if yours are still original, shock bump stops and sway bar bushings.

Skip the adjustable bar links.

[J Holmes]

You will also need spring compressor tool. You can rent these from local auto parts store. A bench / table top vice is helpful. 21mm and 19mm ratcheting wrench is helpful. Get the lolipops with bushing pre-pressed in them. Saves some head ache. We chose to do new power steering lines while we were in there too one was leaking and figured it was time. Got all of ours from mix of Bimmer World, ECS Tuning and FCP Euro. At the end of Covid when supply chain so still crazy. Good luck.

[RossfromAZ]

Pull-up RealOEM and order new hardware (bolts, nuts, etc.,) – the current stuff is almost guaranteed to be in rough shape.

[It's Soda Not Pop]

Pull-up RealOEM and order new hardware (bolts, nuts, etc.,) – the current stuff is almost guaranteed to be in rough shape.

CATuned has all new zinc plated hardware for everything

[MasukBMW]

Here's a plug for standard stiffness replacement bushings. I did mine all delrin and regretted it due to stiffness (I daily'd the car). I drove a friends on stock replacements, much more enjoyable. Fresh stock versus 35 year old is a major improvement. Just consider what the car will be used for

[roguetoaster]

Here's a plug for standard stiffness replacement bushings. I did mine all delrin and regretted it due to stiffness (I daily'd the car). I drove a friends on stock replacements, much more enjoyable. Fresh stock versus 35 year old is a major improvement. Just consider what the car will be used for

Agree. A street driven E30 seems to work much better with a softer suspension rather than a bouncy one, especially with modest/stock type power output. It's also a lot more forgiving while still being playful enough to enjoy.

[TobyB]

Agree for stock everything except the trailing arm bushings. I like the nylon in there better. The rear end's less vague.
But I also think the B8 is a very harsh shock. Too much high speed compression damping relative to everything else.

t
has opinions, but no filters.

[digger]

any good quality offset CABs that are a small step up from the OE solid ones? not look for hard as a rock but something a step up in stiffness that will last. i know that garagtastic is to be avoided but are there good quality ones? e.g AKG, powerflex?

[Ritzace]

I would also like to know peoples thoughts on oem rubber vs soft poly, I've had some condor bushings in my ix and it was too much NVH.