sanity check suspension overhaul parts list - late 318is

[dullrot]

It suddenly struck me that I hadn't yet spotted the front sway bar on this car. And for good effin reason - there isn't one. No brackets in the control arms, no endlinks, no sway bar, no sway bushings. And the drive side tab on the subframe is broken off. The shop that "fixed" the car back in the 90's must have just pitched it. Wow.

So yeah, not putting off sways anymore.

Just sprung for the garagistic weld on front strut endlink tabs, and rear endlink mount supports. Also the front subframe sway mount ears - which on the driver side won't be reinforcing so much as restoring a mount point that's gone. So then I'll need swaybars, and front/rear endlinks - e30 m3 front endlinks I guess.

Seems like the UUC bars are the favored ones these days, and seem to come with all the stuff needed to install - bushings, endlinks, even reinforcements.

Question is, should I order their e30 m3 kit, or should I be buying their standard e30 front + rear kits and sourcing different front endlinks. I guess the answer depends on whether the e30 m3 sway setup is the same as the standard e30's apart from the front endlinks.

[Rmlr]

Gotcha. UUC was doing 15% off and free shipping today, so I bought their kit, was $47 shipped. With the reinforcement plates included I should be ok.

I got some other advice from a BMWCCA guy that a front shock tower brace has such an effect that without it, the dashboard is more likely to crack, so I also picked up one of the $50 ebay specials.



If it's shit I'll weld up some sort of reinforcement like I did with my MX5's bars.

Looks like I can get the f/r wheel bearing parts needed for about $125 total, so I think I'll go ahead and do those as well.

How was the quality on these ebay tower brace? I am planning on gettin these. The mounts are steel with the a aluminium tie bar

[e30_302]

If you want to try a stock front bar with the M3 strut mounting first you can have mine, just have to come get it (don't know where you are in VA). With the M3 style mounting it raises the effective rate of the bar significantly.

[dullrot]

it's not super high quality but looks like it will get the job done. I have a habit of augmenting these braces by triangulating them to the firewall.

Big delay in my build, half because I had to get the mx5 back online to enjoy the nice weather, but mostly because the rear subframe/bushings took ages to get out.

Also waiting on UUC for the m3 f/r sway/links kit. Been 6 weeks now, not pleased. Contacted them three weeks ago and they said they were waiting for endlinks. Nothing since, no response to email a few days ago.

[Lee22]

dullrot
did you ever modify anything in the rear when you installed the RSM's? i have some JT designs RSM's left over from my E46 M3 and want to install them but wasn't sure if i should reinforce anything that would be associated

.

[dullrot]

I have thick steel reinforcement plates, I believe they are just meant to sandwich the unibody steel and the shock mount. They could weld in, which I may do, but I'm not sure it would make that much difference vs. bolting.