E30 M3 struts bolt in to regular E30?

[burkey001]

Hi, stupid question I can't seem to find a definitive answer on.

I am having some MCS coilovers made and have the option of using E30 M3 struts to give me the option to adjust roll centre, using Massive/VAC spacers, rather than the fixed E30 regular strut.

Questions are,

a) All things remaining 'regular E30' in the front suspension do E30 M3 struts bolt in?
b) Do they change geometry (roll centre aside). i.e. do they push the track out further vis a vis a regular strut or anything like that?


If not, what else do I need to change?
I already have a front strut bar that mounts the "M3 way" so that is taken care of


thank you

burkey

[golde30]

they change the mounting point for the sway bar to the strut tube.

But most importantly, if you were to swap stock for stock there would be alot of positive camber when running m3 strut tubes. this however is a non issue if you are running camber plates. Other than that, they bolt straight on.

[acolella76]

The brakes and hub are different, not sure if you already knew that or not but it doesn't hurt to mention. The M3 does have an offset control arm bushing for added caster, but I don't think it's necessary in order to use M struts on a non-M. Didn't know about the loss of camber.

[burkey001]

The brakes and hub are different,

Well that's a kick in the teeth given my SL6R brake setup. Guess it's regular E30 struts for me. Thanks AColella, you've been helpful here. I'm dealing with your boss Jerome through the local distributor here.


That's all a bit too hard, too invested in the standard E30 architecture, standard it shall continue to be

thank you

[LJ851]

But most importantly, if you were to swap stock for stock there would be alot of positive camber when running m3 strut tubes.

Explain.

Same control arm geometry and mounting positions (offset bush on M3 of course), pretty sure the same inner fenders where the strut top mounts, what causes the camber change?

[dsm2002]

Well that's a kick in the teeth given my SL6R brake setup. Guess it's regular E30 struts for me. Thanks AColella, you've been helpful here. I'm dealing with your boss Jerome through the local distributor here.


That's all a bit too hard, too invested in the standard E30 architecture, standard it shall continue to be

thank you

Have you got Lee's brakes? You could always use the SL6R set up with the M3 setup but you'd have to get some brake bells made to match, and maybe modify the caliper brackets. Maybe from Lee.

[golde30]

Explain.

Same control arm geometry and mounting positions (offset bush on M3 of course), pretty sure the same inner fenders where the strut top mounts, what causes the camber change?

Don't know the reason, I just know that's how it was on my swap, as well as the 3 other people I talked to when I was doing the swap. It has to be either different tower shape, or different angle on the knuckle.

[Northern]

Well that's a kick in the teeth given my SL6R brake setup. Guess it's regular E30 struts for me. Thanks AColella, you've been helpful here. I'm dealing with your boss Jerome through the local distributor here.


That's all a bit too hard, too invested in the standard E30 architecture, standard it shall continue to be

thank you

You should just need a 5-lug rotor hat to fit the m3, and as long as it sets the rotor at the proper depth for where the SL6R sits you should be fine (ie a hat from wherever your kit is from probably works without new caliper adapters)