Hi everyone,
I recently acquired my dad's 1990 325i with 375,000 miles and am looking at doing a massive round of maintenance/upgrades to the moving pieces under the car. My dad was always very on top of maintenance in the realm of the engine/body, but seemed to neglect everything sitting under the car. Pretty sure most of everything is original.
I'm looking to OEM/upgrade almost everything, and looking for the best way to do it in terms of being economical and quality. Main points of what I'm looking to do:
-Upgrade suspension: This is my DD and I'd like to aim more towards a nice ride, but also want some amount of handling increase and lowering.
-Replace all bushings/wear items with OEM or equivalent. Dont want poly as this is a DD as noted above. Just want to bring it back to new.
-5 lug swap: I like the choices of 5 lug wheels better and from what I understand this may slightly change my options in terms of suspension and braking upgrades.
So basically I'd love to do all of this at once, and hope that by doing so I can kill several birds with fewer stones. I've done some searching and understand some of the options when looked at individually, but I'm not really sure how they'd all interact as a whole... which is why I'm posting thread.
Currently my thoughts are as such:
-Suspension: H&R sport springs with Billstein or Koni shocks. Unsure how this all works, as I see that the hub and shock housing are one piece in front? Also concerned with what application to buy (e30 or e36 or z3) if the general consenus is that the e36 setup is the best way to go for 5 lug conversion.
-Bushings: I Know I want all rubber and OEM quality, but have questions around buying fully new pieces (like control arms including new bushings/balljoint) in lieu of just the bushings due to the cost/aggrivation of getting them pressed out/in. Also a concern if it's suggested that I need to go e36 CA's. Unsure if I need to worry about swaybar endlinks or if I want to upgrade the swaybars, but open to opinions/suggestions.
-5 lug: Understand there is an option to mish/mash e36 and z3 components to upgrade to 5 lug and larger brakes. Think I've read that this may allow you to move to later model suspension as well? Have also read about custom 5 lug using pieces made by members/vendors on here. Not sure which would be the most cost effective/best performance, especially when considering all the other things I want to do.
Looking for opinions on the whole package with cost, quality, and daily driveability in mind!
I recently acquired my dad's 1990 325i with 375,000 miles and am looking at doing a massive round of maintenance/upgrades to the moving pieces under the car. My dad was always very on top of maintenance in the realm of the engine/body, but seemed to neglect everything sitting under the car. Pretty sure most of everything is original.
I'm looking to OEM/upgrade almost everything, and looking for the best way to do it in terms of being economical and quality. Main points of what I'm looking to do:
-Upgrade suspension: This is my DD and I'd like to aim more towards a nice ride, but also want some amount of handling increase and lowering.
-Replace all bushings/wear items with OEM or equivalent. Dont want poly as this is a DD as noted above. Just want to bring it back to new.
-5 lug swap: I like the choices of 5 lug wheels better and from what I understand this may slightly change my options in terms of suspension and braking upgrades.
So basically I'd love to do all of this at once, and hope that by doing so I can kill several birds with fewer stones. I've done some searching and understand some of the options when looked at individually, but I'm not really sure how they'd all interact as a whole... which is why I'm posting thread.
Currently my thoughts are as such:
-Suspension: H&R sport springs with Billstein or Koni shocks. Unsure how this all works, as I see that the hub and shock housing are one piece in front? Also concerned with what application to buy (e30 or e36 or z3) if the general consenus is that the e36 setup is the best way to go for 5 lug conversion.
-Bushings: I Know I want all rubber and OEM quality, but have questions around buying fully new pieces (like control arms including new bushings/balljoint) in lieu of just the bushings due to the cost/aggrivation of getting them pressed out/in. Also a concern if it's suggested that I need to go e36 CA's. Unsure if I need to worry about swaybar endlinks or if I want to upgrade the swaybars, but open to opinions/suggestions.
-5 lug: Understand there is an option to mish/mash e36 and z3 components to upgrade to 5 lug and larger brakes. Think I've read that this may allow you to move to later model suspension as well? Have also read about custom 5 lug using pieces made by members/vendors on here. Not sure which would be the most cost effective/best performance, especially when considering all the other things I want to do.
Looking for opinions on the whole package with cost, quality, and daily driveability in mind!