14 years - 1991 325ix, Stroker/5-Speed (N52 swap?)

[nando]

there's no reason to run different front and rear tires. the amount of understeer left in a well setup ix isn't enough to cause any issues. it's not a fiero. :p

whatever minimal amount I couldn't dial out with suspension I could alter with tire pressures. camber and roll stiffness are going to help the most. as far as front heaviness, it's not really that front heavy - it's still really close to 50/50 (52/48 or something like that). it's not an audi either.

I kept a log of my tire temps that I took with a pyrometer. if you are overheating the outside edges of your front tires then the car will understeer. the most obvious way to fix that is more camber, caster, and more roll stiffness. more tire pressure up front helps too, I typically ran 50/30 psi with the hoosier A6s. on regular tires the delta is smaller but I still typically ran more up front than in the rear. but if you can get the front tires to heat evenly there's really no issue. with a bit more power the car will throttle steer too.

to be honest all you're going to do is reduce the car's overall grip and make snap oversteer more likely. I still got heat into the rear tires it just took longer to happen.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I've always found that cars come with a touch of understeer from the factory, and I've felt that specifically with the iX since I've had my suspension on. I'm thinking that the bigger rear sway will help tighten up the back end and correct the understeer. I also did a solid diff bushing and poly trailing arm bushings to combat the same issue, so we shall see how it works out.

You can't fight physics. The physics is that the front end is heavier, the front contact pressure is higher than the rear and the front tires will slide first.

The iX is more front heavy than other E30's AND loads the front tires with drive torque. The only way to eliminate understeer is to give it a bulldog stance with significantly wider front tires than rears... and then you're still at the mercy of the camber challenged front suspension.

Fieros are similar, but the other direction... 45/55 weight distribution with square tire fitment from the factory. It tended to oversteer, so GM used a big front bar to try to make it "safe" with understeer. They just succeeded in making it snap oversteer. It is possible to upgrade a Fiero with a square tire fitment and have it handle ok up to the limit, but once it starts to slide, it's back to physics and oversteer... which means that it's basically unrecoverable once you push just a smidge too hard.

The only way to get it right is to dramatically widen the rear tires and stiffen the rear suspension. I'm running 205's with stock springs, softer than stock bar and Konis front, but I have 245's with 325# springs and Konis rear. The stock rear spring rate is ~190. It's pretty darn neutral and easy to recover from a slide. A rear bar actually makes it harder to drive.

I also did a mild job on my Pontiac 6000 AWD. With Koni struts, minivan springs, 16x8 wheels and 245/50's on the front and 16x7 wheels with 205/60's on the rear, it was close to neutral, yet had 60/40 weight distribution. It had an open (but lockable) center diff, so minute variations in tire size didn't bother it.

Not sure if we can get close enough to the same diameter front/rear to have a differential fitment not hurt the VC in an iX.

Edit: 225/50's and 205/55's should be close enough to the same diameter to work.

[AWDBOB]

the quality is fantastic though - and also the only game in town for the ix, unless you want to lose a couple inches of travel.

the bearings for the springs are these crazy German made UHMW Polyethene doughnut shaped things that don't actually have moving parts (no rollers, balls, needles, etc). UHMW is a super tough material and it's almost as slippery as Teflon - we use it in industry all the time for things that last 50+ years out in the elements.

I guess that's cool and all ;) At least you're getting a good product for your money.

They will definitely happen before tires and final alignment.

[nando]

the quality is fantastic though - and also the only game in town for the ix, unless you want to lose a couple inches of travel.

the bearings for the springs are these crazy German made UHMW Polyethene doughnut shaped things that don't actually have moving parts (no rollers, balls, needles, etc). UHMW is a super tough material and it's almost as slippery as Teflon - we use it in industry all the time for things that last 50+ years out in the elements.

[AWDBOB]

there will always be a touch of understeer on an ix - I've gone down that road too, and you don't want to eliminate all of it. do you already have camber plates? the biggest issue is overheating the outsides of the front tires (due to lack of camber). otherwise, if you eliminate all of the natural understeer the car will be very twitchy at the limit and prone to snap oversteer.

Other than maxing out front camber the solution is to adjust your driving line and just accept that you will have a little understeer - the trade off is you can be back on power much sooner and get away with a lot of stuff the RWD cars can't.

yeah, they're 225/50 R888s. I got this set in 2012, from 2009-2011 I ran 235/50 R888s. I like the 225s better.

Gotchya, duly noted. I already have the rear sway so I'm going to run it and see how it feels.

And nope, haven't picked up the camber plates. They're like 3x more than I could ever see myself paying for camber plates. My Ohlins plates for the Evo ($4500 coilovers) were only $130ea, so I find it kind of ridiculous that GC wants $400 for them.

And sweet. I think I'm going to stuff a 225/50 r888 on my weaves this time around and see how they work out!

[nando]

there will always be a touch of understeer on an ix - I've gone down that road too, and you don't want to eliminate all of it. do you already have camber plates? the biggest issue is overheating the outsides of the front tires (due to lack of camber). otherwise, if you eliminate all of the natural understeer the car will be very twitchy at the limit and prone to snap oversteer.

Other than maxing out front camber the solution is to adjust your driving line and just accept that you will have a little understeer - the trade off is you can be back on power much sooner and get away with a lot of stuff the RWD cars can't.

yeah, they're 225/50 R888s. I got this set in 2012, from 2009-2011 I ran 235/50 R888s. I like the 225s better.

[AWDBOB]

Measure from the center of your wheel straight up to the fender lip/flare. then we will know. :)

I've had hit or miss luck with boots. I know a lot of them have gone bad from my exhaust. it's almost always the passenger inner boot that goes bad. this time both inners were bad and one outter, but the driver's inner had tens of thousands of miles on it, and I know for a fact the otter that went bad was from a track day I did in 2009. The hubs were crazy hot from braking, I think something like 800f (I had a pyrometer and wrote it down somewhere). melted the boot a bit but it didn't start spraying grease badly until now.

what I really want to do is make a heat shield for the passenger side, although ceramic coating on my headers helped a lot. the drivers outter is still fine and has hardly any wear, I think I did that one in 2006. oh yeah, these shafts have over 300,000 miles on them and have never been rebuilt.. still pretty tight. 80,000 miles have been lowered. :)

I'm not really sure you need the upgraded rear bar. my honest opinion is to leave it alone, or upgrade both.

I drove around for months with no front swaybar (I took it off to test fit the E46 bar, which hasn't quite worked yet). At first I couldn't really tell a difference, but then I put it back on. the response and cornering is a lot better, I'd never go to no front bar again. I feel like the larger sway bar in the rear with a stock front would have a similar effect.

With all the different setups I've had, I always felt that the balance of the stock swaybars are honestly about right. The only improvement that makes sense to me is to uprate both ends. I still want to finish that project and maybe put some kits together but that won't be until later this year.

I have a spare set of axles I want to send out, thanks for the tip. My CV grease days are over I think, lol. Funny how that changes - I used to have way more free time than I had money, and now I can buy whatever parts I want but I don't have the time to put them on my car..

I shall do just that (measure) later on today! And it really is hard to tell with these damn boots. When you install them do you leave a little extra slack for the added angle they're at from being lowered? The ones on the axles I just put on were pretty tight without much give, and I'm thinking that's what may have caused it.

I've always found that cars come with a touch of understeer from the factory, and I've felt that specifically with the iX since I've had my suspension on. I'm thinking that the bigger rear sway will help tighten up the back end and correct the understeer. I also did a solid diff bushing and poly trailing arm bushings to combat the same issue, so we shall see how it works out.

That is funny. It seems that in the stage I'm in I don't have the time or money

Edit: In the picture on the previous page, are you on 225/50 R888s?

[nando]

Measure from the center of your wheel straight up to the fender lip/flare. then we will know. :)

I've had hit or miss luck with boots. I know a lot of them have gone bad from my exhaust. it's almost always the passenger inner boot that goes bad. this time both inners were bad and one outter, but the driver's inner had tens of thousands of miles on it, and I know for a fact the otter that went bad was from a track day I did in 2009. The hubs were crazy hot from braking, I think something like 800f (I had a pyrometer and wrote it down somewhere). melted the boot a bit but it didn't start spraying grease badly until now.

what I really want to do is make a heat shield for the passenger side, although ceramic coating on my headers helped a lot. the drivers outter is still fine and has hardly any wear, I think I did that one in 2006. oh yeah, these shafts have over 300,000 miles on them and have never been rebuilt.. still pretty tight. 80,000 miles have been lowered. :)

I'm not really sure you need the upgraded rear bar. my honest opinion is to leave it alone, or upgrade both.

I drove around for months with no front swaybar (I took it off to test fit the E46 bar, which hasn't quite worked yet). At first I couldn't really tell a difference, but then I put it back on. the response and cornering is a lot better, I'd never go to no front bar again. I feel like the larger sway bar in the rear with a stock front would have a similar effect.

With all the different setups I've had, I always felt that the balance of the stock swaybars are honestly about right. The only improvement that makes sense to me is to uprate both ends. I still want to finish that project and maybe put some kits together but that won't be until later this year.

I have a spare set of axles I want to send out, thanks for the tip. My CV grease days are over I think, lol. Funny how that changes - I used to have way more free time than I had money, and now I can buy whatever parts I want but I don't have the time to put them on my car..

[AWDBOB]

Glad you like the Konis, man!

You're definitely at the same ride height as me. I'm still wondering if I'm going to fry another set of boots if I throw my new axles on without raising my car up.

Also, hit up Axle Express in Schenectady, NY. They rebuild axles for $50/axle, boots included. They just did two sets of fronts for me.

I just got all poly bushings and a 19mm rear sway so I will let you know how the car feels after I throw that stuff on.

[DER E30]

Sweet! I love my Koni/GC :up:

[tinkerputzer]

Hooray glad to hear! Now to get a fresh set of r888's on there :)

[nando]

Yeah, i think next is recovered seats and heated elements, then she might even like it. :p

[LJ851]

Good news!

Now maybe your wife will ride in the car, lol.

[nando]

WOW.. this is what I wanted originally when I put in the Bilsteins. the car was so overdampened, it's not even funny. It drives like a regular car now - there are spots on certain roads that were so harsh it literally made it feel like my heart was going to jump out of my nose. Same roads with the Konis (fronts at full soft, rears at 1 full turn) I don't even notice those same spots, you could even say it was comfortable (yeah, it's still stiff - this isn't a buick - but I wouldn't be embarrassed to have strangers in my car, and I really was before).

My only regret is not doing it sooner, or even more so, that I'd gone with Konis like I wanted to in the first place. I think I could go down to 1/2 turn in the rear, but it's pretty good as is. I'll probably leave it for a while and mess with it later.

I had ideas of swapping spring rates, swaybars, etc. but I don't think I need to.. the car handles now like I'd expect it to (even better now that it's not throwing me around like eggs in a blender), I think I'm at a point where I don't want to F with it.

I have a little under 4" of travel:


redid the CV boots.. I think I'm just going to send them out next time. I'm getting old, it's just not worth it to me to stay up until 12am and getting myself covered in CV grease:


it's so much better I actually want to drive it again.. how refreshing! I made some excuses to run some "errands".

[ForcedFirebird]

Plus...have a 14hr race to attend at Daytona with 2 cars later this month, perhaps we will call this "conditioning" ROFL.