E30 Suspension and Tie Rod Replacement and Tips

A friend of mine recently purchased a clean 1991 BMW 318i sedan, the one year wonder with the M42 16v engine, to serve as his daily driver. Despite being well maintained by its previous owner, this rare E30 sedan did have 130k on the odometer, and was in dire need of some suspension and steering work. The car was just loose and sloppy to drive. A 2500 lb, 138 hp bare bones car like this has the potential to handle like the vaunted E30 M3, given the proper upgrades, but we were just looking to make it fun to drive on the street, without destroying any semblance of ride quality OR dropping thousands of dollars on coilovers, spherical bushings etc. This car is a commuter at this point, no a track car or autocross contender (though he intends to try his hand at autocross with the 318i) We determined that we'd replace the following items: shocks and strut inserts. A pair of used rear Bilstein HD (heavy duty's) were found on ebay, and a set of low mileage used Bilstein HD front strut inserts were found on a popular BMW E30-oriented message board. Unfortunately, it seems that the M42 318i and 318is use a larger diameter insert than the earlier four and six cylinder cars, so we ended up buying new correct-application Bilstein HDs from Bavarian Autosport. The used rear shocks fit fine, and appeared to have plenty of life remaining. The price was right, too. Tie Rods. OEM BMW style tie rods were purchased online for much less than the local dealership wanted. Again, make sure you order rods specific to the M42 E30 cars, because there are multiple E30 3 series tie rod part numbers, and others will not fit. When replacing the tie rods, tighten the inner (rack) side first, the adjust runout to approximately match the just-removed one. This way, your car's alignment won't be too far off upon completion. Make sure you get it aligned anyways, however. Control Arms, Ball Joints, and Bushings. New OEM control arms with inner and outer (aka upper and lower) ball joints, plus E30 M3 offset control arm bushings. Tip: If you are replacing control arms and don't want to deal with pressing out the old bushings from the control arm 'lollipops', find a pair of sprare lollipops (from a salvage yard, online parts source etc) and use palmolive dish soap to grease the inside of them. This enables you to use a large mallet to pound the new bushings in yourself, saving you $50 at the local machine shop (then again, it's a wash when you factor in the cost of the spare lollipops, but it does save you downtime). We ran into a nightmare on Bill's E30, when trying to remove the passenger side inner ball joint nut. There is very little clearance between the engine mount, headers, and frame crossmember. We had to remove the front sway bar (and in the process made a mental note to replace the sway bar end links and bushings in the future) to be able to get the 7/8 or 22mm wrench on the nut. Unfortunately, the nut became frozen roughly halfway, and we needed a hacksaw with High Speed Steel blade to saw through the tapered bolt, in order to get the ball joint and control arm out. Not fun lying on a cold driveway in November, sawing away with very short strokes! Rear shock mounts These are inexpensive and sort of a 'while-you-are-at-it' replacement. Springs The stock springs were tossed in favor of H&R's newer OEM-style sport springs, which do not lower the car much and do not throw ride quality away, while still offer better springs rates than stock. With daily driver status, and rough pavement around here, these were the best option. You will need a spring compressor to assemble the front strut/spring assembly. Replacing the rear springs on trailing arm suspension E30 BMWs is easy. Remove the trailing arm end links and rear shocks. Have someone stand on the brake assembly or trailing arm to push it down, and pull the old springs out. Make sure you reinstall the rubber spring 'hat' on the new springs. The performance difference this all added up to was impressive. Despite the little 318i still being handicapped by 14" steel wheels and Mastercraft Mud and Snow (M+S_ tires, there is a night and day difference not only in body roll, damping rates, and response, but the fun to drive factor is through the roof. The 16 year old car feels much tighter than it has any right to be. I anticipate that the springtime planned addition of plus one or plus two wheels and aggressive stickier tires will really transform this humble looking E30 sedan.