Wobz

[Rovert]

Camber doesn't mean tire wear. What kills tires are toe settings because those are the settings that are constantly scrubbing the tires. I find OEM M3 setting is far too aggressive in toe. But I know it's setup for the general population to keep the car very stable feeling. I've dialed out front toe to keep it neutral and just a bit of toe in for the rear to keep that stabilized since the tires are wide. Toe in = stability. Toe out = go-kart handling. Neutral toe in for the front or hardly any hasn't made my car feel like it wants to wander when in highway ruts. I guess the car is heavy enough. Things could change if I'm running wider front tires though.

[slater]

I hope so. My buddy seems to think it's going to take quite a while, about 6-7 hours. Not sure why, but I am with the thinking that we shouldn't rush it, so I'm okay with that.

it depends on who is doing it, and when you've got coilovers... the rear height adjustment process is a bit tedious.

to give you a baseline - this pic is with the 7 visible threads below the front perch lock ring, 4 threads visible below the rear perch (you can easily could the number of threads on the strut body and rear adjuster):

(and regarding alignment - go for max negative camber up front too!)

[az3579]

The coils went in on Saturday. So far I am very pleased with this upgrade. I have accomplished both of my goals, which were:
1) Make the car more comfortable to drive daily
2) Raise the car up a bit for the same reason, and to fit my new summer tires!

I'm not really a pic whore so I don't have much in the way of pics, but here is what I do have.

Some pre-op pics. They suck, I know, but I just wanted to get started and get it over with!











Out with the old:







I took this pic a few days before the coilovers got installed, so it shows a decent reference of ride height with the H&R Race springs and Bilstein Sport shocks. With this configuration, the car is uncomfortable to drive in areas with bad roads, such as everywhere in the Northeast. It was also a decent bit lower, and non-adjustable.




After coilover install. For adjustments, I left the front all the way at the lowest setting, which is odd because the front of the car isn't that low. I don't know why this is, but I'm perfectly okay with this, as this is the ride height I wanted anyway. The rears were adjusted once after we finished the install, and this is about where I want to leave it.





You can see there is more wheel gap now, but to me this is the PERFECT ride height.

Front:



Rear:






Perhaps now my 255/35-18 Michelin PSS' on the BBS' will fit. lol

[fredo]

Looks good, BP !

[slater]

glad you're happy with the suspension. i think you're going to have to raise it more than that to get the rear not to rub. when do you test-fit the 255s?

[az3579]

glad you're happy with the suspension. i think you're going to have to raise it more than that to get the rear not to rub. when do you test-fit the 255s?

I have that feeling too. I'll test fit them when it stops raining. They have forecasted rain every single day this week.

The thing I'm worried about now is that in order to do an alignment, I have to replace a tie rod. I have both ready to go, but still...
Also, my friend who helped install them told me that I'll need camber plates to get a proper alignment on the car. I don't want to go crazy with alignments. Because of my conservative requirements, Derek recommended a -2 degree front, -1 degree rear setup, with 0 degrees toe front and 0.1 degrees rear. Would I be able to achieve these alignment specs without camber plates? I don't want to drop $400 on those plates right now, especially with the track event ever looming.

[slater]

you can get the toe settings, yes. rear camber will be doable if your eccentric camber bolts are in good shape (mine were rusty and awful with actual material missing from the middle of the bolts! i replaced with new).

fronts - you'll be able to get about -1.5deg max without camber plates.

i run -1.25deg up front, -0.75deg in the rear. loved it with the 225's up front - i want a bit more negative camber up front with the 245's - i'm aiming for -1.5deg.

[Vas]

I have -1.5 on the front of Sketchi with the pins still in the upper mounts.

Car is lowered.

If I remove the pins, pretty sure I can get -2.0.

Rear is set at -1.8 and the range is between -1.8 to -2.2 if you want everything to be in the allowed range.

Toe is set to just factory specs. I didn't want 0 toe on the front. Some people like it since it makes the car more twitchy.

[BMWCurves]

Looks good!

[ELCID86]

Looking good Botond.