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Ron Stygar Carl Buckland Dale Beuning Forums Help
From digest.v5.n128 Tue Aug 20 09:47:49 1996 Friends, Like many of you out there with E36 M3s, I had to do something about this car's understeering characteristic. (Opinion time: I think BMW let the marketing and legal folks work a little too late one night when they were setting front spring and strut damping rates on the '95 model...) Anyhow, based on comments made about the H&Rs and Eibachs, I purchased and installed a set of H&Rs. I found that the 13% increase in rear spring rate (335# to 380#), 74% increase in front working spring rate (115# to 200#), and lowered ride height effectively eliminated the understeer. Now I don't have to work hard to keep up with this black four door Jetta that I occasionally meet on my Sunday morning drive to the beach! Nonetheless, I was not pleased that -- for me -- the rear springs lowered the car too much, and felt like there was a weight shift to the rear when cornering. (I'm sure these H&R springs are just right for the performance objective they were seeking, this is just about my preference.) With the stock springs, it felt like the weight shifted to the front when cornering. On my previous car I was easily able to achieve a near perfect front/rear weight shift balance (what is the physical explanation and correct terminology for this???) by running the securing nut up or down the bolts as needed that linked the two spring ends to the wheels. But, alas, there's no plastic mono-spring on the M3. Roland Graef at H&R Springs mentioned that there's different thickness upper rear spring pads available from BMW, and I can use them to "tune" the rear height and handling to my preference. A call to the nearest dealer revealed they're available in 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 mm thicknesses. My car (10/94 production) had 5 mm pads as original equipment. I replaced the 5 with a 10, then added one then another (total of 3) to the rear. The second and third had to have the center cut out to fit over the first. Although I haven't arrived at the "perfect" height and front/rear weight shift balance (balance being most important), I'm getting close. Using these pads is the solution I was looking for! I wanted to pass this spring pad related information along to others just in case it might be helpful. Cheers!
Michael Wylie P.S. A friend graciously allowed me to drive his new 528i. I sure would feel good having my family in this car, it feels secure, massive, and responsive! |
