what's normal tire wear?

[Doby]

All of the spring rates from all of the major brand names (H&R, Eibach, etc) are fine... it's the lack of length that's a problem. :-p For any car that's going to be track a lot something along the lines of coilovers would be a better idea, but for a street car on street tires used for some tracking, a simple off the shelf Eibach or H&R would be fine.

And to coilbind an off the shelf spring means that the car didn't have the correct bump stops on the shocks, or the shocks were too short.

But to get back to the original question. I would suggest all new shocks and RTAB's. Maybe look into new front control arms and LCA bushing in the future. While doing shocks, if you ever plan on lowering the car, then new springs would be a good idea. A lot of people think that the springs on the cars never go bad, but they do. If you notice how low some cars sit, that's because of the springs being old. 3200lbs sitting on springs will wear them out.

I helped align a car with the new Bilstein BTS kit on it and I was very impressed. I think you can find the kit online for under $700 and it's a matched set of shocks and springs. The drop was perfect and the car rode great for a street car.

[OwnedbyDuncan]

Wrong on an E30 coil bind was a spring problem and not a shock or bump stop problem. And occured in several after market suppliers springs. Just buying an off the shelf spring or a spring and shock kit does not guarantee that the combo will work. Many after market springs and spring/shock kits are sold simply to lower the car and close that gap between the tire and the fender. Eibachs Prokits are a good example of this.
I will say again do you research. Many of these springs even in kits sold by reputable companies have spring rates the same or softer than stock. Make sure you have the right shock for your application. IE for an E30 Bilstein SPorts for shorter and stiffer springs.

[Doby]

Ah, ok, so you're talking E30's while the thread was about E36's. Sorry for my confusion since the orginal poster was asking about his E36.

The Eibachs and H&R springs for E36's have higher rates then the stock E36 springs. To coildbind an E36 means exactly what I stated above.

[dsames]

Just to confuse matters a bit more, perhaps, I was talking about an E46 - note the '99 328i designation. Should have been more clear on my part. As far as I can tell (from the bilstein site, anyway) they don't provide a BTS for the E46.

Thanks,

Dave

[Doby]

Awesome, a 3rd model year. The E46 rear suspension is similar to the E36.

[OwnedbyDuncan]

For an E46 I would go with E46 M3 springs, Bilstein shocks(HD) and sway bars. For the sway bars go with adjustability over size(stay small rather than larger on the bars). While the suspension is a part replace the shock bushings and control arm busings etc. Not sure with an E46 if Bilstein Sport and HD are valved the same like on some other BMW models. You should be able to get a set of M3 low mileage take off springs cheap. Do all the work at once saves on labor and alignments. You may want have the front lower control arms replaced at the same time. You could go with BMW M3 sway bars. Make sure whoever is installing all this knows what they are doing. Know several individuals who had similar work done on a variety of cars where the mechanic preloaded the suspension. Was not fun chasing this.

[SharkD]

You could always try flipping the tires on the rim and then swapping RR x LR, FR x FL...

If you want to be religious about it, do it every 6,000 miles (or 3k if you track it on street tires).

BTW, don't feel too bad, my e24 has almost chewed to the wear bars on the insides of my rear AVS ES100's in less than 9,000 miles -- but that's mainly due to A) weight, b) high torque + an LSD, and c) the (intentional) negative camber I've dialed-in.

[AlfaEric]

BTW, don't feel too bad, my e24 has almost chewed to the wear bars on the insides of my rear AVS ES100's in less than 9,000 miles -- but that's mainly due to A) weight, b) high torque + an LSD, and c) the (intentional) negative camber I've dialed-in.

Be happy. I've got plenty of negative camber yet I'm wearing out the outside of my ES100's. The only solutions that were offered to me were to go to -4 (for street!?!?) or stop driving like an idiot.

---Eric

[dsames]

I was curious about the RTAB - could that also be referred to as the Rear Trailing Arm Toe Bushing? Or, is it something else? I'll have to consult my manual when I get home, but was curious about the terminology.

Thanks,

Dave