TI front & rear Sway bars

[ranster]

Some Pix from the installation.
the car handling is more than amazing!

[ranster]

[mohaughn]

I've noticed that a lot of people refer to the 26mm front/16mm rear sway bar setup as the m-tech setup. But according to UUC those sway bars also came on the active model cars. I'm not sure how accurate that is as they have had errors on their webpage before, but something to consider.

If somebody can let me know if that measurement is the circumference of the bar I can go measure mine and report back. I'm assuming it is.

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by mohaughn

I've noticed that a lot of people refer to the 26mm front/16mm rear sway bar setup as the m-tech setup. But according to UUC those sway bars also came on the active model cars. I'm not sure how accurate that is as they have had errors on their webpage before, but something to consider.

If somebody can let me know if that measurement is the circumference of the bar I can go measure mine and report back. I'm assuming it is.

Sports are 26mm diameter front and 16mm rear. These are the same for all year SPORT package (and club sport) 318ti and a nice upgrade to the Base and Active 318ti (25mm and 14mm F/R respectively). That's approximately a +15% front and +40% rear increase in stiffness over stock base/active cars for a nice reduction in body roll and improvement in handling.

[L84THSKY]

When I installed M-tech sway bars in my car, I lined them up side by side prior to installing. Very hard to see the difference in diameter, but then again, 2mm isn't very large to the naked eye.

Since Active models did not have any upgraded suspension work, they would have stock diameters.

Originally Posted by mohaughn

If somebody can let me know if that measurement is the circumference of the bar I can go measure mine and report back. I'm assuming it is.

[mohaughn]

I thought their info didn't seem right. If you go to their webpage and then click on project cars. Then go to the 332Ti page. I think you have to click on Continue Tour at the bottom, then you can select the Suspension page. It basically details what they did to the suspension. They have a chart of the 1995 Ti and M3 sway bars. It says active has the larger bars, they must have meant sport instead of active.

[bucksworld]

95 318ti m42 1.8 made 6/95 why can't i get correct bushings and links. My links are cracked. Any ideas...........where do u go for matching links and bushings? BMW parts dealer is confused. Why do I have rear sway bar measuring 15 millimeters? no clue yet. My parts guy says I have a lowered or sports suspension according to vin# but not M//

[Den]

Originally Posted by DustenT

Sports are 26mm diameter front and 16mm rear. These are the same for all year SPORT package (and club sport) 318ti and a nice upgrade to the Base and Active 318ti (25mm and 14mm F/R respectively). That's approximately a +15% front and +40% rear increase in stiffness over stock base/active cars for a nice reduction in body roll and improvement in handling.

Good info on the different factory bar sizes, but my OCD says the numbers are +17% front and +71% rear for the M-tech/Sport bars.

http://www.kormanfastbmw.com/tantiswa.htm

http://www.kormanfastbmw.com/thandling.htm

[L84THSKY]

I checked your #'s, you are right. I guess OCD can sometimes be useful.

Originally Posted by Den

Good info on the different factory bar sizes, but my OCD says the numbers are +17% front and +71% rear for the M-tech/Sport bars.

http://www.kormanfastbmw.com/tantiswa.htm

http://www.kormanfastbmw.com/thandling.htm

[Den]

Originally Posted by bucksworld

95 318ti m42 1.8 made 6/95 why can't i get correct bushings and links. My links are cracked. Any ideas...........where do u go for matching links and bushings? BMW parts dealer is confused. Why do I have rear sway bar measuring 15 millimeters? no clue yet. My parts guy says I have a lowered or sports suspension according to vin# but not M//

I once had to replace a sway bar bushing on my E28 535is. Got the part at the local dealer in Atlanta. I always remembered this because the M-tech part was $25 and the stock part was $4! Being a cheap bastard, I even tried to install the $4 bushing before buying the $$$ one.(I was not hip to mail order parts at the time.) The $4 bushing was too small. This establised the fact is that my car had an M-tech suspension with a larger front bar from the factory.

A few years later, I was looking into replacing the shocks and kinda wanted to stay with the factory package which had Bilsteins valved to M-tech specs. I had moved to another state, and this local dealer told me that no M-tech suspension was ever offered for the E28.

I came back a few days later with the receipt from the dealer who had sold me the M-tech bushing and had fun asking the guy WTF he thought it could be if there was no M-tech suspension for the E28. Using this part number, he was able to find the E28 M-tech package. Hello!

The factory/M-tech suspension tweaks can get pretty tricky.
Call another dealer or talk to another guy who is less confused at your dealer.

The dealer in Atlanta who knew what was up with my E28 is Global Imports. I'm not sure if they are particularly knowledgeable or if I just got lucky. I'm sure some of the members here can point you towards a dealer who knows what's up.

[windnsea00]

The suspension guru's I know believe in spring rates over sways. Sways will give you a decieving feel of handling better but in reality your not. With my setup I have stock sways, I can already lift my rear inside tire on tight turns...a thicker sway in the rear would make that worse and in the front would add more understeer which is very minimal with -2 camber, 1/8 toe in and +7 1/4 caster.

It's not uncommon for the E30/Z3 guys to run no rear sway on the track or street when backed up with a stiff spring rate.

[316i compact]

Originally Posted by windnsea00

The suspension guru's I know believe in spring rates over sways. Sways will give you a decieving feel of handling better but in reality your not. With my setup I have stock sways, I can already lift my rear inside tire on tight turns...a thicker sway in the rear would make that worse and in the front would add more understeer which is very minimal with -2 camber, 1/8 toe in and +7 1/4 caster.

It's not uncommon for the E30/Z3 guys to run no rear sway on the track or street when backed up with a stiff spring rate.

Then why all the racing cars are using very thick sway bars? Or why the M3 CSL, a factory BMW car, uses a front bar of 30mm instead of the 26mm of the standard M3? My 316i didn't have a sway bar at the rear as stock(only the M Sport had), and i put the 16mm one. Before i do that , the cars handling was very poor. It was agreat improvement.

[windnsea00]

Our rear suspension is TOTALLY different from the E46 in the rear as the E46 is multilink. I was just sharing what it's common to see at the track.

[JedzE36/5]

Originally Posted by windnsea00

The suspension guru's I know believe in spring rates over sways. Sways will give you a decieving feel of handling better but in reality your not. With my setup I have stock sways, I can already lift my rear inside tire on tight turns...a thicker sway in the rear would make that worse and in the front would add more understeer which is very minimal with -2 camber, 1/8 toe in and +7 1/4 caster.

It's not uncommon for the E30/Z3 guys to run no rear sway on the track or street when backed up with a stiff spring rate.

same here. i know 2 hard core club racers where one has extremely high spring rates and the other has more moderate rates with a sway bar. the outcome was pretty much the same. there are many ways to do your suspension to get the same effect.

[weezer]

Originally Posted by Viper3812

Try the racing dynamics sway bars.

Discontinued and Out of stock....