 » Site Navigation | | | | » Recent Threads | | | |  |  |  |  06-11-2009, 05:41 PM | #1 | | Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: North Bay, Northern California Posts: 251 |  getting coilovers tomorrow
I am going to do installation my self...I am no professional mechanic but I am very mechanically inclined...since owning the ti I've installed starter, tierods, clutch, guibo, brakes (million times) a few other things I can't remember at the moment.
My question is what if there are any special odd ball tools I will need, clutch job got put on hold or 2 weeks while I found an alignment tool...Tie rods got put on hold for a few days while I found a suitable "wrench thingy"
Oh and are there any tricky wierd processes I should look out for. I will be doing a lot of homework on this as I always do but I don't mind reading the same thing twice...
Thanks in advanced, you all generally give great advice I love to hear from you all. 318ti people I love you all you all have great information this is a great community. I have learned a lot, saved a lot from all of your information. Thanks again |  |  | | 06-11-2009, 05:58 PM | #2 | | Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Raleigh/Charlotte, NC Posts: 1,233 |
uhh what brand coil overs are you installing.
If its some el-cheapo brand your better off not installing them. __________________ -Jeff
 | | | | | 06-11-2009, 06:17 PM | #3 | | Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 2,525 |
Completely jack up the front of the car, remove the tires from both sides before starting, and disconnect the sway bar from the control arms. Complete both sides, reconnect the sway bar, put your wheels back on...
Use jack stands, always for safety, and you can use your jack to help support the control arm and strut when everything is disconnected. I use smaller jackstands under the strut when I need to support them in a certain spot. Also have some rope or plastic covered wire to support the brakes when you have the struts out. Don't let the calipers hang on the brake lines or wires as you could mess up an end connector. Put a stand under the strut mounting point, and tie the caliper up through the strut housing and you can leave all of the brake components in place.
If you only jack up one side or if you leave the sway bar connected you can end up transferring forces around the car making it hard to line up the strut.
How are your control arms? | | | | | 06-24-2009, 07:47 PM | #6 | | NOBODY F's with the Jesus Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ventura California Posts: 7,824 |
Quote: Originally Posted by aznlonewolf135  | They don't need to be disconnected. I've swapped out suspension on these cars dozens of times and never had to disconnect the sway bar or control arms. When doing the rears, make sure the ebrake is disengaged. This will allow the rear trailing arms to drop further and enable you to get the old springs out. remove the bolt from the bottom of the rear shock, and remove the nut from the bottom of the rear sway bar link. Have someone put their foot on the brake rotor and push down while you jerk the old spring out. It may take a couple tries but if you time it just right, the spring will come out. | | | | | 06-24-2009, 07:53 PM | #7 | | Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Austin Posts: 3,059 |
Quote: Originally Posted by cooljess76 They don't need to be disconnected. I've swapped out suspension on these cars dozens of times and never had to disconnect the sway bar or control arms. When doing the rears, make sure the ebrake is disengaged. This will allow the rear trailing arms to drop further and enable you to get the old springs out. remove the bolt from the bottom of the rear shock, and remove the nut from the bottom of the rear sway bar link. Have someone put their foot on the brake rotor and push down while you jerk the old spring out. It may take a couple tries but if you time it just right, the spring will come out. | That's exactly what I did wrong when I was installing my RDS. I, for the life of me could not get the rear springs out. We even used 3 spring compressors (don't ask how we made it fit), and a pry bar, and still would not come out. Until the next day, another friend of mine tried it. He disconnected the e-brake and the whole set dropped like 2 inches. So did my mouth. __________________ Come get a ti-shirt
Quote: | From the e30 M3, evolved the e36.
They were "Keepin it Real" when they introduced the 318ti ClubSport in '95 and the 318ti Sports from '96 to '99.
After that... well nothing else really matters. ~Jess | | | | | | 06-24-2009, 09:42 PM | #8 | | Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 2,525 |
I didn't mean for the rears, I meant for the front. And you don't "have" to disconnect the swaybar, but if you do disconnect the front sway bar you will avoid any issues of their being a lot of load on the strut/control arm. I only suggested this because we did have a member that was doing a front strut swap and he only had one wheel of the ground, and the sway bar connected. He couldn't get the strut to line up properly with the steering knuckle. If both wheels are off of the ground, and the sway bar is disconnected, you will not have any resistance to fight against. Quote: | This will allow the rear trailing arms to drop further and enable you to get the old springs out. remove the bolt from the bottom of the rear shock, and remove the nut from the bottom of the rear sway bar link. Have someone put their foot on the brake rotor and push down while you jerk the old spring out. It may take a couple tries but if you time it just right, the spring will come out. | You do have to be careful about doing this. If you push down to hard on the trailing arm you can damage the CV boot, I think that is what is is called. If you have a spring compressor, that is the safest way to do it. But I will admit that I do mine this same way, I'm just careful about bending that half-shaft down to far. I do have to ask though, have your control arms ever been replaced? If not, I would go ahead and do those while you are doing the coilovers. E36 control arms are a known weak point on our cars and should be considered a maintenance item. | | | | | 06-24-2009, 09:56 PM | #9 | | NOBODY F's with the Jesus Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ventura California Posts: 7,824 |
Quote: Originally Posted by mohaughn I didn't mean for the rears, I meant for the front. And you don't "have" to disconnect the swaybar, but if you do disconnect the front sway bar you will avoid any issues of their being a lot of load on the strut/control arm.
I only suggested this because we did have a member that was doing a front strut swap and he only had one wheel of the ground, and the sway bar connected. He couldn't get the strut to line up properly with the steering knuckle. If both wheels are off of the ground, and the sway bar is disconnected, you will not have any resistance to fight against. | ok, I gotcha. I absolutely agree with having both of the front wheels off of the ground. As for load on the strut, just remove/loosen the three nuts on top of the strut tower. They have to come off anyway to replace the strut. All of the "load" is contained in the strut assembly as the strut bearing is holding tension on the spring until the big nut is removed from the strut hat. Another trick I've learned and I've successfully done the past few times, you don't need spring compressors to remove the spring from the front struts if you have an impact. I've been laying the strut down on it's side, place my foot on the spring and zap the nut off with the impact. There's not that much energy stored in the spring when it's off the car. Just make sure the strut is not resting up against anything and it must be laying flat on the ground, not standing. I even managed to install my H&R race springs on the Bilstein strut without using spring compressors! Just assemble the spring, bearing, dust cap and washers. Push down really sharply to compress the spring and it will catch on the strut piston. It may take a couple tries to get it to catch, but once it does, you can carefully thread the strut hat nut on and safely tighten it. I'll make a quick video, it's pretty cool. As for re-installing the strut assembly, I usually bolt the strut to the spindle first, then I place a floor jack under the control arm and slowly jack it up making sure the three strut hat studs line up with the holes on the strut tower. No load, no hassles  | | | | | 06-24-2009, 10:04 PM | #10 | | NOBODY F's with the Jesus Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ventura California Posts: 7,824 |
Quote: Originally Posted by mohaughn You do have to be careful about doing this. If you push down to hard on the trailing arm you can damage the CV boot, I think that is what is is called. If you have a spring compressor, that is the safest way to do it. But I will admit that I do mine this same way, I'm just careful about bending that half-shaft down to far. | +1, I completely agree. If you do this, you need to be very carefull not to use too much force as you can damage the CV boot and/or knuckles on the halfshafts. That being said, I've done it several times this way and haven't ran into any problems  You'll be okay, just don't stand on the rotor with both feet and jump up or down or anything like that. It doesn't take too much force, just grab onto the wheel arch and press down sharply on the rotor with your foot while someone jerks the spring loose. | | | | | 06-24-2009, 11:04 PM | #11 | | Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Charlotte / Thomasville NC Posts: 240 |
If you do in fact install real coilovers make sure to take your car to a trusted shop and have the car corner balanced and get a good alignment done.
Remember that your average alignment shop will NOT be able to do this.
If you don't have this done, your handling will likely be worse then it was before the coilovers.
Race car parts deserve race car type preparations. Otherwise leave it stock.
GOOD LUCK! Post pics! | | | | | 06-30-2009, 12:39 AM | #12 | | Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: North Bay, Northern California Posts: 251 |
I've got the fronts in but I am having trouble with the rears. It seems like they gave me the wrong part, I won't be able to make it fit unless I do some modification to my car...If there is any one else that has had this kit please let me know what you did... | | | | | 06-30-2009, 01:49 AM | #13 | | Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: norcal - 94590 Posts: 3,186 |
What type of coilovers did you get? Hopefully they didn't send you regular e36 rears... __________________ James 95 active w/leather interior and sport interior conversion, Vaders, full M-Tech exterior conversion. Now m50 swapped* Eibach sway bars, D2 Coilovers, Depo's w/AE's, blacked-out sides and grills, LeatherZ console and door armrests, 1 series starter button mod, and custom finished Style 5's <--- in this color! Named "Roddy":  *M50 6 cyl. swap with fan delete, S50 cams and chip, AFE stage 2 intake, M3 clutch and 11.5 lb Fidanza flywheel, 3.15LSD, battery relocated to rear and complete custom exhaust. Sweet!  97 318ti sport, Alaska Blue, Contours, coilovers, Dove Vaders and custom black/grey interior named "Max" 95 318ti Active in Cosmos, S50 swap in progress... named "Pit" SUPPORT 318ti.org! CLICK THE LINK ABOVE! Hosting a forum like this is not free. 318ti.org is one of the best BMW forums on the web because it is member supported, not vendor supported. The cost to become a Supporter is a nominal $10.00... A YEAR! DO IT! NOW! | | | | | 06-30-2009, 02:46 AM | #14 | | Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: asdfasdf Posts: 10,002 |
I believe their kit comes with an E30 rear setup, the ti has a cone where the spring mounts and the E30 has a cylinder, which is what causes them to not fit so well | | | | |
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