E36 328: In over my head!

I saw this lizard and thought it was cool.

I bought longer bolts for the struts, but they're too long. I don't want to cut them, so I will need to use at least two more washers for the head similar to how the factory ones are.

I ordered more sockets since I estimated the size I needed and the one I ordered was incorrect. Damn aftermarket wheel nut.

I had an autocross race yesterday. My car wasn't finished, so I needed to drive someone else's car again. I asked a few people, and Justin let me drive his 95 Integra that was STS prepped. One of my brothers' name is Justin, so that was cool. I noticed with a quick glance that he had good tires, so I would be able to have some fun. The course was at our small location, and it was a short one that was relatively simple. On my first run, I was surprised that the car handled in a very balanced way, It wasn't very front heavy on the turnaround or the short slaloms. I did feel some understeer at the last turn before the finish line, but nothing like most FWD cars. I got a 29.831. Then, I had one of the fast drivers ride with me on the second run so I could get some coaching. I did get more aggressive with the throttle and I got a 29.073, but I hit a cone. My coach told me to get tight on everything, and to touch the brakes; I was hitting them, slowing me down much more than I should. His most important tip was to not wait to read what the car is doing. If I wait to read what the car is doing, it's too late and I've lost a few tenths. He said that I should be able to get a low 28. I told him I couldn't since it was my first time driving that car. I also told my coach that I was using the driving techniques on my 328i, it's sprung much softer, and the weight transfer is much slower. On my third and very unfortunate last run, I did what my coach told me, and I got a clean 28.699, so I was very happy with that. I was also in the lead of my co-driver by almost 2 tenths, but he probably beat my time, which is good. Right before I left, I asked Justin what his suspension setup was. He told me that he has Koni yellows with 700 lb front springs and 600 lb rear springs. He also has a bigger rear sway bar, he was looking to make it handle in a neutral way. He also has the new Potenza RE-71R. They were really good, but not mind blowing. But again, I'm a mid-pack driver still, so I need to drive more to get faster anyway.

After the race, I picked up a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch drive adapter from Lowes. It was just what the doctor ordered. Then, I spent quite a long time cutting and grinding the lip of the old wheel hub & bearing to get the socket to fit in it. I was able to pull it off by hand fairly easily.

Then, I struggled for a while with channel lock pliers to get the race off.

The official procedure is to use a BMW tool to press it on, but it isn't necessary. I used a wood block and a big socket to tap it on.

I just needed to be careful and tap it on as square as I could.

Then I ran it down the rest of the way with an impact wrench. I torqued it to 150 ft/lbs because that's the highest my torque wrench goes. The OEM nut wouldn't fit for some odd reason.

I struggled getting the rotor back on until I re-installed the lugs.

It looks terrible with all of that rust!

The car has quite a bit of negative camber with the washers, I should measure it to get a hard number.

It's driving well now. I do need to align the rear so it's performance oriented along with the front. The rear of the car isn't quite keeping up, which is understandable.

Oh, and to install the new wheel hub & bearing, I had to grind the socket for it to fit. Go figure.

What class are you building this car to?

It looks like a GS car, but you've got some STX parts installed.

Good eye. I run it in G stock because nobody is going to care about my polyurethane bushings and HD front sway bar endlinks keeping me in the middle of the pack. I think everything else is legal; the rear shock tower reinforcement plates are more of a structural fix than performance item. I'm very likely to step this car up to STX next year and order some custom springs and probably a stock LSD. It's not as good or as fun as the newer, faster stock cars.

The poly bushings and endlinks are GS legal. There's not more metal in the bushing, or something rather is how the rule goes. Your camber shims threw me off as those aren't GS legal.

I'll look forward to seeing how you build up your car. I have a slicktop 328i now and will be building it for STX, but will take a break at GS prep as I save up the money for trick shocks and a built LSD.

I looked it up earlier (and now), camber shims are legal for Stock classes now. Metal sway bar endlinks are legal. Poly bushings are illegal. Oddly, performance rotors and pads are illegal in the Stock classes, too.

I adjusted the rear camber by watching a video on Youtube on an E46. Thank goodness the rear suspension has the same setup.

Loosen the nut with the wrench, and adjust the camber with the ratchet on the front.

This side has more adjustment for camber than the other; it must be a performance bolt while the other one is the OEM one.

The first pic shows the bolt at close to full positive camber while the second shows the bolt at full negative camber. I had to eyeball it, but it looks fairly close, when looking at the wheel camber, that is.

I also adjusted the rear toe by loosening the three bolts, and then tapping the housing with a hammer. After I did that, I found out that I could just pull the housing into position. I estimated that the factory wouldn't allow a significant toe out setting, and I was correct.

You can't tell in the pictures as well as in person, but there is some negative camber in the rear, and only a slight toe in.

I also heard some unusual noises in the front right wheel area, so I checked it out. I tried to tighten the wheel nut more, but it wouldn't go farther. I did actually punch it in the notch so it couldn't loosen up. I did find that only the passenger tire rubbing against the strut, so I changed one of the washers out for a thin one. It is a noticeable loss in camber, and the front end doesn't change direction as fast, either. However, the rear end does rotate more, so I don't want too much more front (-) camber than rear (-) camber.

The car does change direction faster and easier than with the factory alignment, so that's cool. I can't wait until my organization's next race, but it's not until August. The car is also less stable, especially going over bumps. Now, I appreciate stability more over rough roads. It's a trade-off that I can live with.

I was wrong about the poly bushings, so they are illegal.

Where are you finding camber shims being legal? They were never offered by BMW as a way to fix camber, only bolts were. It'd be nice to find the rule that allows me to run shims legally, with my dealer installed LSD, to try and be competitive in GS.

In reply to MINIzguy: You're correct. The rules say that the manufacturer has to offer shims or special bolts to change alignment. I don't think BMW offers that. I missed the first part of the rule. So it depends on the car.

I happened to check the axle the other day, and it had grease all over it. I didn't get a picture of it, but two of the bolts had worked their way out. No wonder why there would be a vibration when I got off the throttle at 65mph.

I brought out my axle rebuild kit and I was wondering why the bolts were working their way out. Then, I realized that my kit has loctite to make sure the bolts stay in place.

I should have known when I put it in the first time.

This is terrible quality, but I have the loctite on, ready to go. I also packed more grease in the axle, too.

I forgot to get a shot of it all nice and clean, I may get one in later. The vibration is gone, and it does drive smoother, which is real nice. It still has that aftermarket imprecise vibration, however.

Even though I put this post in my other thread,I had been waiting for this item for quite a long time. Cue the drum roll please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzAfTmC3It0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxf-eQWKoo

I now have high quality photos available!

The other day, my alignment got out of line (HA!) so I jacked up my car to readjust it.

This time, I torqued the nut to 43 ft/lbs, I saw that number somewhere reputable.

I took a good look at the camber bolts, and they look like they are manufactured by the same company, they just made one to be able to have a much larger range of adjustment than the other.

The other day, I started working with this great view.

I need to make a coupe of adjustments to the camera, however.

I installed one component speaker along with the amp. I didn't take too many pictures of the wiring since it's a little boring.

The blue wires were already installed.

I never really bothered with the top half of the back seat until now.

This was a pleasant surprise.

I ran distribution blocks for the power and ground wires because I run both amps through the capacitor; It's the only way they will fit.

I had done the first hole properly, I measured it with the speaker, then cut it about an 1/8" or so to have a mounting surface for the speaker.

At first, I was going to mount it underneath like the factory ones, but with the curvature of the sheetmetal, it was a better option to mount it from the top.

It fits pretty well.

I had to guess how the speakers wire up; there were no directions, and I didn't really find a tutorial on how to do it, so I just guessed (before I mounted it). I connected the tweeter to the crossover, then the crossover to the midrange speaker. Then, I connected the midrange to the amp. I turned on my music, and it worked great!

Here's the old, blown speaker that just died shortly before I replaced it.

I tried to get cute with the second one the day after, and cut enough to just let it drop through the hole. Of course, it wasn't enough for the speaker edge to sit on the metal, so I had to spend about an extra hour just cutting it over and over, an irritating mistake. I finally cut the hole big enough.

Then, I adjusted the amp so these speakers would overpower the poor factory door speakers which started to get much more power with the rear speakers removed.

I placed it next to the capacitor, and that's all for then.

I had some lovely clouds overhead when I finished up.

I still need to mount the amp to the seat back for autocrosses. I actually missed an autocross from my next closed region today because I didn't get on this last week because I didn't have the tool I wanted.

I fixed this a few months ago. It was inconvenient, but better me than someone that couldn't change a spare, and had no AAA membership.

I also read on this board that negative camber doesn't wear tires too quickly.

I dialed it back real quick.

Did you measure toe? Unless you had -30 degs of camber, I dont see how you can wear just that edge when the rest of the tire well past worn ...

Why would you drive with a tire that's so worn?

I don't have the measuring tools for alignment yet, so I can't say with any accuracy how much camber I had. I do remember that when you looked at it, it was a lot of camber, too much for the street, but not quite stance nation camber (maybe close to it). I didn't drive with it that long and it chewed up that tire, even with me looking at it periodically, but not jacking up the car. This was from 4 or 5 months ago.

I'm guessing your string alignment was unsuccessful.

I run -2 camber in the rear and -3.5 in the front with 0 degrees toe. No camber wear at all after 4k miles.

I just learned a pretty good tidbit on the street alignments in my driveway

When I was adjusting toe, my steering column was also moving. So after I was done with one side of the steering wheel was not centered, doing the next side meant that my toe was way off. Not sure if you're having any kind of problem like this but make sure to check it all after you're done adjusting everything.

I bought another set of wheels to ditch the 15" wheels, they don't have summer tires available in those sizes, and the all seasons are a little limited, too.

I also caused a fender bender in a parking lot, completely my fault.

The woman's passenger car door was crushed, surprising since I was going about 3 mph, so no injuries. She was cool about it, and attractive, too.

Mmmm, fresh rubber!

I also replaced the steering rack again!

The old one was faulty, I could definitely feel the sloppiness was gone.

Have to check the power steering fluid, too.

I finally installed the dynamat underneath the car, where the original sound deadening material was. It was psychologically easier to place it here vs. taking out the front seats and the center console and placing it under the carpet.

I realigned the front end, but I still can't get the steering wheel and the front wheels to be perfectly straight.