Weight distribution adjustable by changing ride height?

So, after a good bit of driving around since the coilovers were fitted, I noticed the front end is very tight and the car changes direction beautifully! Problem is, it feels like the rear "can't keep up" or slow to react to the change of direction, at speed it makes the car feel a bit unsettled in the back, for example on a long fast bend on the motorway changing direction upsets the rear.

Now, is this due to the "rake" on the car shifting weight to the front making the rear too light? Or does that not make any sense? Or is it because JOMs are shyte? Something tells me it's not the JOMs though. Car was aligned and all the suspension is new..

Will raising the front to match the rear (which is the plan anyway as having a low car is hopelessly impractical) distribute the weight equally again? Is there somewhere that can weigh the car at all corners and adjust the coilovers to spread the weight as evenly as possible? Or is this not possible?

Were the Subframe bush's changed ?

Maybe bolt a rear strut brace in is well

Coupes have no b pillar so do flex more but not enough to notice it on the road if your only noticing it now id say the joms simply dont cut the mustard for you (standards not high enough)


Also when you changed wheels did you go for a narrower tyre maybe this would have an effect

Subframe bushes not changed but were checked and are perfect. There's a rear strut brace on it, it's weird I do feel the effect of the rear strut brace but I also feel the rear is light. The rear tyres are 225/45/17 same as what was on the Rotas. Only difference is that I'm running 225/45/17 on the front too rather than the 215/45/17 I had before. I don't think it's an issue with the tyres though. It feels like the rear is either too light or too soft. Is there a place that can weigh the car at all corners do you know?

Can rule tyres out so , but i wouldn't rule the subframe out at 100k and +15 yrs id say they are past it

Yep you can get the car corner weighted do a search on google it should pop up im not sure of the names of any places that do it valdas might know i think autoremap done it to his track car a while ago is well

From what iv read joms are soft in the rear though

My car felt similar to what you are describing, after I completed the suspension refresh the issue was resolved.

My subframe bushes looked ok but were not great when removed.

Lowering the car will give a lower center of gravity and result in better handling. Raising the height in the rear will make it boaty in the back, from personal experience it's all the way or nothing with the JOMs. Perhaps other coilovers with a dampening option could cope better. Maybe someone like Ketron could advise.

Ah, testicles!! I thought I was done with bloody suspension at this stage.. I still reckon it's the rake rather than subframe bushes though, I think they were changed at some stage because I asked Cab to really change anything that he felt needed to be changed at all or that was worth doing anyway even if it "wasn't too bad".

Must check out corner weighting! Hopefully somewhere nearby does it.

Was martins track evo not set up professionaly by someone? I think he had it in his thread.

Oh and also might be worth while sending a pm to Mr Hobbs as he has custom springs in the rear of his 325 and done a few other bits. Might help :wink:

RTAB's would be my guess and if they are not failed I think they might need adjusting from an alignment. Not sure what info you'd be looking for from getting it weighed

yeah you can get some companies that will adjust your coils so the weight is perfect on each cornet not just your hight

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Originally Posted by FunkySeeFunkyDoo

RTAB's would be my guess and if they are not failed I think they might need adjusting from an alignment. Not sure what info you'd be looking for from getting it weighed

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RTABs are new powerflex units ;)

I'd like to adjust the height in front vs rear based on the weight distribution, if that makes sense..

What will more than likely happen if you corner weight the car without adding or moving weight around the car is that the corners will be all different heights.

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Originally Posted by Smokey Bear

What will more than likely happen if you corner weight the car without adding or moving weight around the car is that the corners will be all different heights.

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That's why I posted the thread :) what do ya reckon is the best way to go about this?

Get an LSD for better traction through corners?

That's on the books anyway Dave :D but this is only since coilovers were fitted so I reckon making the car level rather than raked and possibly another alignment would do the trick. I'll keep the thread up to date with results anyway :)

@ fluffmister Im probably reading you wrong but what do you mean by adjusting the coils by not adjusting the height? Putting a softer spring rate in one corner or another in order to balance the car would be counter-productive. You might have the car perfectly corner weighted while its sitting still, but while driving the car would handle 10x worse with different spring rates in each corner.

Smokey Bear is right, not much you can do to move weight around the car with it being a full interior daily driver, corner weighting it will result in all four corners being at different heights. aesthetically it'll look crap, but would handle great!

Anyone ever notice that an e36 always sits lower on the driver side in the rear? Its only really noticeable when you lower it, to keep the tyre/arch gap the same on both sides you have to have more adjustment on one side? Which means there is more weight on one wheel in the rear so the handling is compromised.

It works diagonally too, if say the front passenger side is slightly higher than the front driver side, there is more weight being put on the rear driver side. And vise-versa.

Rake has a big effect on the handling too.

In layman's terms, for example, look at a front wheel drive drag car. they sit low in the front and are jacked up in the rear - to get as much weight to the driven wheels for traction.

Look at a properly set up drift car. they sit lower in the rear and higher in the front because they want as much rear grip as they can get.

Finally look at a properly set up rwd track car. they sit more or less level to split traction equally between front and rear.

Camber! camber has a big effect on the rear too. I don't know what the factory specs are for e36, but in my experience camber in the rear wants to be between neg1 to neg1.5 degrees. anything closer to 0 makes the rear end really snatchy and loose.

Right, I'm going for a cup of tea. didn't plan on writing an essay!:surprised:

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Originally Posted by Hobbs

Anyone ever notice that an e36 always sits lower on the driver side in the rear? Its only really noticeable when you lower it, to keep the tyre/arch gap the same on both sides you have to have more adjustment on one side? Which means there is more weight on one wheel in the rear so the handling is compromised.

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You speak the truth but I assume it's due to nearly 20 years of someone being on that side of the car? More chassis related than suspension?

~~~Edit after a quick google : "This "issue" comes up regular as clockwork. BMW E46's (and the E36 before it), are renowned for sitting lower on the offside (drivers side in the UK), than the nearside (passengers side in the UK).
I suspect you've found that your car is sitting around 12~15mm lower on the offside.

By all means get your springs checked out for safety reasons but be aware that these cars (both E46 & E36), were designed as Left Hand Drive and the designers set the chassis up to compensate for a driver sitting in the left hand seat, so the left side sits slightly higher. This means that in a left hand drive car, when the driver is sat inside, the car sits level.

The problem with Right Hand Drive cars is that the chassis' were not re-designed to compensate for a driver sitting in the right hand seat, so when a driver is sat in the right hand seat, the car sits lower still.

As I say, get your car checked for safety reasons but be aware that if you start replacing suspension components left,right and central, you could end up paying a fortune trying to fix a problem that can't be fixed!. Hope this helps! smile"

Ha! good man, i never googled it, i just assume all european cars are primarily designed to be left hookers, right hand drive is just an afterthought.

O and if you're getting any way serious while corner weighting the car, weigh yourself!! Whatever you weigh, put the same weight in the driver seat!

Thanks lads, I would much rather the car look weird and handle right than the other way around. The more I try first hand, the more I realise 90% of stuff that makes a car "cool" totally ruins how it drives... :D Will just do the opposite from now on :p

Did a bit more research on corner balancing, definitely like to get that done. Any place near Cork that would do it? Google didn't return any results..

Ah keep it looking cool, just have to man up!!!:happy:

You'll have to find someone in the motorsport game, no one in a normal garage would have a clue about corner weighting.

You know anyone who does rallying or circuit racing? Maybe give barrysmotorsport a ring or mcnsport, they might be able to point youin the right direction

Or give davemsport a pm over on driver. Hed surely know of somewhere, hes down your part of the country isnt he?

Will give them a shout ;) Barry motorsport are pretty close failing that will give Dave a shout as he is a bit further away.

Let's see how it goes :)

I predict once the diff goes in she'll go down again :hehe!:

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Originally Posted by Venom

I predict once the diff goes in she'll go down again :hehe!:

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I don't want 4x4 height, I just want the weight to be balanced, surely it could be setup to be balanced AND at a reasonable height too :p

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Originally Posted by Venom

Was martins track evo not set up professionaly by someone? I think he had it in his thread.

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Found it

http://www.bmw-driver.net/forum/showpost.php?p=415442&postcount=64