[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Haha, I've got my own, don't worry! Also got access to a couple of milling machines...but still it's a bit much! Very interested to see the resulting suspension geo though

Me too! There is definitely a difference in the angle the strut enters the spindle between the series and the M spindles btw. Having them both in hand (in person) it’s noticeable.

[Tambohamilton]

Where's fe1rx when you need him!?? Haha

[Bizzlesmit]

Amazing...

[Biginboca]

Made a little progress today after work but the sun went down and my stupid light bulbs in my work area are all burned out lol

Figured out the ABS sensor issue. I’m going to run the E90 style sensor rotated 90 degrees. There’s a part number for a bmw bracket I found that is an easy adaptation to make a hold down for rotated E90 sensors.

Just trim the mounting ear off the sensor (I did this on the car in a few seconds never even unplugged it.)

Then make a few bends in the bracket and open the hole in it a bit, it works great:

BMW P/N: 34526787571

Before and After bends:



Sensor installed:



Tomorrow is a big day I have the whole day set aside for a working on this. Unfortunately I wont finish tomorrow though because I’m waiting on some hub extenders for the wheels and a Hubcentric ring for the rotor (both arriving Tuesday). So after work Wednesday I hope to slap it all together one last time and be taking a test drive.

[Biginboca]

Swap is almost done! Looking good this is:

F8X (M4) Spindle and Hub
F30 (335i) Brembo Caliper
ECS Lightweight E9X 335i 348mn x 30mm Rotor
German Auto Solutions E92M3 Uniball Tension Strut
E92M3 OEM Uniball Lower Control Arm
Turner Bump Steer Correcting Heim Tie Rod
Motorsport Hardware M14 to M12 conversion wheel studs
BMW Performance Suspension Strut and Spring



This set up is about 4lbs lighter than the parts I took off. (The spindle is 2lbs lighter, the rotor 1lb lighter, and the bearing assembly is about 1lb lighter.) Plus the new tires I’m swapping to are 2lbs lighter too.

[Biginboca]

All done!

The stance came out nicely, still like 1/4” of rake. I need to finish the alignment and set the tire pressure then I can take a test drive. And the last my rear Uniballs for that swap all arrived today, so can start on that shortly.

[Biginboca]

So everything has had a few days to settle in. I did the alignment and have had some time behind the wheel. Really loving how the car came out! A few things of note:

The camber changed from -1.7 to -2.4. This was a surprise but I’m not disappointed. I was hoping to get -2.0 to -2.5 camber but thought I might have needed the M4 LCA to get it. Somehow I arrived at -2.4 with this combo:

E92m3 LCA
E92M3 Thrust Arm with Spherical Bushing (I think the e92m3 arm is actually identical to the e9x arm except the bushing anyway)
1/4” opened up Strut Mounts at the sheet metal up top.
F8X Spindle

So using all oem parts basically I got some really strong camber. I’m going to let it ride like this a while the car handles amazing, like it’s on rails truly. If I get some poor tire wear which I doubt I will I can dial it back because my top mounts have plenty of room to slide the top outwards.

The wheel fitment is awesome! It’s effectively 18 x 9 ET25 up front (ET30 with 5mm spacer behind the brake rotor) with a 245/35r18. I get zero rub and it looks really aggressive. And I’m able to run the profile 3 (deep concave) Arc 8 like this too, which is a great looking wheel IMO.

Ride Height:



Front Fitment:

[Tambohamilton]

Nice, good job!

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

So everything has had a few days to settle in. I did the alignment and have had some time behind the wheel. Really loving how the car came out! A few things of note:

The camber changed from -1.7 to -2.4. This was a surprise but I’m not disappointed. I was hoping to get -2.0 to -2.5 camber but thought I might have needed the M4 LCA to get it. Somehow I arrived at -2.4 with this combo:

E92m3 LCA
E92M3 Thrust Arm with Spherical Bushing (I think the e92m3 arm is actually identical to the e9x arm except the bushing anyway)
1/4” opened up Strut Mounts at the sheet metal up top.
F8X Spindle

So using all oem parts basically I got some really strong camber. I’m going to let it ride like this a while the car handles amazing, like it’s on rails truly. If I get some poor tire wear which I doubt I will I can dial it back because my top mounts have plenty of room to slide the top outwards.

The wheel fitment is awesome! It’s effectively 18 x 9 ET25 up front (ET30 with 5mm spacer behind the brake rotor) with a 245/35r18. I get zero rub and it looks really aggressive. And I’m able to run the profile 3 (deep concave) Arc 8 like this too, which is a great looking wheel IMO.

Ride Height:


Front Fitment:

Man, I wish I was closer to you. I would love to see how this car feels to drive (if you would let me drive it).

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by W37V

Man, I wish I was closer to you. I would love to see how this car feels to drive (if you would let me drive it).

Definitely would let you drive it... Give a shout if you ever make it to SE Florida!

[Vivek.]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Definitely would let you drive it... Give a shout if you ever make it to SE Florida!

Love the progress. Love how it's exactly how you want it to be and all the creative ways you've found incremental improvements.

Plus I think of this song every time I see your name on here and it's kinda catchy:

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Vivek.

Love the progress. Love how it's exactly how you want it to be and all the creative ways you've found incremental improvements.

Plus I think of this song every time I see your name on here and it's kinda catchy:

Funny, never heard that song before. I was sitting in my car reading this thread before heading to a client, and then played the song as I was driving through Boca this afternoon. So that was really ironic, driving in Boca today meanwhile listening to it for the first time lol.

[Biginboca]

Today’s project... starting on the rear suspension upgrades to Uniballs.



I used this Bavarian Autosport bushing install kit which was worth its weight in gold, even though I managed to break the end off the threaded rod (on my second bushing) there was still enough threads left there to get the job done.



Today I removed 8 bushings total, the 1 at the end of each M3 upper control arm (those need the tapered washers shown in my first pic, and then replaced the bushings at each end of the trailing arms.



You can see the 4 Uniballs I installed on each side in this pic, the blue seals are easy to spot...



Next up this weekend I’m installing the SPL Toe Arms and the Bimmerworld Lower Camber Arm uniball replacement (for the subframe side of the large LCA that carries the spring.). Once that’s done there will be no more rubber bushings in my suspension at all.

Also new back wheels this weekend I’m going from 9” Arc 8 up to the 10” wide ( just for the rears) and I bought a set of the new BMW floating center caps for some extra wheel bling lol

[Tambohamilton]

How was the install with the conical washers?

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

How was the install with the conical washers?

Quite straightforward, really nothing special to mention about it. I used the 3mm offset measurement when pressing the bushings into the arms that I found in a couple of the write ups.

[Bimmer_Engineer]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Today’s project... starting on the rear suspension upgrades to Uniballs.



I used this Bavarian Autosport bushing install kit which was worth its weight in gold, even though I managed to break the end off the threaded rod (on my second bushing) there was still enough threads left there to get the job done.



Today I removed 8 bushings total, the 1 at the end of each M3 upper control arm (those need the tapered washers shown in my first pic, and then replaced the bushings at each end of the trailing arms.



You can see the 4 Uniballs I installed on each side in this pic, the blue seals are easy to spot...



Next up this weekend I’m installing the SPL Toe Arms and the Bimmerworld Lower Camber Arm uniball replacement (for the subframe side of the large LCA that carries the spring.). Once that’s done there will be no more rubber bushings in my suspension at all.

Also new back wheels this weekend I’m going from 9” Arc 8 up to the 10” wide ( just for the rears) and I bought a set of the new BMW floating center caps for some extra wheel bling lol

My favorite thing about this 27 page thread is that it starts with you buying a car to keep basically stock since you’ve got a modded 4wd...

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Bimmer_Engineer

My favorite thing about this 27 page thread is that it starts with you buying a car to keep basically stock since you’ve got a modded 4wd...

I have issues... and luckily a very patient wife who puts up with these shenanigans

[W37V]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Chassis brace install completed today. Thank you to freedomfries and tlow98 for doing all the legwork and paving the way for this mod. Following in their footsteps this took me about 3 hours from taking out the jack to finished cleaning up. It probably would have been an all day project without them paving the way!

For this install you will need 3 items:

Chassis Brace p/n 31102283032
4 x M10 Rivnuts p/n 07147199279
4 x 16mm M10 Bolts p/n 33326768354

This is the chassis brace you will be purchasing. To start you are going to drill out the 2 rivets holding the plastic jack pad and remove the pad.



Then you need to cut down the brace. Cut the back half of the brace off behind the middle screws. Try to leave as much material as possible in the flat center section before that rear wards hump starts.



You should have something like this



Now go under your car. Remove your under paneling, just the the 2 16mm bolts that hold the front of V brace to the subframe, and then install the 4 nutserts into the subframe at the outermost hex shaped openings. If you hold the cut chassis brace you made earlier up to the chassis you’ll see exactly where the 4 nutserts go. You’ll also need to permanently remove these 2 panel supports that sit in front of the steering rack



Loosely install brace with a couple bolts and trace the V Brace lines with a long ruler over it to mark the triangle cut out. This will show you where you need to remove the triangle section.



Also while you have the brace there and are marking it, mark the second hole you need to drill for the second V brace bolt to pass through. The drivers side bolt has no hole on the brace as it comes. (You could also do this after you cut the triangle.)

Come out from under the car and cut the triangle, and then flip the brace over and using a BFH lay the brace on a brick or paver and hammer the dimple out which is surrounding the hole the sharpie is pointing to. This whole section needs to be flat to fit under the existing metal V brace. You can see I already hammered it flat and marked that second hole you need to drill for the V brace in this pic



Pretty much done now! Go back under the car and using a flat implement (flathead screwdriver, pry bar, etc) pry the V Brace center section downwards from the subframe and slide chassis brace between it and subframe for final install. Install the 4 x 16mm bolts into the nutserts you installed and the 2 16mm V Brace bolts.



All done! Install your paneling over it and no one will ever know it’s there!

Just fyi for anyone considering this mod. New part prices seem to be creeping up. Last week numerous websites were listing the part for $150. As of last night, the part is being listed on dealership websites for $350+. FCP euro is still selling it for $150, so now might be good time to buy if you are considering it.

[Akimpobeditel]

Thanks for sharing your spindle conversion, very helpful info!
Is there a difference in offset between m hubs and non m e90/f30 hubs? It's my understanding that they are interchangeable, right?

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Akimpobeditel

Thanks for sharing your spindle conversion, very helpful info!
Is there a difference in offset between m hubs and non m e90/f30 hubs? It's my understanding that they are interchangeable, right?

They are the same offset, and all interchangeable except for the 3 pins that locate the rotor which are easily pressed out if you wanted to run “non M” rotors. Even the rotor screw is same thread and location so you can use a non M rotor with single screw on the M hub (after pressing the pins out).

[Biginboca]

Update!

The uniball conversion is completely done. The back was an ass kicker

It took about 5 hours to swap the first 8 Uniballs (outer ends of rear M upper control arms and both ends of the lower trailing arms). The Bav Autosport bushing kit was perfect for this.

It took about 3 hours to swap the rear toe arms to the SPL ones and get the alignment dialed in.

And it took me 10 hours to swap the last 2 bushings, the big boys in the lower subframe mounts that affix the lower camber arm (one that holds spring). The Bimmerworld kit has very simple directions but that swap kicked my ass. To get the bolt out in the driver side out you have to drop the exhaust. In my case this meant remove all the rear aero, remove the muffler, then remove the midpipe. Just to get access to pull out a single bolt in the bushing I circled in red:



Then getting these bushings out was such a pain. I had to make a cup to press them out you really need something 50.5mm in diameter. I used a threaded rod from Lowe’s and what worked for me best was when there was so much tension on the rod it felt like it was about to snap I tapped the subframe around the bushing area with a BFH and then was able to get 2-3 more turns before it got super tight again. So it was extremely slow going. Pressing the new uniball housings in was easy and I used retaining compound to hold them in place.

While I had the rear apart I decided to cut the springs a bit. I wanted to lower the rear like 1/8-1/4”. Some guys might not approve but it’s my car lol. And my cut was super conservative. This spring cut I show below lowered the rear about 1/8”.





All back together, so much work for what looks like nothing!



So in the end I am very happy with the result. I did my alignment and set to this:

Front Camber -2.4 , Front Toe 1/16”
Rear Camber -2.0 , Rear Toe 1/8”

Took it out for a rip today. The monoball swap is awesome and the handling feels razor sharp. From the front M4 spindle/monoball swap I gained turn in and increased steering feel, like road feel. The texture of the road comes through the steering more, and I really love that. The rear swap took out that mushiness, vagueness it had. The negative is a slight increase in NVH most noticeable on sharp impacts like road reflectors, but it’s not annoying or anything. I feel like there’s nothing I’m feeling that isn’t in the spirit of a sporty road car. You gain steering that is more immediate and feedback with predictability. Awesome mod which I recommend highly that definitely doesn’t take the car out of the daily driver category. I will say it was a lot of work to do the swap though.

While I had the car apart I also swapped my rear wheels from 18x9 et30 to 18x10 et25, I wanted a little more poke on the rear. This is with the new rear rims:



Lastly I also added the new BMW “fixed center caps”. When the wheel spins the caps always stay level. Kind of cool but not a performance mod. Here’s a few pics I took this morning of the car all done with these mods. This is with m4 spindles and hubs, Uniballs swapped into every location, cut springs, and new center caps:

[E92William]

Have you thought about changing out some windows in this car lol