[BerkTechnology]

Velocity Motorcars Rear Suspension Arm Install
aka M3 arms on steroids.

This is a continuation of the M3 arms previously installed in January. We tackled the front end of the car with the M3 sway bar, lower wishbone, and tension rods. They are all very worthwhile upgrades that help dial out the understeer and give more precise driver feedback. It is a bolt on affair that your average weekend warrior can handle at home. That thread is here:
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=340647

In this installment we are going to move over to the rear of the car and replace 3 out of 5 arms back there with much higher quality pieces from Velocity Motorcars. We opted for their full kit which can be found here.
http://www.velocitymotorcars.com/e82...trol-arms.html


-Velocity Motorcars rear guide arms
-Velocity Motorcars rear upper link
-Velocity Motorcars rear toe arms

The Velocity Motorcars arms feature aerospace quality Teflon lined low friction rod ends in conjunction with stiff/lightweight precision machined CNC aluminum radius rods. All this combined produces a very light and very strong arm optimized to withstand the abuse that the cars endure during demanding use, giving you the ultimate in performance as well as ease of adjustment for precise tuning. I've seen plenty of suspension arms in my day and these pieces from Velocity Motorcars are as nice as they come.

Key benefits:
-Spherical bearing eliminates slop and alignment changes that the stock rubber bushings have under load.
-Infinitely adjustable camber & toe (more on this later)
-Lighter weight than OEM components
-More positive driver feedback
-Easier to set alignment

Here goes the pics on the install!

First get the sway bar end link out of the way. It'll give you more room to work around in there.




Start with the forward most arm, the guide arm. This is going to be the one that is closest to to the front of the car.

Get at it with an extension & 18mm socket.


Then on the inside use two wrenches.


Here are the two side by side.


Now re-install the Velocity Motorcars arm in place. Make sure you pay close attention to the bushings. Some of the bushings have conical seat that mates with the OEM spindle. Just keep track of things when you are removing the OEM arms. Here's a few shots that illustrate the point.




Now move onto the upper link. It's the same as the guide arm install.

First unclip the wire harness.


Remove the bolts/nuts.


And the new Velocity Motorcars arm goes in place. Don't forget to re-clip that wire harness back on there using the OEM clips. The new arms happen to have just the right OD that the BMW clips work perfectly.


Now we handle the toe arms. These are a very key piece to the E8x/E9x suspension. The OEM BMW toe links are too short from the factory for us to realize maximum negative camber using the eccentric on the lower control arm. We had to dial back camber in order for us to get the proper toe in settings. As neg camber is added by lengthening the lower arm via the eccentric the toe arm eccentric ran out of adjustment. So if we were to dial in 2.2 deg camber on the right side we would be sitting at zero to 1/16” toe OUT. We had to pull camber out to 1.8 deg in order to adjust 1/16” toe in for that side.

With the Velocity Motorcars arms we were able to get our toe sitting at 1/16" toe in and 2.2 deg camber just as we had hoped for.

First mark the location of your eccentric so you can get it back to where it was.



Now go to the other side and pop the cover off to get to the bolt.


And remove.


The new arm in place. Remember our Sharpie mark? That'll help us get our alignment back to where it was.



Here is your completed install.

And the end result? We kept the plaque but didn't get to keep the models....


See you at the track!!!!

[mkPOTO]

very nice.. pics always help

[Javi335]

Its better now (the begin of the thread) to ask newbie/ i dont-speak-english questions.

Those parts are new, replace or whatever compared to M3 bits?

Sorry sir

[ibeclueless]

very nice

[Tee212]

Hey whats up Bryan! Its Tee from mr2oc, I didnt know you post in here.

Question about the rear toe arms for the e92, being that I didnt notice any adjustments for toe and just camber. Do you have any installed pix for e92? I want to run at least -3 all around and hoping these toe arms can alleviate any toe in or outs.

[LOLrance]

Congrats on the first place rwd street class finish!

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by Javi335

Its better now (the begin of the thread) to ask newbie/ i dont-speak-english questions.

Those parts are new, replace or whatever compared to M3 bits?

Sorry sir

Better than the OEM M3 parts as these are fully adjustable. If you already have the M3 arms the Velocity Motorcars toe arms will complete your setup. There is no M3 replacement for the toe arm.

Hey whats up Bryan! Its Tee from mr2oc, I didnt know you post in here.

Question about the rear toe arms for the e92, being that I didnt notice any adjustments for toe and just camber. Do you have any installed pix for e92? I want to run at least -3 all around and hoping these toe arms can alleviate any toe in or outs.

Hey what's up Tee! Another one of my old school MR2 brethren. The toe adjustment is the eccentric right on top of the camber eccentric. My wrench is actually on the toe adjustment in this pic.


You'll run out of toe adjustment at approximately 1.8 degrees of camber. These arms from Velocity Motorcars will allow you to get over 3.5 degrees if you wanted. I did a range of motion test on the alignment rack @ Bullet Motoworks but stopped at 3.5 deg since that is way more than I would ever need anyhow. We're running them at 2.2 deg in the rear.

Congrats on the first place rwd street class finish!

There are going to be a lot of fast 135/335's this year. Lots of the local shops are competing in the Redline Time Attack series this year. HPA, ER, & AE.

[bradford]

Bryan is correct about the toe adjustment's effect on camber. We were able to get -1.9 degrees of camber only in the back because it was limited by our toe spec of 3/16" total toe in.

I will be picking up a set of these arms.

[longodj]

This looks sick! I want it now....

[zsapphire7]

So we should be able to get the same adjustment for camber with the VM toe arms and M3 upper link/guide links without compromising toe?

Also, as you increase camber, because of the stock toe arm length, the car will be forced into more toe out correct? or do i have this reversed?

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

Better than the OEM M3 parts as these are fully adjustable. If you already have the M3 arms the Velocity Motorcars toe arms will complete your setup. There is no M3 replacement for the toe arm.



Hey what's up Tee! Another one of my old school MR2 brethren. The toe adjustment is the eccentric right on top of the camber eccentric. My wrench is actually on the toe adjustment in this pic.


You'll run out of toe adjustment at approximately 1.8 degrees of camber. These arms from Velocity Motorcars will allow you to get over 3.5 degrees if you wanted. I did a range of motion test on the alignment rack @ Bullet Motoworks but stopped at 3.5 deg since that is way more than I would ever need anyhow. We're running them at 2.2 deg in the rear.


There are going to be a lot of fast 135/335's this year. Lots of the local shops are competing in the Redline Time Attack series this year. HPA, ER, & AE.

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by zsapphire7

Also, as you increase camber, because of the stock toe arm length, the car will be forced into more toe out correct? or do i have this reversed?

Yes that is exactly correct.

[HP Autosport]

Originally Posted by bradford

Bryan is correct about the toe adjustment's effect on camber. We were able to get -1.9 degrees of camber only in the back because it was limited by our toe spec of 3/16" total toe in.

I will be picking up a set of these arms.

I think that may be a problem with 135i's only. All of the E90/92/93 cars we have done we were able to get -2 degrees of camber with enough adjustments left for more while the toe is within spec of 3/16" total.

On our shop 335i we are are -2.5 degrees of camber with at least another -0.5 to go.

The M3 lower camber link may have something to do with it, but dimensionally it didn't look any differently than the oem 135/335i link.

[zsapphire7]

Originally Posted by HP Autowerks

I think that may be a problem with 135i's only. All of the E90/92/93 cars we have done we were able to get -2 degrees of camber with enough adjustments left for more while the toe is within spec of 3/16" total.

On our shop 335i we are are -2.5 degrees of camber with at least another -0.5 to go.

The M3 lower camber link may have something to do with it, but dimensionally it didn't look any differently than the oem 135/335i link.

Actually youre probably right Harold... My rear camber settings are -2/-2 and my toe had no issues getting toe in to spec. I have the m3 links but still oem lower camber arm and oem toe link and no issues. Id have to try to increase rear camber to 2.5~ to see if theres any possible toe issues.

[BerkTechnology]

If Harold & Zshapphire both have the M3 upper camber links then I am positive the M3 upper links are shorter than the 135i/335. There is no way I would be able to get to 2.5 deg with the OEM eccentric even if i were to completely ignore the toe setting.

[scott@bmwhn]

Good stuff! Chad makes some great products

[bradford]

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

If Harold & Zshapphire both have the M3 upper camber links then I am positive the M3 upper links are shorter than the 135i/335. There is no way I would be able to get to 2.5 deg with the OEM eccentric even if i were to completely ignore the toe setting.

I have the M3 upper links and we could not get more than -1.9degrees with 3/16 total toe in in the back. I do NOT have the M3 lower camber arm, so it's entirely possible that the M3 one is longer.

In any event, I ordered the Velocity toe arms and will be realigning the car on Saturday, so I will report back at that time.

[enrita]

just ordered the rear toe link last part i was missing at the rear of the car.

[bradford]

Installed the rear toe links this weekend. Now able to get to -2.2 in the back.

[zsapphire7]

*UPDATE*

FYI, i just got the car aligned today. My rear specs are now, -2.4 camber and 1/16 toe in. Before alignment one rear was at -2.6 and 1/16" so looks like theres plenty of adjustment for the 3 series....

[bavarian19]