E30 Zone

Hey guys,

I have been struggling to maintain front end grip in long sweepers and also in variable radius bends where they start smooth and tighten up before the exit.

The main problem seems to be understeer where I can't get the power down without drifting off course. I have tried playing with f/r tyre pressures, taking different lines and also slower entries but I am still losing time in these segments due to a lack of front end grip.

Any ideas?

What toe and camber do you have on the front?

-2 degree toe in on the front, standard camber except for the eccentric control arm bushings.

Rears are totally standard with E46 top mounts.

Bilstien B6 all round with Stiffer springs.
Standard 318is ARB set up and braking system.

All of the bushes and bearings are new original BMW items

It was a long time ago that I set my car up but I think I had 0 toe or maybe 0.5 toe out to help with turn in. Check the m3 settings, mine handles brilliantly but with a tendency to oversteer mid to corner exit.

When I get my alignment rechecked I'll post up what I had it set to

try unbolting front arb? do you know your spring rates ?

Your wheels are pointing the wrong way, you want toe out for cornering
With standard camber you will only be using about 50% of the tyre tread

Not sure about spring rates. They are gmax 30mm lowering springs. I will unbolt the front arb. Thinking about it there is probably 30mm of pre-load on there trying to push my inside wheel down when cornering.

I will also toe out the fronts. How much toe out would be recommended?

You need some 'toe out' and you could also try increasing your castor as this will aid your dynamic camber.

Start at about 0.5mm and see how you go

Dont unbolt your ARB

DanThe wrote:Dont unbolt your ARB

Would tend to agree with this

Do you know where I can get shorter drop links? The arb appears to be loaded up due to lowering the car and it does not sit parallel. It looks like it is pushing down on the control arm and my mondeo drop links dont have much slack left for free movement. ( it is at an angle and the rubber boot is fully compressed on one side of the droplink)

OK, small update, I checked my tracking today using the string method and I am 0 degrees at the front pointing straight ahead. The rears are about 3mm toe in, is this normal?

I have sorted the pre-load on the ARB. Just loosened the bushes, oiled and tightened the bars are nor sitting parallel again. Still understeering though.

When I get time I will try toeing the fonts out a bit and see how that goes.
The rears are not adjustable but are they meant to be toe in?

Using the string method, did you correctly account for the difference in width between the front and rear? If I remember correctly it's about 12mm.
I don't think there should be any deviation from straight ahead on the rear.

The rear will always be toe in, even more so if you lower the car, 3mm is not huge, but even so the rear alignment will not make the front understeer