E36 anti roll bars

Post Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:30 pm

I've seen a couple of posts on here that people have used an E36 anti roll bar on the front, to get clearance for an M3 manifold on an M50... sooo..

I ebay'd a 325 one and offered it up to mine but it looks like it's going to hit the front suspension arms

From what I can see on good old google the bar mounts the other way round on the E36's, i.e. towards the front of the car. Did you guys fab something up to do that on the e30 or what?

Cheers folks

Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:34 pm

People have fabricated mounts on the E30 chassis rails to take the E36 anti-roll bars. I can't think of any threads off the top of my head, but you're right. The ARB is forward on the E36.

Get welding!

Regards,

Jai

Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:28 pm

picture of the bar please?

Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:50 pm

There are 2 types of pickup as per the E30.. Don't know if that makes a difference to the arb shape..?

Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:11 pm

You would struggle to clear an E34 sump, unless it mounts in front of the engine?

Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:38 pm

UweM3 wrote:picture of the bar please?

This is the one I got off ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0372688820

Its got a big crank in it, where the e30 item has a very shallow V. Note that the picture of one on realoem is wrong, it looks the same as an e30 one on there. Not the first time I've seen a wrong pic on there.

I think I'll extend the existing e30 bar mounts by 10-20mm as someone else did in a thread on here. I think that might hit the undertray then but nothing a big hammer won't fix

Its a shame cause it looks like the bar would go in the mounts and hook up to the drop links no mither. Theres just the small matter of them wanting to occupy the same point in space & time as the control arms

Post Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:53 am

That is never going to go on in the E30 position, the huge crank in the bar is to miss the underside of the 6 pot sump which is the other way around in an E30, it would be scraping the floor

Post Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:47 pm

blimey, that's huge! I am looking for something a flat a s possible.

Post Fri Mar 12, 2010 9:12 am

Finally spent some time offering it up the other weekend, as Danthe guessed there's just no way with a 6-pot in it. With it pointing out front you'd have to mount it so low that I wouldn't be happy with it, mounted pointing back it won't clear the control arms.

The dreams is over!! looks like modding the e30 bush holders is the way forwards for me.

The guy on the bmw rallying forum who's done it is running a 4-pot vauxhall lump so theres nothing in the way on his. Theres room for a whole nother engine in the front of his engine bay...

Post Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:13 pm

You would have to be using an E36 sump for it to clear, mounted at the front. Would be good on Uwes car

Post Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:51 pm

With all the different models of car sat out there in the scrapyeards there must be a nice bar that fits, its frustrating that theres no easy way of finding out which!!

Post Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:06 pm

Finally got good clearance now!

Got some more bush holders, tried to cut them up and weld another 15mm in, made a pigs ear of it and got pissed off.

Next I put a 20mm front ARB on, and at the same time switched to the e36 ARB bush holders. £4 each from BMW. These have two bolt holes rather than one and a lug, and the second bolt hole lines perfectly up with the subframe bolt. The subframe already has a bump where the bolt comes out so it's just a matter of putting three washers on the original bolt and a dead simple thin plate with two holes across the bush holder to keep the bush in place. Now I can put the bar anywhere I want using more/fewer washers

Need to be aware that the subframe bolt doesn't have that much engagement to start with but not a problem for where I need it.

No more rubbing and buzzing for me now!!