ARB/Sway Bar Drop-Links

[touringsport]

Hi guys, I've been looking at my car tonight (325i Touring) and have noticed i've ripped the rubber centre out of my ARB drop-links. I'm Running my front H+R ARB on the hardest setting, and its only taken a month to ruin both sides!
Is there a better quality link on the market? or somewhere i can buy a rose-jointed jobbie?
I hate to think how fast i'd ruin these in dry weather, when its easier to get the lateral-g based fun on the go??!!!!!

[hoshy]

Annoyingly 5 mins after placing an order for new drop links from bmw I was told about the ireland engineering ones. Not sure if others are available too.

http://www.iemotorsport.com/

[DaveD]

superflex do a urethane bush...never tried them but they MIGHT be an improvement...I am waiting for someone to have a go

http://www.superflex.co.uk/results.php? ... &Search=Go

[BadDave]

Whiteline do "universal" rose jointed ones in various lengths for around £75-80 IIRC

Pretty sure they'll have ones in the length you require

HTH

[Dan318-is]

Whiteline are pulling your leg though. I made a set of rear ones using four m10 rose jointed female rod ends, two m10*1.5 bolts and some graded m10 rod that i hacksawed down to size from wickes. I may hasten to add that my engineering skills are very, very basic.

You can adjust preload and they cost about £15 quid for two. The fronts are a bit more involved; i have got racing dynamics ones on the front but they are a bit costly after tax etc. No reason why you couldn't build four droplinks for under £40 quid!

The only modification you have to make is to drill the U bracket holes out to c10mm with a drill so that an m10 thread can fit through (rather than the original m-8)



Note these are for the rear, fronts are slightly more involved but same principle.

[TRACKM3]

£50 a pr from my guy, all depends on total std length



we noiw use round black anodised rod with flats to adjust with a wrench, left and right hand thread so adjusted on the car

[agreen]

how will these help who sets them up ?

like a garage that does wheel alighnment ???

[TRACKM3]

Aaron, no wheel alignment needed it is basic stuff just dont preload the bar, hese allow the adjustment sometimes needed when fitting coilovers with the mount in a different place and are laso much stronger than the std things which break lot.

[agreen]

so are they recommended if NOT running coil overs ?

will they have any benifit if not on coil overs thanks

[TRACKM3]

only extra strength at the ball joint.

[agreen]

i dont think i will be needing them then not an m3 or anything super powerfull

thanks track m3

[Simon13]

were they brand new bmw drops links? As the likes of GSF and euro's offerings are vastly inferior to genuine parts in my experpience. Unless you some track slut then the rose jointed stuff is a bit over the top imo

[touringsport]

Cant really remember TBH, bought a load of stuff at once a few months back. must have been pay day.......

[12345kevin]

Unfortunatley when modifying with stiffer supsension, ARB's etc, something is going to break ! Fitting better quality components is just going to move the problem to the next weakest link ! I would just use standard drop links and accept that they are going to wear quicker than normal, far easier to replace at a small cost, than wishbones & subframes etc !!

[DaveD]

I have not used them but would the option of the urethane bushes be an option...I remember swallowing hard when I replaced mine at £50 for the pair from the dealers...when all that had gone was the rubber bushing

[Onz]

Brand New BMW ones are usually quite good