My BMW 335i

[PranK]

On 24/06/2024 at 3:30 PM, PranK said:

I do have a tiny tiny misfire occasionally but I think it's because I got a little fuel down into a plug tube so I'll pull the coils out and see if I can dry those out. 

I haven't done anything here, I'm assuming whatever liquid was in the tubes has just dried out with driving as its back to a beautifully smooth idle again. Might have been a little bit of water as some got into the bay when I was putting the new cover on. I was working in the driveway during some pretty wet weather which wasn't ideal.

[PranK]

Ok, so the stupid new headlight is in default BMW "blind all the eyes" mode, pointing far too high. Screwing the adjustment screw did nothing, so I pulled the screw out (all the teeth on the plastic cog were broken) and I can just manually push the adjuster forward or backwards, which "fixed" it, but now I have no adaptive control. 😒

I might pull the adjuster screw out of the old headlight and see if replacing that will help.

[silviaz]

Gosh these bmw's are worse money pits than JDM's! I won't complain about my car anymore 😂

Edited July 1, 2024 by silviaz

[PranK]

12 hours ago, silviaz said:

Gosh these bmw's are worse money pits than JDM's! I won't complain about my car anymore 😂

Its not always like this! 🤣

[Kinkstaah]

I dunno man it seems pretty much always like this.

[PranK]

3 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

I dunno man it seems pretty much always like this.

I know, but I'm banking on just enjoying it soon once I've fixed things. I want to get some upgrades done soon rather than repairs.

I'm relying on my experience with the 330i that once you get to everything that previous owners neglected it can just be a reliable tracked street car. 

[PranK]

Going to do rear wheel bearings and rear subframe poly bushes next. 

I have Whiteline subframe inserts (they're supposed to take up the empty space in the bushings) but its still too soft. I did consider going solid aluminium subframe bushes but they can cause stress cracks in the body and the subframe so I'll just go with the black poly bushes instead. The car is super squirmy when giving it a bit.

[PranK]

Last weekend I changed out the noisy bearing in the rear. It went fine except the axle was super stuck in the hub. I eventually got it all swapped out over two days. The car is so much quieter but the ABS light came on. I freaked out thinking I'd put the bearing in backwards or used one without the integrated magnet for the speed sensor (lower E90's use a ring attached to the axle rather than built into the bearing). I checked the 2nd bearing I got, seems I got it right (black side in first). I bought a new Bosch speed sensor from eBay which arrived today, 10 mins to fit and cleared codes. No more ABS light. 

My gut says I probably damaged it when pressing the bearings in and out as it kinda hangs in a bad spot - i should have removed it. Anyway, whatever, its quiet and fixed.

I think the front bearings are ready for changing now, I can hear very slight noise that would have been masked by the dead rear one. Front ones are bolt in thankfully.

Also bought the Nolathane rear subframe bushes and a Whiteline 16mm rear sway bar (OE is 13mm). I had this bar on my 330i but cbf'd removing it so just got another. The subframe needs to be lowered to fit the bar so i'll do bushes and bar at the same time.

I was really temped to get solid aluminium bushes but they are really expensive and the whole subframe has to come out, not just be dropped which is not something I'm keen to do. 

[silviaz]

On 7/18/2024 at 2:48 PM, PranK said:

Last weekend I changed out the noisy bearing in the rear. It went fine except the axle was super stuck in the hub. I eventually got it all swapped out over two days. The car is so much quieter but the ABS light came on. I freaked out thinking I'd put the bearing in backwards or used one without the integrated magnet for the speed sensor (lower E90's use a ring attached to the axle rather than built into the bearing). I checked the 2nd bearing I got, seems I got it right (black side in first). I bought a new Bosch speed sensor from eBay which arrived today, 10 mins to fit and cleared codes. No more ABS light. 

My gut says I probably damaged it when pressing the bearings in and out as it kinda hangs in a bad spot - i should have removed it. Anyway, whatever, its quiet and fixed.

I think the front bearings are ready for changing now, I can hear very slight noise that would have been masked by the dead rear one. Front ones are bolt in thankfully.

Also bought the Nolathane rear subframe bushes and a Whiteline 16mm rear sway bar (OE is 13mm). I had this bar on my 330i but cbf'd removing it so just got another. The subframe needs to be lowered to fit the bar so i'll do bushes and bar at the same time.

I was really temped to get solid aluminium bushes but they are really expensive and the whole subframe has to come out, not just be dropped which is not something I'm keen to do. 

why poly instead of rubber, doesn't it ride a lot stiffer now?

[GTSBoy]

Pffft! I'm gradually losing the fight against spherical joints in my suspension and I am never upset by any increase in NVH or stiffness that comes along with each new install.

[PranK]

11 hours ago, silviaz said:

why poly instead of rubber, doesn't it ride a lot stiffer now?

The rubber bushes for the E90 are just not strong enough. Even with a moderate power gain the rear is loose and squirmy under power. There are OEM M3 bushes but the consensus is that these are also not a big enough improvement. There'll be almost no increase in NVH with poly and the rear will be much tighter. In terms of stiffness of ride, this wont change at all I don't think, it will simply allow the suspension to do what its supposed to do rather than allowing the movement in the bushes to get in the way. I'm really looking forward to it, but front bearings first! 

[PranK]

11 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Pffft! I'm gradually losing the fight against spherical joints in my suspension and I am never upset by any increase in NVH or stiffness that comes along with each new install.

Yeah, I agree. 

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, PranK said:

There'll be almost no increase in NVH with poly and the rear will be much tighter. In terms of stiffness of ride, this wont change at all I don't think, it will simply allow the suspension to do what its supposed to do rather than allowing the movement in the bushes to get in the way. I'm really looking forward to it, but front bearings first! 

Stiffer bushes don't change the ride, which is controlled by spring and damper. It does transmit more noise and sometimes makes sharp suspension inputs more noticeable (and therefore feel harder) mostly because of the noise.

[PranK]

12 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Stiffer bushes don't change the ride, which is controlled by spring and damper. It does transmit more noise and sometimes makes sharp suspension inputs more noticeable (and therefore feel harder) mostly because of the noise.

Yep, that was my understanding. What I'm trying to fix is the lateral movement under acceleration. 

[Kinkstaah]

I mean... what movement do you mean? There's no free lunch here. If you take the slop out of bushes then it will get transmitted to the road.

The reason drift cars have stiff everything is so that there's nothing absorbing anything between the engine and the road, but make no mistake they have less traction due to it.

So when you say 'movement' if you want the side to kick out less, then this won't help. It'll potentially make it more predictable for the driver (you) though.

[GTSBoy]

Nah Greg. Race cars have solid arm bushings and solid subframe bushings and solid diff bushings (and proper racecars have no bushings at all anywhere, just sphericals in the arms). And they do not have less traction. The removal of all squirm in flexible mounts everywhere else allows the movement to be constrained to just one place, being the tyre carcass. Then that can be optimised to provide the amount of movement allowed/required/desirable, instead of having it turn up in 7 different places to different degrees depending on which direct the load is applied from, etc etc. And wheel control then becomes totally the responsibility of the spring and damper, not shared between them and anything else rubber in the suspension. It's all good, no bad, unless you have a problem with NVH. And maintenance, I suppose.

In C's case it's quite possibly less about the bushings in the arms than it is about diff bushings and subframe bushings, allowing heavy masses to flail about under the car. But I don't know what they look like on those cars, so won't comment. Also I can't remember what he's already dealt with and can't be arsed reading back through the thread! I'm just happy to watch him throw money at a bloody BMW to show JohnnyDoseDerp that the Euro shitboxen are just as bad as our Jap shitboxen.

 

 

[Kinkstaah]

Okay, well, I don't disagree with what you say GTSBoy...

Too often in road cars people just go ALL STIFF because it's more responsive feeling but it doesn't always equate to actually having more grip. Squat is a good example. As you've seen, racecars have big sidewalls for a reason, because the tyre itself is part of the suspension geometry which is often overlooked in a world of fitment and really harsh/fixed everything else(s).

I am yet to see a road tyre be selected for how it's carcass and stiffness works with regards to suspension geometry. (I know it is in racing for all the reasons given above).

But I also have poly everything, and managed to dislodge my diff bushings somehow. So I have rubber ones in there now myself :p

[GTSBoy]

1 minute ago, Kinkstaah said:

Too often in road cars people just go ALL STIFF

Yeah, but that's usually just too much spring and/or damper stiffness, because they think that billy cart = handling. If you get rid of all the flex in the bushings, you can actually back off on the spring and damper stiffness. Something to be desired.

10 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Squat is a good example.

Here's something that I know a lot about - because R32s have a lot of anti-squat built in and it sucks. This is something that you can fix with geometry, and if I have just cause to have my rear subframe out again I will certainly be doing so, by lowering the front mounts for the lower arms. But this will lead me to have to fit spherical bushings to the lower arms (or just go GKTech arms) and then my journey to the spherical darkside will be almost complete. Anyway, you're lucky, having an R34 rear end with less anti-squat built in. It wouldn't matter if I put really tall tyres onto the car (like it used to have stock on the 16s, for example) because the extra compressibility of the tyre in no way compensates for the fact that the suspension geometry itself is stupid.

2 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

I am yet to see a road tyre be selected for how it's carcass and stiffness works with regards to suspension geometry.

It's more of the same here really. Your modern retard wants 20" wheels with 3 or 4 condoms wrapped around them, because it looks hot. To select a tyre for its stiffness properties in this context would really more come down to the choice between, say, an 18 and a 17 in a higher profile, rather than picking and choosing between individual tyres available in the same size. Although, obviously you could and would be able to choose a Pirelli over a Hankook, or vice versa, or anything else, if you had some reliable information on sidewall stiffness and other structural traits, if you really really felt motivated to. Again, here, getting rid of the slop in the bushings and mounts would allow you to choose a smaller wheel and taller tyre, which is arguably the better choice for the road when it comes to potholes and shit left lying around anyway, even if it doesn't look as good or allow quite the same brake rotor size. But we're talking street cars here anyway. So I'm not looking to be able to fit 365mm rotors anyway.

7 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

But I also have poly everything, and managed to dislodge my diff bushings somehow. So I have rubber ones in there now myself :p

I have rubber subframe bushes also.... and I would be tempted to go firmer on the diff bushes if it wasn't for the fact that my expensively rebuilt diff clunks worse than a 2-way and it would surely drive me batty. (R32s don't really have diff bushes!! Yay for us).

I think poly subframe bushes are probably not a good idea in these cars. Poly seems to not be the most suitable material and it seems to shit itself. I suspect harder rubber is still the best bet and some sort of pineapples/collars added probably all that is justifiable on the street.

[PranK]

2 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

I mean... what movement do you mean? There's no free lunch here. If you take the slop out of bushes then it will get transmitted to the road.

The reason drift cars have stiff everything is so that there's nothing absorbing anything between the engine and the road, but make no mistake they have less traction due to it.

So when you say 'movement' if you want the side to kick out less, then this won't help. It'll potentially make it more predictable for the driver (you) though.

I think you may have misunderstood a little. 

The rear subframes on E90s will move/squirm under hard acceleration because they have such soft bushes. This isn't like getting the arse out, or even anything really to do with traction, I have no problems with the traction. Its a stability thing and a known weakness as the newer 3 series has solid bushes. 

[PranK]

2 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Nah Greg. Race cars have solid arm bushings and solid subframe bushings and solid diff bushings (and proper racecars have no bushings at all anywhere, just sphericals in the arms). And they do not have less traction. The removal of all squirm in flexible mounts everywhere else allows the movement to be constrained to just one place, being the tyre carcass. Then that can be optimised to provide the amount of movement allowed/required/desirable, instead of having it turn up in 7 different places to different degrees depending on which direct the load is applied from, etc etc. And wheel control then becomes totally the responsibility of the spring and damper, not shared between them and anything else rubber in the suspension. It's all good, no bad, unless you have a problem with NVH. And maintenance, I suppose.

In C's case it's quite possibly less about the bushings in the arms than it is about diff bushings and subframe bushings, allowing heavy masses to flail about under the car. But I don't know what they look like on those cars, so won't comment. Also I can't remember what he's already dealt with and can't be arsed reading back through the thread! I'm just happy to watch him throw money at a bloody BMW to show JohnnyDoseDerp that the Euro shitboxen are just as bad as our Jap shitboxen.

 

 

Yeah, this. Perfectly explained.

I will consider poly for the diff also but that's not for now. Maybe when I take it out to put the LSD in.

Nothing really has been done with bushes at all on the car. I'll be dealing with them bit by bit as I feel they need attention.