E30 cabriolets thicker sway bar on 318is? any experience

[Frankie]

I´m planning to install E30 cabriolets front sway bar to 318is sinc it should be around 20 % stiffer than original.

Any experience on that?

[Nomadic]

If you only did the front bar, you might cause the car under-steer more. Best to go with a balanced set up or an adjustable set-up.

[beegeezy]

Are both front and rear swaybars on a vert thicker than a stock m42 e30? I have access to a set, and if theyre any better ill swap em out.

[e30 4cyl]

If you only did the front bar, you might cause the car under-steer more. Best to go with a balanced set up or an adjustable set-up.

+1

Go for a balanced set. More understeer is never fun.

[mgold]

If you run the 21mm cabrio bar up front, then consider an E30 M3 rear swaybar. It's 14.5mm. That's the setup I run, and several folks I've met have had success on their hardtops.

[Cobra Jet]

Where can the E30 M3 rear sway bar be purchased (if not available on the used market) and what is the cost of one?

Mark, you installed the M3 rear sway bar on your vert? What is your opinons as far as how the car handles after that upgrade as opposed to how it handled previously w/ the stock rear sway bar?

Since discussing the M3 rear sway bar, what was the size/diameter of the E30 M3 front sway bar - would it be a better set up to use both the front & rear sway bars from an E30 M3?

[mgold]

I paid about $50 for mine used and I purchased new sway bar links to go along with it. Honestly I didn't notice a huge difference, but would have had I added a larger front sway bar.

The front M3 sway bar is 19mm which is smaller than the stock coupe (20mm) or cabrio (21mm) sway bars. This is because the end link is located on the strut tube and because of this the M3 doesn't require as large a bar. My friend Dave Adams had the best of both worlds with his 325i cabrio. He welded an M3 sway bar mount to his strut tubes but kept his stock cabrio front sway bar and added the M3 rear sway bar. According to him, the improvement was dramatic.

[tony92ic]

He welded an M3 sway bar mount to his strut tubes but kept his stock cabrio front sway bar and added the M3 rear sway bar. According to him, the improvement was dramatic.


This is my set up (although I used M3 struts). Awesome handling.

If you weld tabs on your strut tubes, go heavier duty than BMW did for the M3s. They are known to tear off with aggresive driving. Turner sells a reinforcement kit if you go with original M3 strut tubes. If you can weld, this would be an easy modification. A lot cheaper than aftermarket sway bars.

[DaveM-sport]

What thickness are the 325i touring rear bars???

I'm going doing the M3 weld on tab thing when I'm changing my shocks next week. Have new bushings for the arbs all ready for the job.
Need to find out a way of stiffening the back before I link the front bars up to the strut tabs though, Understeer really gives me a sickening feeling:(