yeah you can get some companies that will adjust your coils so the weight is perfect on each cornet not just your hight
Printable View
yeah you can get some companies that will adjust your coils so the weight is perfect on each cornet not just your hight
RTABs are new powerflex units ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by FunkySeeFunkyDoo
I'd like to adjust the height in front vs rear based on the weight distribution, if that makes sense..
What will more than likely happen if you corner weight the car without adding or moving weight around the car is that the corners will be all different heights.
That's why I posted the thread :) what do ya reckon is the best way to go about this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokey Bear
Get an LSD for better traction through corners?
That's on the books anyway Dave :D but this is only since coilovers were fitted so I reckon making the car level rather than raked and possibly another alignment would do the trick. I'll keep the thread up to date with results anyway :)
@ fluffmister Im probably reading you wrong but what do you mean by adjusting the coils by not adjusting the height? Putting a softer spring rate in one corner or another in order to balance the car would be counter-productive. You might have the car perfectly corner weighted while its sitting still, but while driving the car would handle 10x worse with different spring rates in each corner.
Smokey Bear is right, not much you can do to move weight around the car with it being a full interior daily driver, corner weighting it will result in all four corners being at different heights. aesthetically it'll look crap, but would handle great!
Anyone ever notice that an e36 always sits lower on the driver side in the rear? Its only really noticeable when you lower it, to keep the tyre/arch gap the same on both sides you have to have more adjustment on one side? Which means there is more weight on one wheel in the rear so the handling is compromised.
It works diagonally too, if say the front passenger side is slightly higher than the front driver side, there is more weight being put on the rear driver side. And vise-versa.
Rake has a big effect on the handling too.
In layman's terms, for example, look at a front wheel drive drag car. they sit low in the front and are jacked up in the rear - to get as much weight to the driven wheels for traction.
Look at a properly set up drift car. they sit lower in the rear and higher in the front because they want as much rear grip as they can get.
Finally look at a properly set up rwd track car. they sit more or less level to split traction equally between front and rear.
Camber! camber has a big effect on the rear too. I don't know what the factory specs are for e36, but in my experience camber in the rear wants to be between neg1 to neg1.5 degrees. anything closer to 0 makes the rear end really snatchy and loose.
Right, I'm going for a cup of tea. didn't plan on writing an essay!:surprised:
You speak the truth but I assume it's due to nearly 20 years of someone being on that side of the car? More chassis related than suspension?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobbs
~~~Edit after a quick google : "This "issue" comes up regular as clockwork. BMW E46's (and the E36 before it), are renowned for sitting lower on the offside (drivers side in the UK), than the nearside (passengers side in the UK).
I suspect you've found that your car is sitting around 12~15mm lower on the offside.
By all means get your springs checked out for safety reasons but be aware that these cars (both E46 & E36), were designed as Left Hand Drive and the designers set the chassis up to compensate for a driver sitting in the left hand seat, so the left side sits slightly higher. This means that in a left hand drive car, when the driver is sat inside, the car sits level.
The problem with Right Hand Drive cars is that the chassis' were not re-designed to compensate for a driver sitting in the right hand seat, so when a driver is sat in the right hand seat, the car sits lower still.
As I say, get your car checked for safety reasons but be aware that if you start replacing suspension components left,right and central, you could end up paying a fortune trying to fix a problem that can't be fixed!. Hope this helps! smile"
Ha! good man, i never googled it, i just assume all european cars are primarily designed to be left hookers, right hand drive is just an afterthought.
O and if you're getting any way serious while corner weighting the car, weigh yourself!! Whatever you weigh, put the same weight in the driver seat!
Thanks lads, I would much rather the car look weird and handle right than the other way around. The more I try first hand, the more I realise 90% of stuff that makes a car "cool" totally ruins how it drives... :D Will just do the opposite from now on :p
Did a bit more research on corner balancing, definitely like to get that done. Any place near Cork that would do it? Google didn't return any results..