Missing cross-bar?!?

Originally Posted by Tidan

Thanks ZG!
I wonder if the crossover(or lack of) is contributing to my understeer problem?!?

Is there a hop up or anything that improves on the stock crossover?

Your cheap a$$ tires are likely your handling problem. No amount of suspension work will yield results if your tires have no grip. As you stiffen your body and suspension it puts more dependence on the tires to provide the performance improvement you want. You're spending all this time and work and all these different posts on suspension but you've still got those cheap Chinese aftermarket Sunnew and Sunny brand tires on the car I'll bet.
Ok, end of rant.

LOL! I totally appreciate your candidness. And your rant has not reached deaf ears.
I've been holding off on the tires till I can wear out the current rears (they are still brand new except for one strip on the outside which was the inside, before I rotated them, and resulted from the previous owner running too much negative in the rear).

If it is indeed the tires, then it will be a great learning experience that also allowed me to upgrade the rest of the suspension and note the effects each piece had in the process.

I'm a chronic over thinking/analyzer and a good cold glass of water tossed in my face from time to time is a good thing. LOL!

Originally Posted by crisscross

I've seen a braced up m3 (front strut brace, rear tower brace, and cross brace) where the owner put the oem jack in the front jack spot, and lifted the entire side of the car. The was hardly any flex in the thing at all.

I'm pretty sure I could do that with both of my E36s, neither of them were ///Ms, nor did they have any extra bracing at all .

When I do quick tire/wheel swaps (e.g. summer to winter tires), I raise one whole side of the car up using the rear jacking point. Saves a lot of time.

225/35-r17 holy ****!!!

Originally Posted by Tidan

LOL! I totally appreciate your candidness. And your rant has not reached deaf ears.
I've been holding off on the tires till I can wear out the current rears (they are still brand new except for one strip on the outside which was the inside, before I rotated them, and resulted from the previous owner running too much negative in the rear).

If it is indeed the tires, then it will be a great learning experience that also allowed me to upgrade the rest of the suspension and note the effects each piece had in the process.

I'm a chronic over thinking/analyzer and a good cold glass of water tossed in my face from time to time is a good thing. LOL!

Sorry for sounding harsh! I just saw you putting so much time and work into this and just had a gut feeling it was being wasted because of the tire issue. The only "mod" i have on my car's suspension are initial release (1" drop) Koni STR.T struts and STR.T rear shocks. The tires are Falken Ziex 912's and I have zero understeer and just a slight tendency for oversteer if I'm turning AND braking very hard simultaneously. Handling was exactly the same when I had Kumho Supra Ecsta tires. Like Karl and others have indicated this is what you should expect as the norm for an E36 if everything is right.