Thee Build.

If it's any consolation, I'm sure whatever parts you bought from Pelican are of higher quality than what you can get at O'Reilly, Autozone, etc. Your caliper seals may well last longer than mine, but for $3.50, I'm not going to complain if they last half as long as OEM.

Anyway, getting a stuck piston out of the caliper can be hard. When mine was seized, I first took it to a shop near my house to see if they could get it out with compressed air. They tried, but failed, and sent me on my way. Feeling like I should probably give it a go myself, I was able to carefully remove it with basic hand tools. It had gotten stuck a little crookedly since the inner seal had worn down, but once I was able to straighten the piston, it came right out.

ECS is an awesome company (Ze and i had this conversation last week) BUT! There shipping rates are pure insanity. I mean make you want to punch a baby high. Mounting bracket for sway bar link weight .25lb cost 15 dollars shipping was like 14. Just look around save yourself some cash wherever you can

With ECS, it just depends on what you order from them. I think the shipping on some of their larger items is better than what they charge for shipping smaller items. They ship brake rotors for free, yet charge a boatload for the sway link mounting bracket like you mentioned. Go figure.

Looks like he's doing a ton of research, so I think he will be more than fine. Just make sure it's high quality don't wanna do all this work just to replace the same stuff again.

Yeah..were on a post-training break at work, so all I do is research what is going into my build

I'm sure I can call them up and convince them that a ~$2500 order warrants free shipping

I'm still a little iffy about replacing all of the bushings with oem parts..I feel like maybe some select poly bushings would do well. Any recommendations?

P.s. - Definitely rebuilding the calipers myself, thanks for the info

From what I've read those polyurethane bushings are track car only stuff, guys say its stiff.....like bad stiff. IMO the best updated bushings/mounts would be engine mounts and tranny mounts those i would go with aftermarkets. However, for the rest ( i just did mine 2 days ago front and rear suspension) did the whole deal with an ECS refresh kit the bushings were hard to get out and in but the meyles that came in the kit were no joke. They feel great and handling through turns is solid. Also did all the rear bushings I believe meyle classified them as HD bushings, regardless great products great luck so far ( keep in mind just did it 2 days ago). I did however go up to the local speedway and rip through the parking lot......single lane areas doing about 50 through s turns and some fun hairpins and manoman it put a grin on my face, never felt loose. I'd highly recommend the ECS kit on that note. Kit that i got- http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E36-323...its/ES1831866/

I'd go with poly FCABs, poly RTABs, and slightly stiffer than stock RSMs - it will be plenty tactile with those. I wouldn't bother using poly bushings anywhere else unless you are building a dedicated track car.

Hmm..I am trying to keep the car relatively forgiving. My previous 328is was so ruff it turned me off to BMW's altogether for quite a while..

Mr.German is that the set-up your currently using? How is your day-day ride quality? Oh wait, your running bilsteins.. I'm attempting to find the best of both worlds, I don't want to feel assaulted while driving but am trying not to sacrifice handling.

If only this were a perfect world

Your stupid crazy if your running poly bushings on a D/D have fun at the chiropractor. What are you lowered on?

Originally Posted by beamer claus

Your stupid crazy if your running poly bushings on a D/D have fun at the chiropractor. What are you lowered on?

Ugh... Wrong again. Some poly bushings are relatively soft and comparable to rubber, but they do sell harder ones. Solid metal bushings are ones used for race that you don't want to use on a DD.

Can anyone recommend some softer poly FCAB's and RTAB's that I should look into? Those were actually the ones I was thinking of upping to stiffer bushings.

If you get poly bushings all around they are superior to rubber the compromise is noise dampening i know this much. A similar hardness poly vs rubber bushing.... polys are always better minus the noise. Poly bushings are also freakin expensive. So is this really the logical choice for him. MY POINT

http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E36-323...Arm/ES1895858/ Or for the same price you can almost buy a HD full front end rebuild kit >.>

I think I will stick with the original kit for now. I have no problems upgrading to poly in the future if performance is sub-par.

Polyurethane RTABs are a perfect solution, though. If you get the purple ones from Powerflex, they don't cost that much more. They will give you better performance while adding minimal NVH. Also, they are 100x easier to install than stock and you don't need a special tool. I can't speak for the FCAB polyurethane bushings, because I don't have them yet, but I would assume they are similar.

After seeing how soft the stock fcabs are, my next set will be poly. I wouldnt recommend anybody wasting the money on the stock rubber. I surely regret it. I didnt go with poly rtabs because vorshlag says they bind the suspension. I have no experience with that, but they're heavy enough into tracking these cars that I believe them.

What do you mean "bind"? I've never heard anything like that before.

It's my understanding that running a stiffer bushing in certain locations doesnt allow for the flex necessary by some suspension components to work properly. Link from vorshlag:
http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...roducts_id=468

My dad is heavy into mustangs and they have similar problems with the rear control arm bushings that limit rear axle movement. In that application the best option is to run a metal spherical ball joint type-thing, but theyre extremely loud and harsh. For our cars I've honestly never looked into what vorshlag recommends instead. I assume shims?

Edit: Vorshlags explanation: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...roducts_id=421... they articulate better than me lol

Originally Posted by beamer claus

Your stupid crazy if your running poly bushings on a D/D have fun at the chiropractor.

Not true. It depends entirely on which poly bushings you use, and where you use them. Seems like you don't have a lot of personal experience on the matter. I have solid-mount FCABs (so, basically no bushing material at all), and they didn't increase NVH very much over stock.

Originally Posted by Thee_Antic

Can anyone recommend some softer poly FCAB's and RTAB's that I should look into? Those were actually the ones I was thinking of upping to stiffer bushings.

I recommend Rogue Engineering FCABs and RTABs. They're fairly pricey, but they're the best in the biz. I have their RTABs and RSMs - fantastic products. Other alternatives would be Powerflex or UUC. Just don't get the race version from any manufacturer.

Awesome thread. Sorry I didn't read it all before now. Keep up the good work saving (restoring) that beauty!


I'm not sure why so many folks are so aggressive/irritable/abrasive in this thread, though. Oh well, gotta roll with the punches I presume. How did Lejeune fair the storm?

My whole car is poly. That didn't make it harsh, the coil spring setup did.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Bimmer App

Matt what name you running for poly's? And i might've found an e30 carpet for you .Going tomorrow to check out a totaled car for some misc parts i need....and i know there are a couple e30's there.

Originally Posted by FenderBender

My whole car is poly. That didn't make it harsh, the coil spring setup did.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Bimmer App

Yeah, I upgraded my bushings before I did my springs and shocks, and by FAR the biggest difference in NVH came from the springs/shocks, not the bushings.

Originally Posted by beamer claus

Matt what name you running for poly's? And i might've found an e30 carpet for you .Going tomorrow to check out a totaled car for some misc parts i need....and i know there are a couple e30's there.

AKG for some powerflex for some.



Sweet! Any coupe carpet in good enough condition to dye will work!

Originally Posted by ZeGerman

Yeah, I upgraded my bushings before I did my springs and shocks, and by FAR the biggest difference in NVH came from the springs/shocks, not the bushings.

Yes sir

Sent from my ADR6400L using Bimmer App

Looks like I definitely have some more research to do. Matt, have you had any problems with the RTAB's "binding"? Or better yet, are you using shims?