bmwe21.net forums

And congrats on the MOT! Another PITA passed lol

Not a great pic but this is how it looks now. (I quite like the colour mismatch of the bonnet!)


Arshad, if you need track control arms then I'd try http://www.suttonautofactors.co.uk. buypartsby sold me one at £36 yet I think they sourced it from Sutton at £24.

its like nothing ever happened! nice effort there mate

good work it looks great. I like the rear spoiler im obsessing over rear spoilers at the moment

I think I'm going to have to embrace the rat look until I can afford a full respray!

Oh yeah, the ARB bushes popped out of the new track control arms again! Must be a design fault. Anyone else had this trouble? I'm going to just fit some rubber between the stop on the ARB and the control arm for now.

Shouldn't be that much free play, using the right control arms? I added 2 extra of those rings on either side which also helps reduce suspension shimmy, you just need to drill the center hole a bit bigger so they go on the sway bar.

Jeroen wrote:Shouldn't be that much free play, using the right control arms? I added 2 extra of those rings on either side which also helps reduce suspension shimmy, you just need to drill the center hole a bit bigger so they go on the sway bar.

Thanks, Jeroen. The control arms were listed for the 323i - my 316 has 323i struts but I didn't consider different subframe mountings...? Won't the extra rings need to go over the bit of the bush that extrudes beyond the control arm? It seems that gap must be responsible for the shimmy and, in my case, the bushes popping out. (Obviously there still needs to be a bit of movement.)

Ah I responded before properly looking at the picture you posted!

Control arms all the same for 323 316 etc, just early cars up to 78 (I think) had different ones. Presume you put all the washers on either side, can't think why it'd pop out.

Be nice to problemchild, he can paint and knows a bodyshop too. I'll gladly come round with my collection of wet and dry and do some rubbing down, but even though the car is yours now I'm still scared of that rust bubble under the drivers side windscreen! Think we need to get the screen out and sort the rust. I do have welding gear so depending how bad the hole is I can help fix it for you, if it's bad you need a pro though. Forum car painting day perhaps, you will have to provide a LOT of beer.

ive got an extra thick rubber bumper homemade poly bush thing in my control arm, it stops it moving forwards n back. The car is way more predictable with them in, but if you order a couple of them big washers and make the hole wider then you can do it that way, will make your arms last longer in general. esp. with big wide rims.

We're fitting adjustable bushes that allow for some camber adjustment. I'll get some pics and post here as they may be available soon.

Hi Toby,
Glad to see you've still got it
I'm looking to get another in the near future, should never have sold this one but at least it went to a good home.

Seen this in northampton

You still got this? Fancy selling it back to me?