Does anyone have a tried and trusted budget make of front end steering/suspension overhaul kit they can recommend? It needs to have all these components.
A Meyle kit can be picked up for £169 on ebay and I think that's a good price for a premium brand.
2001 Z3 2.2 Topaz Blue (Trudy) - Keeper rebuilt from a write-off
2002 Z3 2.2 Titan Silver (Cookies) - Keeper rebuilt having been bought with a seized engine
2002 Z3 3.0 Sapphire Black (Peanut) - Keeper awaiting rebuilding having been bought as an abandoned project
Plus Willy, Kodak & Maycee - All 2.2 Sport projects. Yes, 6 is a lot of Z3s
Always happy to try and help with spares
I have fitted the Meyle control arms, tie-rods, shocks, struts and various rubber bushings. All good quality from a German manufacturer who also supplies BMW.
By the way, don't fit the standard rear control arm bushings, too weak, wear out quickly and are the main cause of tramlining in the Z3. Use the Z3M bushing part number 31129069035.
NZ00Z3 wrote:
By the way, don't fit the standard rear control arm bushings, too weak, wear out quickly and are the main cause of tramlining in the Z3. Use the Z3M bushing part number 31129069035.
Or polybush, which I have (and are a lot easier to fit!!)
I completed the same overhaul as you are contemplating but also changed the struts and top mounts. I used a mixture of Febi (Bilstein) and Meyle parts and both were of top quality. For the struts I used Sachs and by careful ebay purchasing from different suppliers I managed to get everything for under £200 including the struts. I can confirm that all the components work well together and the Febi are of good quality. The Febi components can be found at a lower price especially if you search for E36 and not Z3. If you are interested I have a set of the uprated rear wishbone bushes which you can have for a nominal fee plus postage, PM me if you are interested.
Finally the rebuild has made I vast improvement to the overall driving experience so is well worth doing.
Thanks for the advice chaps. If it was my keeper I'd fit Meyle and might still.
But it's for a car that I bought as a Cat C with suspension damage I was going to break it and decided apart from the suspension damage it was too good for that.
Now I don't believe in fitting junk, including when I'm going to sell the car on as I will be. But even hitting break even on the project is going to be tricky. I'm doing it to save a Z3. So really I need to find everything for under £100 and perhaps compromise on durability a little to save the car. There are options on Ebay but they may be junk and I was hoping someone would have experience.
Specifically the 'makes' of these items are indicated as:
No doubt some of these parts are nameless generic and above is not the make but the name of the ebay shop only. And also some of these parts are probably the same generic part from different seller's.
As long as these parts are safe then I think it would be acceptable they may have a 3-5 year life span rather than 10+ years. But are they safe? Will they be troublesome to fit? etc.
2001 Z3 2.2 Topaz Blue (Trudy) - Keeper rebuilt from a write-off
2002 Z3 2.2 Titan Silver (Cookies) - Keeper rebuilt having been bought with a seized engine
2002 Z3 3.0 Sapphire Black (Peanut) - Keeper awaiting rebuilding having been bought as an abandoned project
Plus Willy, Kodak & Maycee - All 2.2 Sport projects. Yes, 6 is a lot of Z3s
Always happy to try and help with spares
