Mike

That looks like the outer ball joint, from memory they don't even have to go in a certain way, its the inners that are slotted. I replaced the ball joints on my car with after market parts and haven't had any problems. I've only worked on E30 suspension, I know the control arms are the same between e30/e36 but maybe the ball joints are different due to the subframe or strut. I don't understand how a ball joint can be out 180 degrees either? I'm out of ideas, sorry can't help ya anymore bro.

Any ball joint should be fine, but if its the one I think your talking about then it has to be fitted correctly. Basically its slotted, so you get more movement in a certain direction. Fit it the wrong way and your control arm can't move properly.

Dot 5 is different to dot 5.1 You can use Dot 5.1 as an upgrade to dot 4 but don't use dot 5.

don't listen to this guy. What have they done to protect the lip? The best thing I've found is just to keep them waxed but its still a PITA keeping them shiny.

teh sex

the same. c/r would drop very low.

Free plug for cycleworks...

car?

Biggest problem changing a diff for first time will be that often there isn't enough room on axle stands to swing a bar to break bolts loose. Pit/hoist helps heaps here. Other than that not too hard on ground. Just spray CRC or WD40 on everything if it hasn't been undone for a while (if ever)

AMI are good. Get your own insurance. After only 3 years I'm on 50% no claims and pay only $140 PA 3rd party fire and theft for 19 year old with bmw on mags, lowered, stereo, tints etc. Also get free glass cover and no excess on theft cos of alarm. Plenty of places (State, AA) just laughed at me. I initially got insurance through my parents broker and had that for a year or so and then switched to AMI. use the same company as yours olds and you will find it easier to get insurance/cheaper.

Control Arm Bushing, Compacts (E36) have similar front suspension to E30's so could be the problem if rotors aren't. My wobble became worse the harder I was braking.

Not sure on E34 front suspension but the cause of my wheel wobbles when braking was worn CAB's. Just something else for you to check.

Yip, thats what I was thinking. Just to clear a few things up... Ideal offset changes depending on the width of the wheel, eg 6" wheel is ET35, 7" is ET25ish, while a 9" wheel is between 10-15, some get way with 15 while others have to use ET10. The wider rim you go, the more critical getting the correct offset is. Too low (ET5 or something) and your wheels will stick out to far, to high (ET40 or some fwd offset and you might hit the struts or brake calipers. Offset is the distance between the centerline of the rim and the mounting face of the rim, hence why it changes depending on rim width. If you have wheels with a positive offset (ET40) then adding say a 25mm spacer will reduce the overall offset to 15. Generally a 17x7 rim with ET35 will fit but the wheels will sit too far in and it doesn't look right (No offence to anyone running that setup) But as you said there on and look pretty dam sweet so all good.

I doubt they are are 15mm offset, most people running 16x9 need an overall offset of roughly 10mm to clear the strut.

just get a manual, or make sure you have cash to convert in the not to distant future. I'd be more concerned with finding a really tidy body than what engines in it, that can be changed easily enough.

E28 probably offset.

can use mig as well but a bit messy, as grant said shouldn't be too hard to find shop with tig welder.

Ian/Glenn/Carl don't know it yet but I'm going up with one of them. (Maybe)

hah, can add me to the hand out list too.

Cheers for posting that up Ken. I've had the same problems and found the clips were pretty wasted and the begins of cancer. Think I caught it just in time, bit of rust convertor, POR15 and some silicon and hopefully that should be the end of it. Also got some new clips to replace the busted ones. Knew it was to good to be true when I couldn't find any rust on my car.

can't always go by numbers to tell engine size. Later 318i were a 1.9 or 2.0, 525e are a 2.7, 745i was a 3.0(?) Turbo. Probably just called 335i to tell it apart from the 330i easier

chrome bumpered E30's wouldn't stand a chance, damn bricks.

yeah I was agreeing with you about the 7" stretching. I'm surprised you think 225 are too wide for a 7" rim, specified size is generally 6-8 in. Slightly oversized look better than slightly undersized. I aree with you about extreme balloning but some cars look sweet with massive tyres crammed on, in much the same way that some cars manage to pull of stretched tyres. can you post up some info regarding rims/spacer/tyres chris?

205 wont be stretched at all on a 7" rim. I'm not a fan of stretched tyres personally but in order to pull it off you you need at least 9" and lots of dish. (IMO, for e30's, and same can be said for e36.) The stretch look came about through nessecity but seems to be coming way more popular as a look. If it was me I'd fit the widest tires possible to a rim (within reason), not the smallest just for the eur0 or drift look. I'm all about having a sweet looking car but not at the expense of performance. But, each to their own and do what you want to your car.

Lovin the dish on those wheels. Whats the deal on the wheel and tyre size? IMHO smoked front indicators would be better, those clears just stick out a bit too much, that and the black the door handles. But thats just me. Cool to see ya sticking with the chrome window trim.