Time to change the suspension <E36>

["Berney, Butch" <butch.berney@xxxxxxxxx>]

My '94 325is has been a great car over the past 7 years. Since I can't
afford a new M3 (sigh) I am going to have to fix the suspension problems.

Problem: The steering is not as "defined" as it used to be, wanting to dart
left or right over every imperfection or bump in the road. When applying the
brakes lightly at 40 to 60 MPH, I will get a substantial vibration, not
always, but most of the time. I do not hear any "clunks" when going over
bumps. The car has the stock "sport" suspension, and has almost 80,000
miles. The tires (Yokahama AVS Sport...great tires!) are near the end of
their life. When I jacked up the front of the car and took the wheel off, I
noticed that I could see a space (about .125 in) between the sway bar
bushing and the bar itself. Other than that, there is nothing visibly wrong
(subframe cracks or movement when pulling on suspension parts).

I have been researching through many pages of BMW Internetdom (many thanks
to all the contributors at http://www.eskimo.com/~dalus/bmw/bmw_e36.html ),
and have come to the conclusion that the most likely cause of this steering
vagueness is the ball joints, and possibly the control arm bushings. 

The Plan: I will replace the sway bar bushings since they are cheap, and
appear to be worn. I have had very good luck with Bilstein on past cars, and
will buy the monotube sport version along with H&R springs. Replacing the
ball joints seems to be in order, and here is where my questions are.

I can buy the ball joints for about $20 each, the problem is it seems that a
special tool is required to install them in the control arm. For a DIY
project, do you think it might be better to buy new control arms with the
ball joint installed? A little more expensive, but will save me the trouble
of finding someone to replace them for me once the old parts are out of the
car.

The control arm bushing will also be replaced. It seems that the offset,
firmer one from the M3 will fit. Is this a good upgrade, or should I stick
with the stock one?

The front strut tower bearing might be ok, but as long as I have everything
apart, this would be a good time to replace this as well. The M3 part has
geometry changes that appear to give additional caster. Probably a good
thing. Will this part work with the regular E36 Bilsteins and springs, or do
I need to buy the M3 units? And why is it $100 more for the M3 shocks?

The rear shock tower mounts are apparently prone to failing, and I plan to
replace these as well. A lot of people sell aftermarket pieces for $100 -
$200 which seems kind of steep. I seem to remember reading somewhere that
the E46 part will work on an E36, and not only that but the E46 M3 uses the
same part. Will this part fit?

After all of this, and an alignment, I will buy new tires. I am pretty happy
with the milage and performance that I got from the AVS Sports (and the
tread pattern looks cool too), but I am wondering if anyone has an opinion
on tires as well.

Places that I plan to buy from are:
http://www.ultimategarage.com
http://www.turnermotorsport.com
http://allbmwparts.com/bmwpart/
http://www.alloembmwparts.com
http://www.vinesbmw.com/Home.htm

Supplier opinions? Ihave had very good luck with Steve D'g at Ultimate
Garage in the past.

That's my sad story. I hope some of you digesters can help me out. If you
have gotten this far, thanks :-)

Butch Berney
'94 325is with a worn out suspension and an M3 muffler (thanks MDadgar)

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