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**The Stock Suspension on our E36**

Our E36 took a beating in the desert, a couple of weeks ago. The stock suspension, being old and soft, was no match for the rough terrain.

Which kind of makes sense, I mean, it's the desert - the conditions are harsh and unforgiving. And with stock suspension, you can't expect it to handle the extreme stress that comes with off-roading.

In fact, our suspension did take a beating, and it's a little bit too low, if we're being honest about it. But, as you'll rarely hear me say this, I have to admit that the stock suspension on our E36 didn't quite cut it in the desert.

This week, we'll be looking into upgrading our suspension to something more suitable for our adventures in the desert...

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- The stock suspensionon our E36 took a beatingin the desert, a couple of weeks ago.(car engine revving)Which kind of makes sense,I mean, it's the desert,the suspension is stock,it's old, it's softand you won't hear me say this too oftenabout stock suspension, butit's a little bit too low.So this week on "Money Pit,"we're gonna install a setof coilovers on the so that we can geta little bit better handlingand some more ride heightfor some more groundclearance for rally stuff.Let's go baby.(upbeat music)Large, thanks to eBay Motorsfor sponsoring today's video.By now we all know eBaymakes it easy to buy a carand all the parts you need,but they also make it easy to sell.How easy you ask?Well, now you can shipand deliver your vehicleand parts directly through eBay Motors,which is honestly pretty cool.So for any of those spareparts, you got lying around,like I've got plenty of, orthat unused car taking up spacein your mom's garage, well,with just a few clicks,you can have it up andavailable for purchase.And thanks to eBay's optionfor vehicle inspection,you can sell withconfidence as an inspectionis gonna increase the buyerstrust in your vehicle.So clean out that garageand start selling today,by going to the linkin the description below.Now, let's get back to throwingsome money in that pit.(piano music)Like I was saying before,when we took the E36 outto the desert, the stocksuspension felt super softand it felt super stock.(car engine revving)And it was also a touch too low.As it turns out, there's alot of rocks in the desertand I was running over a bunch of them.(car engine revving)So I think we can stand tojack things up a little bit.So we could go crazy and wecould do long travel suspensionwith longer control arms,and really Jack this thing upand almost turning into a Bajatruck, but we're trying to bea little bit budget mindedhere with this build.So I don't think that's the move.So we're just gonna gowith an off the shelf setof coilovers.Let's take a look at what we got.I know, I need a haircut.So, here's what we've got.We've got a set of BCRacing's DS series coiloverand I think they're gonna begreat for the task at hand.Obviously they give usride height, adjustability,so we'll be able to raise the car.They should handle a lot better,they're built for performanceand they give us controlover our damping so we cansoften it or stiffen itas we want, which is really nice to have,especially when you're tryingto tweak a car to do betterat a certain thing.Now, the only thing we haveleft to do is install themand that shouldn't betoo hard I don't think.Probably only take us about four hours,maybe five since we're filming.Always takes a little longerwith the camera around,'cause I'm always makingsure I, do I look good?How do I look?All right now, before we gojacking this puppy to the moon,let's take some measurementsand see where we're at nowin terms of ride heightand ground clearance.So I'm just gonna walk aroundand do the old finger measurement here.It looks like aboutone finger at the rear,and then I'm actually gonnameasure our ride height,just from the bottoms of theside skirts at the rear endand the front, so we know howmuch we've lifted the thingat the end, so I know howbig of rocks I can run over.Six inches on the money.Let's see how level she is.Seven and an eighth at therear, six at the front.Write that down.I know I'll remember it, I got it.Steel trap, three fingers at the front.So I think we're gonnaincrease ride height,so we'll have a bigger gap hereand we'll increase our ground clearance.Now this is only one partof this whole puzzle.Obviously we're gonnado some wheels and tiresand I'll let you in on a little secret.The tires that I'm going with are gonna bea little bit bigger than these ones.So I'm planning for that too,and that'll also increasemy ground clearance.So at the end of today,it's probably gonna lookpretty stupid on these wheels,but that's okay, project'snot over, we're not done here.Don't judge me, yet.All right, well, with all thatsaid, there's nothing leftto do, but do it.So, let's start with the front.(boards clattering)Pick your stuff up Felipe.- Show off.- So here we go.(laughs)- Stop, stop, stop.- This is what I was talking about,I'm just glad it takes longer.(laughs)(soft music)(metal clanking)First time taking these wheelsoff, you'll notice a lotof Euro cars do something alittle bit different than a lotof the rest of the carsand that they use lug boltsinstead of lug nuts like that.And that can make it kind oftricky for installing wheelsand getting the holes linedup and they kind of fall offwhen you take off the last bolt.So eventually we're goingto switch that up to studs.(impact gun whirring)But for now it's bolts.(impact gun whirring)(soft music)(wheel banging and clanking)Smooth, I know.So we just gotta disconnectthe top from the chassisand the bottom from the suspensionand we'll also need toremove our sway bar end linksbecause the new coiloversare gonna use a new typeof end link, they'llconnect in a different spot,but that's no big deal.Just a little wrenching maybe.(soft music)All right, so we've got one bolt remainingthat's holding thingstogether on the bottom here,right in the side here, soI'm gonna take that off,and when I do, that's gonnadisconnect the suspensionfrom our hub, our spindle down here.So I'm going to put the Jackin place just to keep thatfrom flopping off andbanging me in the kneeor what have you.And I've got a nicelittle hockey puck on herefor touching thingswithout messing them up.Hockey pucks are great for that.(upbeat music)Okay, so now the bottom is disconnected,all we gotta do is removeour three nuts up here,and this piece of suspension is out.(impact gun whirring)(upbeat music)Okay.(soft music)There we go, one oldBilstein from Germany.Let's replace it with a BC from Florida.Now, there's no left or rightto these there's just frontand rear, so this is a front,it could go on either sideand we'll go aboutadjusting our ride height,once this is installed.I could loosen this now and do it by hand,doesn't really make toomuch of a difference.All right, I wanna make surethat our camber plates are inso that we can adjust our camber,which means the slots will go this way,rather than, like this, 'cause thenwe wouldn't be adjusting camber.Okay, now I'm gonna get this in place.Watch it fender.(upbeat music)We'll bring up our hubto meet the coil overwith the help of our jack.All right, so that'sbasically one corner done,the only thing I have left to do is put onmy new sway bar end link,but I got to wait to dothe other side because the sway baris not the same rightnow, it's still connectedto the driver's sidewith the stock end link,so if I tried to put this onein I just wouldn't be able to.So once I get that side,I'm done sway bar wiseand I can come back overhere, pop this guy on.But I'm gonna worry about the big part,which is getting coil over in first.Me and my tools will meet you over there.(upbeat music)Those puppies are megatight and I can't getan impact gun on them, soI'm gonna use this big,strong thing I have.(upbeat music)Okay, now just them toppers.(impact gun whirring)(upbeat music)Whoosh.Good, I said, no big dealadjusting ride heightafter the fact, which istrue, but this is a lot easierthan doing it after the fact.(upbeat music)All right, so we got the front coilovers,technically in the car,they are installed.Now the only things that remainto be done with these frontsare to just ride height.But if I'm going to adjust ride height,I might as well do it when canadjust all the ride heights.So we're gonna leave thefronts at this point for nowand work on the back, get those installedand then we can do things likeadjust all of our ride heightand install our sway bar end links.So let's go to the back.Okay, so to get the rearsin, we're gonna haveto disassemble a little bitof the trunk interior lining,but that's okay, I mean, ultimately,this stuff's all gonna go anyway,we're gonna strip this thing.So I'm gonna remove thecarpet and that kind of stuffand that should allow meto get to the upper mountsfor the shock.(upbeat music)That's what I look likewithout a shirt on.Couple of cutlets.(upbeat music)Come on baby.(upbeat music)Two fresh trunk carpets,for sale now, on eBay.I'm gonna support thesuspension here with the jack,just touch it up and then pulloff the lower shock hardware.(impact gun whirring)And now the jack's theonly thing holding upagainst the spring, so in the rear,the spring is divorcedfrom the shock here,so now we can let this down.So now with that down, ourspring is relatively loose,we'll be able to get it out.Now I can go up in here andthe two thirteens in the trunkand get our shock out.Ejecto.Okay, now we just gottaget the spring out.There's the spring.(upbeat music)Let's go take the other side out.(upbeat music)(impact gun whirring)(upbeat music)(grunts)Okay.Now, all we gotta do isput the new stuff in.All right, so this is ourrear suspension setup.The springs are stilldivorced from the shocks,so this is how we adjust ourride height, these adjusters,that'll go to the top of our spring.So these are a little bit lesseasy to adjust in the car.Definitely doable, but a little less easy.So I am gonna spin these upand try to at least get closerto where I want the rideheight to be, which,we're just gonna go most of the way up.And that's just hangingproud a little bit,so we'll match this up on the other side.This side are even.Let's put this in.(upbeat music)All right, now we've got the spring in,so all we gotta do is put the shock in.Felipe.(upbeat music)Okay, let's see here.A nice little bump stop's in there.I'm gonna get some zip ties and zip tiethese dust boots in place,so they do their job.Then we can put those in.Okay.Okay, so now we're on there.Then I'll use the jack to bring this upthrough the holes in thetop, then we can put the nutson up top with our reinforcement plates,let's not forget those.(upbeat music)All right, now we've gotour suspension in placeand the last thing we gotto do before we bolt it upis just sandwich on thesereinforcement plates.The sheet metal that makesup the rear shock towersin the E36, is a known weak pointand it's not superuncommon to blow them out.These look really good rightnow, this car is in great shapeand the sheet metal is in perfect shape,I mean, it's a California car,but we are gonna be beatingthe living daylights out of this thingand I was already feeling a little bit badfor the shock towers whenwe were in the desert,so these will just sandwich the placeand help distribute theload delivered by the shocksto more of the shock tower,rather than just the areaswhere the nuts are.So these should help keepus from blowing any holesin the back.(upbeat music)Okay, so we got the suspensioninstalled in all four cornersand it was pretty easy andnot all that time consuming,but now we've got to adjustthem and set our ride height.So I'm just kind of taking a stab at it.I've got all my suspensionsadjusted to what I thinkis gonna be a little bittaller than stock ride height.I'm not trying to jackthis thing up to the moon,but I do wanna increasea little bit of height.So we're just gonna go withthis, put the wheels onand put it on the groundand see where we're atand move on based on that.Let's find out where we're at.(upbeat music)(impact gun whirring)Well, after just putting a wheel on,you can see that rideheight is not very increasedand when we put the car on the ground,that's gonna even close up.So we're not gonna goany further with this.I'm gonna take the wheel back offand jack this thing up a bit more.(upbeat music)We need to match thatup on the other side,see where are at.That's easier to do when thecoil over's out of the car.All right, let's throw some wheels on thatand see what we got.(impact gun whirring)This is promising.I think this will obviouslycompress a little bit,but that's about what we want there.(chair rolling)Still don't have it.(upbeat music)Not bad, we went fromone finger in the backto a solid three.You can even get four if you're trying.And then on the front we went from aboutI think we had like two and a half, three.Now we've got a pretty easy whole hand.Let's see how much groundclearance we've gained.Eight and a half, eightand three quarters.And then we're at about seven and a half.(upbeat music)I think that's about wherewe're gonna stay for now.Obviously we'll change thisa little bit when we put onour other wheels and tires,but until we do that,I don't know exactly howI want the stuff to fit,because it's fittingaround wheels and tires.So we're going to leave it like this,I'm gonna tighten down on my lock collars,all the adjustments, make sureeverything's good and tight,and call this done.Now let's go drive thisthing and see how it feels.Now these BCs are still going to be comfybut I think they'regonna be a little more,ooh, performance oriented, justdriving off the curb there,just to see how it feels, asyou do, and it feels fine.(car engine revving)No strange noises, that's always good.Everything feels nice andtight, and that's what I want.It doesn't really feel wobbly yet,I guess I got to get into some turns but,it really feels a lot tighter than it did,even though I jacked it way up.I guess that's what you getwhen you put nice new coiloverson the car, huh?It feels firm, yet supple,if that makes sense,like it feels kind oflike if I hit a jump,we might survive it.(car engine revving)Whoa, she feels so planted, so secure.It was really kind of, super softand just wallowy everywhere before,but now this thing is ataut performance machine.And I won't hear any differently.Oh, hell yeah, baby!I mean, I guess it's no secretbut a good set of coiloversis a great addition to any carthat you want to drive betterthan it does currently,at least in my opinion.It always makes it feel likea new car in the best way.I mean, (car engine revving)She's back in action, baby.So let me know what youguys think in the comments.Do you agree?Are coilovers worth thetime, money and effort?I say, hell yes they are.Thanks again for watching, Ihope you guys had a good time,maybe learned a thing or two.Don't forget to go follow me on Instagram,@Zackjobe and follow Donut, @Donutmedia.And I'll see you guys next Wednesday.