Quote:
Originally Posted by bradford
Except stiffening a front bar without doing so in the rear as well creates MORE understeer, not less.
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In my experience with other cars, I would tend to agree.
But, seems in practice the guys who have done this are reporting positive results, which is interesting cause it doesn't sound like it should work.
If anything, I would go with a stiffer rear sway, and then a slightly stiffer front. The current M3 sway sounds like it's too much.
As far as this suspension, the feeling I get is that the dampers are over-damped, especially on rebound, given the soft-ish springs.
Once the bump is taken the rebound circuit feels overly aggressive.
It's a classic problem with an undersprung setup. It happens way too often in OEM motorcycle setups.
I'm frankly really surprised that BMW missed this one, as they are so darn good at suspension tuning.
My 135i is at the dealer getting a problem fixed, and they gave me a 328xi for a loaner. It's amazing how much more comfortable yet controlled the non-sport Xi suspension is. It makes my 135i's "sport" suspension feel crude in comparison, and that's a real let down for sporty BMW. Even initial turn in feels crisper and more responsive in the 328xi.
When I was deciding between the 1 and the 3, this was the one big area that I compromised on when deciding to get the 1. I thought it wouldn't be as bad as it felt on the test drives. Driving it for the past 10 months has shown the BMW really missed on this one.
I hope they took the opportunity to better tune the 135i suspension since they released the N55 engine. But, no one has been able to answer my question about that. It's probably because BMW didn't bother fixing anything.
My 135i is a lease so I'm not going to start tuning the suspension.
I really do hope that the next 1, hopefully in 2 years when I'm back in the market, will have a truly BMW worthy sport suspension.
Sway bars are a fine tuning element in suspension. If the basic major suspension bits are not good to begin with, fiddling with sway bars is like trying to "polish a turd".
If I were keeping my 1, I would go with new springs and dampers FIRST, then decide on sway bars if needed.