$1500 bucks to spend.. help me fix my handling.

[skeltah]

Not including tires, which will come when i change wheels.

camber plates/sways and shocks?

just a set of coilovers?

This under steer has got to go.

thanks.

[randomquickness]

I'd try to find a deal on a front sway bar and coilovers. Running wider tires in the front when you get your wheels will def help too!

[Eyeman]

Camber is the easiest way to fix just the understeer so camber plates, especially if you track or autocross.

Of course the problem with camber plates is you'll wear your tires faster if you add much camber while daily driving. So the other way to do help the understeer and the handling overall for daily driving is to get the car to roll less which is where some of the understeer comes from. New springs and/or sways and/or M3 pieces will help this.

In my case since I don't track my car, I just spend the $1500 on some KW V1's including install. This will also allow you to lower the car which also helps the handling and the looks. While you are installing you might want to "pull the pin" to add some camber. Instead I added the M3 front control arms which tacks another $500 on it. I may add a little more camber later, depending on my tire wear.

Remember to add the cost of an alignment each time you work on your suspension so it also pays to do as much of it as possible at one install.

[Thaddy]

Before spending a cent, figure out what your goals are. For a daily driver, I'd go with Koni FSD shocks and an M3 front sway bar. That will come in well under your budget if you're doing the installation yourself.

[oman135]

kw ftw !

[jeremydgreat]

The coilovers will drastically reduce understeer. However, I found that after coilovers, I was THRASHING the sidewalls of my front tires, even worse then before. Camber plates are an absolute must, and it will be cheaper for you to do it all at once (coilovers + plates). Once I had the plates on, the understeer was basically gone and I wasn't chewing through front tires anymore.

[fboutlaw]

vorshlag camber plates
koni fsd

A guy I autox with runs this setup with arc-8 wheels and direzzas. It's a solid setup and it's comparable in performance to my Dinan S3 suspension.

After the things above, get a stiffer roll bar.

[BMW86]

KW's will sort you out. I went with V2's but V1's would be good too.

[ErvGotti]

K sport coilovers $1200 including 36 levels of dampening and come with built in camber plates. Also The best part about them is on the front coilovers you adjust the lower mount for ride height and not the spring perch. This equates to a much smoother ride. I suggest to anyone looking for coilovers to look into them. They offer more features than KW's without the BMW tax. I got them and love em.

[skeltah]

I think im gonna order the M3 vert front swaybar and wait till spring for the rest. Thanks everyone.

[IGoFast1589]

Great tires and an alignment is the best way to improve handleing. The next step would be sway bars and end links. Be mindful of how much you are lowering the car as you can impair your handleing by setting off the suspension geometry.