DIY: Whiteline rear subframe inserts

[CAVU]

Just to follow up on my Whiteline subframe bushing insert install a little over 3 weeks ago:

I checked the torque on all 4 subframe bushing bolts. The fronts were good, but the rears turned a few degrees before clicking. For the 30 seconds it takes to check, others may want to verify their bolts are tight.

[Joaco135]

Originally Posted by RickMsport

Just to follow up on my Whiteline subframe bushing insert install a little over 3 weeks ago:

I checked the torque on all 4 subframe bushing bolts. The fronts were good, but the rears turned a few degrees before clicking. For the 30 seconds it takes to check, others may want to verify their bolts are tight.

[ShocknAwe]

Did this yesterday. Difficulty was definitely 1/5. Had to only put 4 turns on the rear bolts in order to get the front upper inserts in. No issues with lining things up and no vibrations after install. Best part is for $50 and a little over an hour of time, the rear subframe now feels connected and grip through straight line acceleration and cornering seems to have improved as well. Axle tramp is also decreased (though both of these improved with dampers & springs too).

Good mod!

[CAVU]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Did this yesterday. Difficulty was definitely 1/5. Had to only put 4 turns on the rear bolts in order to get the front upper inserts in. No issues with lining things up and no vibrations after install. Best part is for $50 and a little over an hour of time, the rear subframe now feels connected and grip through straight line acceleration and cornering seems to have improved as well. Axle tramp is also decreased (though both of these improved with dampers & springs too).

Good mod!

Glad to hear your install went smoothly and you are happy with the results!!!

[gabsean]

I would first like to thank Freon for taking the time to write up this excellent DIY
This mod is probably the best $55 you can spend on your 135 and can't believe that spending the $1000-1200 on m3 bushings(I don't think I can see well enough or have the patience to do myself) could possibly be much better then what has happened to my car
I was truly afraid to really romp on my car with the 80 extra hp with cobb
My car felt like it was on marshmallows and gave a sensation of fishtailing
That is all gone now
Straight line take offs and when you come out of a turn and stomp on it this is what this car should feel like
Took my time with my son, maybe 2 hrs tops and your DIY showed by loosing the side supports made the job so much easier
This should be the first thing you should do after ditching the run flats
Thanks again!

[mike082802]

did this yesterday and it was a bitch. i took the front and rear bolts out and couldnt get them to align afterwards. i stripped the rear driver bolt, had to tap it and finally went back in. it took me 4 hours, what a pain. i will re check everything this weekend, i might even buy a new bolt just to be sure. i guess i shouldn't have dropped both front and rear bolts (both sides.). nothing has gone smoothly workwise on this car. although i did get both h8 bulbs swapped out yesterday in 20 minutes...

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by mike082802

did this yesterday and it was a bitch. i took the front and rear bolts out and couldnt get them to align afterwards. i stripped the rear driver bolt, had to tap it and finally went back in. it took me 4 hours, what a pain. i will re check everything this weekend, i might even buy a new bolt just to be sure. i guess i shouldn't have dropped both front and rear bolts (both sides.). nothing has gone smoothly workwise on this car. although i did get both h8 bulbs swapped out yesterday in 20 minutes...

Early sign you need an alignment man. Sorry it didn't go smoothly though. Now that it's done, how does it feel?

[mike082802]

cant really tell the difference that much. didnt really push the car hard. im putting koni yellows and bmw ps on tomorrow so i will get an alignment next week. i think the passenger front bushing rotated 90 degrees while tightening but i was too spent to redo it. before the alignment i'll check. the car pulls to the left ever so slightly, wasnt like that before. im going to get a new bolt from bmw and redo the one i stripped before the alignment.

[owen2001]

Ordered my Whiteline subframe inserts today. Hope to get them installed next week. I'll report back after the install...

[Ginger_Extract]

I think people are over stating the effects of this mod. Having now driven the car on the street, in the canyons, and on the track, I am sure it did something, but it's not particularly noticeable. Unless M3 bushings are a monumental difference, I would be pretty sour at spending the $$$ necessary for the ///M bits. YMMV...

[owen2001]

Going to look into getting the Whitelines installed this week. Did any of you get/need an alignment after the install? Any thoughts on this?

[Ginger_Extract]

Originally Posted by owen2001

Going to look into getting the Whitelines installed this week. Did any of you get/need an alignment after the install? Any thoughts on this?

Alignment not necessary. It's plug and play.

[owen2001]

Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract

Alignment not necessary. It's plug and play.

That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the quick reply. Heading over to the shop now. I'll report back later!

[owen2001]

Originally Posted by owen2001

That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Thanks for the quick reply. Heading over to the shop now. I'll report back later!

Had my local indy install do the install yesterday. Took a bit less than an hour and after just a few minutes behind the wheel, the difference was easily apparent. Let me start by saying the price (less than $150 for parts & labor) makes this mod a no-brainer.

The rear feels like it's firmly connected & planted to the ground. Feels tight and grippy. I took the car for a 30-min spin with some on-ramps and some corners and I feel like that splashy feeling in the rear is vastly improved. Much less movement in the back. The entire thing just feels tight - the best way to describe it is that it feels like it was supposed to feel all along, if that makes any sense.

It even feels tighter when shifting and accelerating in a straight line. My first few shifts just felt like there was less movement overall. I didn't get to spend a lot of time on the road with it yesterday, but my initial impression was that there was no noticeable increase in NVH.

Originally Posted by 3002 tii

FYI, I just found the Whiteline KDT918 inserts listed for sale a few bucks cheaper by a vendor called NeverEnoughAuto. They have it listed both on Amazon and eBay. The MSRP is same as other sites but shipping is cheaper by few bucks ($5 vs $9).

http://www.amazon.com/Whiteline-KDT9...A10KPP948X9D3L

I used the same link to order mine. Thanks again for posting that.

Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract

I think people are over stating the effects of this mod. Having now driven the car on the street, in the canyons, and on the track, I am sure it did something, but it's not particularly noticeable...

IMO, it's very noticeable on my ride. I ditched the RFTs and went to the PSS rubber. Adding the Whitelines brought it all back together nicely. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being "no difference" and 10 being "holy shit!"), I would say this mod is a 5 or 6, especially considering the cost & labor.

[128Convertibleguy]

Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract

I think people are over stating the effects of this mod. Having now driven the car on the street, in the canyons, and on the track, I am sure it did something, but it's not particularly noticeable. Unless M3 bushings are a monumental difference, I would be pretty sour at spending the $$$ necessary for the ///M bits. YMMV...

Do you have glass smooth roads?

One big difference is, when you're going through a corner "briskly", and you hit a bump, the back end no longer jumps sideways.

Justified the change for me.

[potxoli]

Originally Posted by RickMsport

The position of the subframe and load on the various hardware can be controlled by either lifting or lowering the rear differential with your floor jack. Unless you adjust the jack to either compress or relax the rear suspension for the specific task you are trying to accomplish, you’ll be working against yourself. Here are the steps I recommend:

1. With the suspension compressed, remove the rear subframe bushing bolts and loosen the front subframe bushing bolts. Remove the 16mm bolts securing the diagonal subframe braces. Note: the right diagonal brace on my car was loaded outboard and aft by the cross brace that runs inboard and forward to the center of the car. I chose to leave the forward bolt installed a few threads to prevent the diagonal brace from finding a new location and making it difficult to restart the bolts.
2. With the suspension relaxed, insert the upper and lower rear subframe bushing inserts.
3. With the suspension compressed, loosely reinstall the rear subframe bushing bolts, then remove the front subframe bushing bolts.
4. With the suspension relaxed, install the upper front subframe bushing insert.
5. With the suspension compressed, install the lower front subframe bushing insert.
6. Loosely reinstall the front subframe bushing bolts and diagonal cross brace bolts.
7. Snug down all the loosened bolts first, then tighten and torque. I used 74 lb ft on the subframe bolts, and 'good’n tight' on the cross brace bolts.

So I just did this install today. Overall it went as described in this thread, but took me MUCH longer to do, about 4 hours start to finish including removing the wheels and jacking the car up.

I followed the method above and for the most part it worked, but there was no way I could put the front subframe bolts back on simply by lifting or lowering from the differential. The diff sits slightly offset to the left of the car and when pushing back on up in, the front bits don't align and it is impossible to put the bolt back on.

After much cursing and sweating, it occurred to me to lift the subframe closer to the mount point. On the lower suspension arm, you can jack up where it attaches to the subframe very close to the front bolts. Luckily I have two jacks and by jacking up each side, I was able to get things to align and the bolts back in. I lost 45 minutes trying to figure that out.

Another few tips:

- Definitely remove the little plastic triangle under the 16mm cross bar bolts. 1000% easier than with a crescent wrench from the side.
- Get a 6" extension. I have a 2" and a 12" and it was a PITA. 2" is too short and 12" is too long and heavy.
- an angle drill with 1/2" drive like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Makita-DA391DW.../dp/B0000226A4 would help save a LOT Of ratcheting while you are on the floor and uncomfortable in the garage.

So when I was finally done, I was tired and annoyed, but then I drove the car. HOLY GUACAMOLE. Now I understand why everyone says subframe bushings are the first thing to change on the suspension. It feels so planted. Spirited turns on less than flat pavement now induce confidence instead of being sphincter clenching events. Power transfer on curve exit is much better, and now on corners where before the rear would get all wobbly and the car would not hook up, it hooks up like glue.

Well worth it for $45.

[owen2001]

Originally Posted by potxoli

...Well worth it for $45.

+1. Couldn't agree more w/ your last sentence.

Great write-up. I have neither the tools nor the knowledge to attempt something like that, so I paid my local $90 to do it for me. But there's definitely something to be said about doing it yourself.

[ShocknAwe]

If you take the plastic underbody shielding off (10 minutes) you don't need a crescent wrench, and the whole job can actually be done while sitting on the ground outside the car rather than underneath.

I do recommend taking the wheels off, less weight to jack around.

[sanbaifo]

Are the bushings you guys received from NeverEnough black?

[owen2001]

Originally Posted by sanbaifo

Are the bushings you guys received from NeverEnough black?

Yep.

[ShocknAwe]

All new whiteline bushings are now black. I contacted the company about it, they said it was an official move to change the color to something more discreet based on customer feedback.

[ASAP]

bump... any more opinion on this mod?

the rear play is incredibly annoying... how much does this take care of?