Review: 3DM Öhlins R&T kit + TMS camber plates + Syncro Design Works tension arms

[Obioban]

Thanks. I did see that series. Best match looks like 0800.2530.0350, with 131mm travel – 2.8mm less than the Hyperco option I saw (188B0350), and only 1mm more than what it'd see in use. 😕

Total travel or useable travel?

[IamFODI]

Total travel or useable travel?

Total. They don't list usable.

[Tbonem3]

You don't want to raise the car? Taller spring, move the perch down.

[IamFODI]

Taller spring, move the perch down.

That's the plan.

[IamFODI]

New issue: In trying to hunt down a noise that I think is suspension-related, I found the boots on both camber plate monoballs were torn. No idea how long they were like that but there is definitely play in at least the passenger's side monoball. If that isn't the source of the noise, I'm guessing it will be soon.

I was a hair's breadth from using this situation as an excuse to switch to other camber plates. But ECS is running a killer sale RN that puts the TMS Hybrid at the price of the GC Street or Vorshlag. GC says their Street plates will only give up to -1.5º of camber, which is less than I need. GC Race and Vorshlag will do more, but still have unsealed monoballs. So, I guess I'll be sticking with TMS Hybrids.

Only consolation in all this is that the M3 will be seeing fewer miles from now on as we've added another car to the stable. So, hopefully whatever camber plates I buy next will last longer than 3 years and 40k miles.

[IamFODI]

Did a spring-off test to make sure the wheel wouldn't rub with the amount of bump travel I calculated I'd have with the new 203mm Hyperco springs. Seemed to pass, so I'm proceeding with the spring swap to gain bump travel and hopefully prevent coil bind.

Also decided to break in a new kitchen scale by weighing the old and new springs.

Old 178mm Swift:


New 203mm Hyperco:


Only 6.6 oz difference per spring.

Surprisingly to me, the Hyperco only weighs 0.1 oz more per mm of length. I expected a bigger difference in favor of Swift given the hype.

[IamFODI]

After some minor drama, the front coilovers are back together with 203mm Hyperco springs in place of the old 178mm Swifts.



Looks like about 20mm of preload with the spring perches at their absolute lowest setting. This yields a roughly 50/50 bump/droop ratio at the point of bump stop engagement, by which point the springs should be delivering around 330 lbs more force. Hoping all of that makes bump stop hits less frequent and less horrible.

Per the spring's spec, it should be at least 5 mm short of coil bind even when the bump stop runs out of give. So, hopefully no coil bind from here on.

Though, ironically, I might never know because roads around here are night-and-day better than before. Which, honestly, would be fine by me...

I put a few miles on the car since putting everything back together and it seems the noise I had been chasing is gone. So, I guess it was the worn camber plate monoballs after all.

Ended up having a conversation with FK, who makes the monoball in the TMS Hybrid camber plates. Monoball camber plates are a weird application for spherical bearings: they load the bearing axially, which spherical bearings are not designed for and not very good at. For applications with high axial load, the FK rep recommended the "F1 fit" variant, which is tighter and should be able to take more load. Apparently ECS uses the looser F2 fit in their plates. Food for thought for a future rebuild.

[K-Dawg]

So you bought completely new plates instead of new bearings/seals? Do you have any pictures of the torn seals? I don't like the way the seals in the E46 M3 Hybrid plates work, but they are what they are.

[IamFODI]

So you bought completely new plates instead of new bearings/seals? Do you have any pictures of the torn seals? I don't like the way the seals in the E46 M3 Hybrid plates work, but they are what they are.

Correct. Mainly because I didn’t know what was involved, couldn’t find instructions/guidance, and didn’t want to risk another project, more delays, etc.

Now that I have everything apart, it looks pretty straightforward TBH.

This is the only pic I have:

This is of the one with the play in the monoball. The other one wasn’t all smashed to the side like that but its dust seal had similar looking cracks, which turned out to be all the way through.

[bavarian3]

Thanks for this great thread and review. I thought I would add some spring weights to your thread for data points.

Based on this, due to weight, I think I'll need to find new front springs. These are for e46 m3 btw if it makes a difference.

Front Ohlins RT



Rear

[IamFODI]

Thanks for this great thread and review. I thought I would add some spring weights to your thread for data points.

Based on this, due to weight, I think I'll need to find new front springs. These are for e46 m3 btw if it makes a difference.

Yeah, I think E9x springs will be different. The car is a bit heavier, front suspension is a little different, rear suspension is very different. Assuming your scale is showing lbs and oz, that rear spring is way lighter than the E9x's. The front is in the same ballpark, though, so a Swift or Hyperco option should be lighter for sure.

[Grke46m3]

Yeah, I think E9x springs will be different. The car is a bit heavier, front suspension is a little different, rear suspension is very different. Assuming your scale is showing lbs and oz, that rear spring is way lighter than the E9x's. The front is in the same ballpark, though, so a Swift or Hyperco option should be lighter for sure.

What's the advantage of going with a swift or hyperco vs a custom ohlins from 3ddm? Swift and hyperco have a longer spring?


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[IamFODI]

What's the advantage of going with a swift or hyperco vs a custom ohlins from 3ddm? Swift and hyperco have a longer spring?

At the time I bought the kit (~4 years ago now – holy smokes), Swift springs were lighter than the ones Öhlins was using (not sure if this is still true).

Then it turned out the Swift springs I had up front were too short and caused coil bind, so I looked for longer springs with more compression travel; Hyperco and Swift both had options, but Hyperco's option seemed to offer slightly more compression travel according to the specs, and I got the impression that the risk of permanent deformation from near-full compression isn't as much of a worry with Hyperco as with Swift. So, I went with Hyperco.

I brought all of this headache on myself by insisting on

1. A particular camber plate, which threw off the dimensions, and
2. Maximum weight savings – as in, fractions of a pound.

If you just go with Öhlins's camber plates or the stock mounts, and if you aren't obsessed with saving ounces of mass, just do what Öhlins/3DM tells you to do and you'll have a great life.