Is this doable on the Z3M?
Has anyone done this?
Was the benifits really noticeable?
It’s been done. Some have used billet aluminum. The cheaper and faster way is spending $1 on a hockey puck and making your own. Benefits are better feel of the road through your steering wheel, negatives are increased NVH.
1999 M Coupe Boston Green, Beige, H&R/Bilsteins, Underdrive Pulleys, Euro 6 speed, UUC SSK and Randy Forbes in the back
2002 2.5 Z3 roadster Oxford Green, auto, all stock
2013 Ram 3500 Crew Cab Dually 385 HP, 850 ft lbs torque at 1600 rpm, all stock and staying that way
2004 Mini Cooper Chili Red, daily driver, modified almost daily
If your car is on the original steering coupler, you would probably see most of the benefit in just replacing it with a new OEM unit. I did this recently and it made a big difference. Of course, you would also want to make sure the ball joints, bushings, and tie rods have also been replaced or you will just be forcing other worn out parts to take the load.
One of the potential negatives to the hockey puck is death. The stock coupler has braided steel wire molded into the rubber. So, even if the rubber fails completely you will still have a measure of control.
I used the steering coupler from E30. See post 27 below. BTW mine is not M.
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...8#post29647928
I did this to my car using the AKG billet aluminum part. It did improve the steering feel once everything got sorted out, but it caused another problem.
It turns out the AKG piece was thicker than the original that was removed. This resulted in the upper steering column being pushed up into the car. This meant that the steering spindle bearing (part 2 here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=32_0913) was no longer being held in place by the backup ring (part 3 in the same diagram). This all resulted in a slight up, down and side to side movement (~1-2 mm) in the steering wheel, there was no movement when pushing and pulling on the wheel in and out.
I solved it by buying another backup ring (part 3 here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=32_0913) and cutting it down to fit the gap between parts 3 and 5 in the diagram. See the pic below. The piece I inserted is the lighter coloured one in the middle.
20170819_184216_HDR.jpg
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Forgot to mention that I did not trust the hockey puck solution. I've seen the rubber in pucks degrade with age to the point where they crumbled.
Seems a better solution would be for AKG to make the part to the correct dimensions?
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Thanks for the input guys. Just trying to do some minor work while I try to figure out what to do to the car.
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