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Thread: Can the car sit lower because of worn out pitman arms?

  1. #1
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    Can the car sit lower because of worn out pitman arms?

    Hey everyone

    A friend of mine suggested that the rideheight can drop in the back if the dogbones are worn out. Is this true?
    My car is really low in the back, id like it higher. And the pitman arms are in fact really bad. Before replacing them, would like to know whether this is true or not, as i will replace the springs along with everything "back there" next week.
    1996 Orientbraun BMW E34 532i Touring

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  2. #2
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    My car was really low with pretty severe neg camber before I replaced all the rear components. It's better now but I'm not sure if just pitman arms fixed it (mine were wrecked too).
    I added adjustable RTABs at the same time and it could have been them that made a bigger difference.
    How are your RTABs and do you also have heaps of neg camber?

    E: I didn't touch the springs or shocks but the back raised about 20mm just doing the pitman and rtabs.
    Last edited by fo3; 04-20-2018 at 06:48 PM.

  3. #3
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    If the RTAB is for trailing arm bushings, i think they are fine. I am replacing the subframe bushings at this very moment lol, just taking a break.
    What can an adjustable RTAB do?

    Thanks.
    1996 Orientbraun BMW E34 532i Touring

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  4. #4
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    Yeah rtabs are trailing arm bushings (Rear Trailing Arm Bushings)
    Adjustable ones can let you adjust rear camber +-2 degrees OR dial in your rear toe in/out. My old tyres were a mess (almost like new on the outside edge but completely bald on the inside). I was hoping for my new tyres to last a long time so I fitted adjustable rtabs so I could get a rear alignment to adjust camber/toe to improve rear tyre wear.
    To be honest I think the severe tyre wear on mine was due to bad pitman arms and rtabs causing bad camber, so I possibly didn't need adjustable rtabs but I didn't want to take that chance. The car cost me $2000, the tyres $880 so I don't want to buy tyres for a while and $300 for adjustable rtabs seemed like a good gamble, plus it also raised the rear a bit
    If the front has a good camber (mine still does), then I can rotate to the rear that now has less camber to increase the life of the tyres all around.
    Last edited by fo3; 04-21-2018 at 10:09 AM.

  5. #5
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    Sounds great. Thanks!

  6. #6
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    I have new dogbones and noticed zero change in camber when I installed them.

    I will have to look into adjustable RTABs too.

  7. #7
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    "Really low", I don't think is possible no matter how worn the dog bones are. I would bet OP has worn springs.

    Keep in mind toe, even factory toe, wears tire edges far more quickly than camber (unless your car is 100% highway use, and the highways are straight - or you are running -3 or more on a street car).
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    Quote Originally Posted by danespann View Post
    Every E34 needs the same things in the end.

  8. #8
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    Yeah, I can't comment on the springs, as mine had lowered springs put on by the previous owner. But I can say the height did rise with pitman arms and adj rtabs installed and also the rear camber improved accordingly (it looked like 3deg+ before and was extremely more neg camber than the front wheels if going by eye and that ain't right).
    I didn't want to buy new higher springs so I just did the dog legs, rtabs and subframe mounts. It worked out well anyway, now it's a good height

    I read up a lot on the camber issues, both here, other BMW sites and generally as this is the first car I've had that didn't have a solid rear axle I got the aligner to set it mainly to minimize toe, still came off with a -1 to -1.5deg camber but that's a huge improvement and now looks like less camber than the front going by eye and that's what it should look like.
    Last edited by fo3; 04-25-2018 at 02:23 AM.

  9. #9
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    OP has 1500km springs
    -35 but its sits like -60mm, it had like no arch gap even with stock springs. Just finished the subframe mounts, ordered the pitmans arms. I'll update this after the install is done and see if there's any difference.

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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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  11. #11
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    Okie, im done with it. I've gotten around 1/2" back. Note though that mine were absolutely broken and basically could twist them with one finger.
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