E36 M3 Steering Rack Upgrade

The z3 rack is 2 75 turns lock to lock while the e30 and e36 racks they interchange with vary between 3 0 and 3 9 ltl.

E36 m3 steering rack upgrade.

The steering racks that can be swapped in from the other chassis make the car feel sportier and become a bit more nimble. This guide was created to explain how to swap an e36 e46 or z3 steering rack into an e30. There s no better way to upgrade your bmw e36 m3 than to upgrade its brakes most of these mods require a significant of of time or cost involved but not the brakes. The first order of business was a new steering rack.

Bmw e36 power steering upgrade. 95 m3 had a 3 0 turns lock to lock rack. Since the z3 used so much 3 series componentry under the skin the steering rack is a direct bolt in replacement but it s used as an upgrade because the steering ratio is much quicker for a faster steering response. This is desired because the lock to lock ratio on the e30 is quite large.

The mounting face of the m3 pump bracket had to be milled down by almost an inch to line up properly. Updated 4th august 2016. At low speeds i didn t notice any difference at all in fact i had forgotten i d done the work then i got it up to speed and the difference was instantly noticed much better turn in better steering feel and feed. The stock brakes on the e36 m3 are more than large enough to handle everything but the most extreme duty even e36 m3 race cars run stock calipers.

This steering rack was used in many z3 roadster models including the z3 1 9 z3 2 3 z3 2 5 z3 2 8 and z3 3 0 models. We d heard great things about the non m z3 rack so one of those was obtained. I ve just changed the rack on my e36 for a purple 067 rack and removed the rubber bush and replaced with a solid aluminium part.