I have recently bought an early (94) E36 M3 and have found the steering to be a bit slow and not too sharp on turn in. Does anyone know of a good after market quick rack kit for these cars suitable to road and track driving. I have heard that the Evo rack is better but was unsure by how much?
E36 M3 steering rack upgrades
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Good question mate!!
I would suggest having a 4 wheel alignment done before you go spending out like that....
Its never beeen a known issue on the M3 and some very comptetent drivers have raced and tested them.
4WA may cure it..
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The 3.0 litre M3 has a variable steering rack and is slow at low speed, it has the least amount of turns lock to lock but is slower due to the design of the rack.
The standard e36 rack is 3.2 turns
The M3 3.2 litre is 3.0 turns
The Z3 1.9 rack is 2.7 turns lock to lock.
And to add, the rack ratios are all the same* but the racks are different lengths, hence the change in turns, a Evo has less lock than a standard e36 because of the wider wheels/tyres. 1 turn is 50mm of rack travel.
*(barring the variable rack)
The standard e36 rack is 3.2 turns
The M3 3.2 litre is 3.0 turns
The Z3 1.9 rack is 2.7 turns lock to lock.
And to add, the rack ratios are all the same* but the racks are different lengths, hence the change in turns, a Evo has less lock than a standard e36 because of the wider wheels/tyres. 1 turn is 50mm of rack travel.
*(barring the variable rack)
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I wouldn't know this as I am still running the rack from my 318is:hihi
Cheers guys, plenty to think about already! I will def get all the alignment checked before spending any money, just thought i would ask as i had read that the early cars were a bit slow on the steering and mine seems to replicate this. Slow speed stuff is fine but at higher speed there is a definite dead spot before you get a real reaction from the car, mid bend adjustments involve too much arm movement for my liking too! 
I realise stiffer bars should help the turn in too.
I realise stiffer bars should help the turn in too.Depends on how far you take it. You can replace the filter/reservoir and and the hoses if you really want to cough up the bucks, but you can replace just the rack for whatever price you can find it for. Assuming you DIY...
I dunno. Shops here normally charge $92 USD an hour or so and I could do the job in about 1.5hrs if I was doing just the rack. It's really simple.
Any size engine will work as long as it's a standard Z3 and not an ///MZ3.
Cheers Roland, Z3 rack sounds like a good bet. I will look at changing it myself. Any little tricks worth knowing for the swap or is it as simple as swaping them over? Think i will put some polybushes in the front end at the same time to avoid tracking the thing more than once!
lovely, cheers mate, they charge £40 a hour over here
No problem. Only difference is, the cooling line on my m3 steering rack in the front bolted to the rack in two places, the z3 only bolts into one. But a ziptie should fix that. It will swap right over, however I was unable to reuse my m3 lock-plates on the tie rods, but some thread locker solved that issue. It's definitely a good time to replace tie rods, control arms, control arm bushings and motor mounts. I replaced my entire front and rear suspension in one go and aligned it once. Saved a ton of money that way.
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