Schneller BMW suspension upgrades

At Schneller we take a balanced approach to designing a suspension for our customers. Handling should match and compliment the power of the vehicle, yet not make the car unbearable to drive.

Before altering your suspension, you need to ask the question why? Is it because you primarily want a different look? Do you want to upgrade the handling of your BMW? Or do you simply want to replace worn out components and restore the stock ride of your vehicle.

Sway bars will help reduce the body roll of your BMW, but so will stiffer springs. Like stiffer springs, thicker and stiffer sway bars will also add ride stiffness to your BMW as the bars will be forced to twist when your wheels travel independently of each other over bumps in the road. You will need to consider this factor in assembling a suspension that's right for you. More than anything, sway bars will alter the handling characteristics of your car. Typically most sway bar kits will dial more roll stiffness into the rear of your chassis hence enhancing turn in or over steer.

This is great if that's what you're expecting the sway bar kit to do. But many people have the misconception that the sway bars will actually help them stick to the road, that the rear sway bar will actually control the rear end of the car. This isn't true and these misconceptions can leave you swapping ends on a wet off ramp. We recommend some club driving schools and some experience getting used to a new sport suspension so that you can understand and feel the difference a set of sway bars will actually make in your car. Call us for further advice on sway bars and suspension tuning.

Whether you've got stock sway bars or bigger bars, don't forget to examine the condition of your sway bar links. Loose or broken links will alter the handling of your car and may be the source of mysterious suspension clunks.

Does your car handle like a dish pan of water? While driving, is there enough play in the steering wheel that you can move it right or left about an inch without actually changing the direction of the car? Does your car pull of in one direction under acceleration and off in yet another when lifting off the throttle? Do you have some mysterious clunks that occur while going over bumps, or when transitioning on or off the throttle?

These are all signs of worn out suspension and steering components such as control arms, control arm bushings, ball joints, tie rods, steering track rods, steering idler arms, trailing arm bushings, or rear sub frame bushings. Before you even consider a new set of springs and shocks you'll need to ensure that these components are in safe working order. Any BMW with 100,000 miles will certainly need to have these components looked at. Call us for recommendations on replacements parts.

Based on our 14+ years of tuning BMWs, believe us when we say that urethane, non rubber solid mounts & bushings, adjustable camber plates & adjustable coil over suspensions are for track use only. Using them on the street & driving them through harsh conditions (Freezing temperatures, snow, salt, sand & rain) will ruin these components & your car’s unibody structure.

That being said, these purpose built components will raise the handling of your track car to new heights.

We sell suspension components, bushings & mounts based on solutions to customer stated handling problems and class racing rules that dictate what types of components may be used. Please call us for your racing suspension needs.

Note::

All of these components will require professional installation, chassis realignment & set-up. Call us to discuss your suspension needs or schedule an appointment for a chassis evaluation. WE OFFER....

It's easy to end up with the wrong suspension given the primary use of your car. Something that works well at the club driver school or autocross may not be the best for commuting on the bumpy streets of Boston. Call us and we'll help you design a suspension that will fit your needs, and not just sell you the one that happens to be on sale this week.