[beevanka]

Hi Guys, I came from an e92 335i, and I've been having my m235i for about half a year. and I've been driving it 95 percent of the time on Sport+

I feel the electric power steering still feels soft to me, Is M4 LCA going to solve this?


Thanks!!

[amw896]

a good set of coilovers makes a huge difference so I would probably start there and decide if you need the lsd.

This is my first bmw so to me, the steering and handling is perfect for me in sport+.

You will also likely need to upgrade rims if you want a wider tire. I had to go this route and now run 255 in the rear and will try 265 for my next set.

[mcompact]

I've had my M235i for three years. I've used it as my DD as well as my HPDE instructor car and overall I'm very happy with it. In my case all I plan to do at most is add the M Performance differential and the Dinan Sport Tuner. The car is already very close to the M2 in stock condition, and the performance deficit is offset to a degree by the fact that the F22 is a bit more livable in day to day usage.
That said, I will almost certainly replace it with an M2C eventually. In my opinion I'd rather just bite the bullet and get an F87 rather than throw a suspension and larger tires on an F22.
As always, YMMV.

[Sportstick]

Originally Posted by beevanka

Hi Guys, I came from an e92 335i, and I've been having my m235i for about half a year. and I've been driving it 95 percent of the time on Sport+

I'd like to seek some opinions about the handling of this car, and would like to know how much better it could be.

1, I feel the electric power steering still feels inconsistent and soft to me even driving for 6 months, I've been trying to ignore it but I just can't forget how natural was the handling of my previous e92. Is M4 LCA going to solve this?

Thanks!!

The second half of your screenname scares me a bit, but what the heck, I'll jump in anyway on the only one I can address.

I drive in Sport all the time other than when my wife is in the passenger seat. I did the LCA swap with the kit from Turner Motorsports and consider it the best mod I've done so far. You may not realize how much of a dead on-center zone there is until you experience the LCA change. The steering is more crisp and responsive, but not in a "darty" or unpredictable/unpleasant way at all. Adding the negative camber also improves the tire contact patch relationship to the ground in turns, so the car feels more planted. The alignment spec is factory with the exception of +1 degree of negative camber. The only downside is anticipating that tire life may diminish, with my dealer estimating perhaps 3k miles of treadware loss. I absolutely recommend doing the LCA swap. If you track the car, talk to the guys at Turner about strut tensioners to slightly modify the resulting wheel position in the wheel well opening.

[beevanka]

I also posted this on a different thread in Suspension | Chassis | Brakes

I found this thread, and thinking the m235i or m240i could be coded the same way as the base m2? (<2018) with better EPS (F87 M2 CS)
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1541527
Anyone knows?

[beevanka]

Thanks for the info about the LCAs!

Originally Posted by Sportstick

The second half of your screenname scares me a bit, but what the heck, I'll jump in anyway on the only one I can address.

I drive in Sport all the time other than when my wife is in the passenger seat. I did the LCA swap with the kit from Turner Motorsports and consider it the best mod I've done so far. You may not realize how much of a dead on-center zone there is until you experience the LCA change. The steering is more crisp and responsive, but not in a "darty" or unpredictable/unpleasant way at all. Adding the negative camber also improves the tire contact patch relationship to the ground in turns, so the car feels more planted. The alignment spec is factory with the exception of +1 degree of negative camber. The only downside is anticipating that tire life may diminish, with my dealer estimating perhaps 3k miles of treadware loss. I absolutely recommend doing the LCA swap. If you track the car, talk to the guys at Turner about strut tensioners to slightly modify the resulting wheel position in the wheel well opening.

[beevanka]

What kind of rims are you running for the 255s in the rear?

Originally Posted by amw896

a good set of coilovers makes a huge difference so I would probably start there and decide if you need the lsd.

This is my first bmw so to me, the steering and handling is perfect for me in sport+.

You will also likely need to upgrade rims if you want a wider tire. I had to go this route and now run 255 in the rear and will try 265 for my next set.

[amw896]

Originally Posted by beevanka

What kind of rims are you running for the 255s in the rear?

Front: 19x8.5 ET35, 225/35ZR-19 
Rear: 19x9.5 ET45, 255/30ZR-19

VMR 803

Max tire width I was able to run on the stock rims was 245 but now I can go 265 no problem.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by beevanka

I'd like to seek some opinions about the handling of this car, and would like to know how much better it could be.

See my basic street/track build in the link below - it represents my solution to this issue.

I consider it a minimum improvement package because it works, it addresses this model's principal handling issues, and it gives up nothing on the street.

Note that I run the OEM staggered summer tire setup on the street; the wider wheels and tires are used only at the track. The track setup works on the street, but my street driving doesn't require them.

I took my car to TC Kline Racing and asked TC to prepare it for basic track duty, which in my case means a car that's effective for instructing students at track events and for running a few laps for my own pleasure. TC has been racing and building BMWs for at least a couple of decades now, and he knows how to build BMW suspensions. The build is not in the least overkill for the street, and avoiding that was the principal goal of the build.

I came to this car from a pro-built race car with right-now steering precision and response (see photo below), and I have no complaints with TC's solution.

As always, there are further improvements that can be made, but I've pretty much found my sweet spot as far as street-focused handling improvements go.

As for the issue of cost: it never goes away, and everyone has to find their own way of dealing with it. In fact, I'd argue that's a big part of the fun of the car improvement hobby.

My build: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1532418

My last build: