What You May Not Know About Lowering Your BMW
When you lower a car, you are changing the center of gravity. This improves weight transfer from each corner of the car as well as offers better traction since performance suspension, like coilovers, is designed to keep the tires in contact with the road more consistently than factory suspension will. Unfortunately, in lowering your car, you are also affecting components like the tie rods and sway bar end links, which are designed to function with the ride height and rigidity of the factory suspension, not a lowered ride height. The results of lowering causes binding in the sway bar end links and roll center issues that cause bump steer due to the tie rod’s change in the angle where it meets the knuckle. Not only that, but your camber is affected since the rear control arms are not adjustable from the factory. This causes your alignment to go out of spec and reduces the contact patch of your wheels, which reduces traction and causes uneven tire wear. | 
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Since lowering your car offers more good than bad, most folks tend to go through with it for the looks or the handling benefits that outweigh the detrimental effects. At Turner Motorsport, we have developed a way to have all of the good and none of the bad. Our new adjustable end links, tie rod ends, and rear lower control arms are designed to work specifically with lowered vehicles and allow you to provide the adjustment you need to retain factory geometry for the best handling possible while taking advantage of the lowered height and stiffer rates offered by the various forms of lowering your vehicle.
Tie Rods connect your steering rack to your front wheel knuckles and provide the pivot point that allows your rack to turn your wheels. They are also responsible for your toe angle in the front, which greatly affects your stability and turn-in response as well as tire wear. Without replacing the factory tie rods, you are limited in your ability to correct for the bump steer/roll center adjustment needed to counter instability from the change in geometry when your vehicle is lowered. Since the knuckle is now higher, the tie rods are angled up when the vehicle is on the ground. This is where the bump steer comes from. With the Turner Motorsport Performance Tie Rod Ends, you can relocate the tie rod end pivot point while allowing for full articulation and droop travel to eliminate the binding and bump steer you would otherwise experience without making the upgrade. This is important as your car will retain its correct caster and lower control arm geometry while still receiving the benefits of a lowered ride height in terms of handling and visual appeal. |
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| End Links are often less considered since they don’t affect the geometry itself, but are no less important in terms of a lowered vehicle’s handling since they connect each end of the sway bar to the left and right sides’ suspension components and help reduce body roll by acting as a pendulum or counterbalance. When a car is lowered, the sway bar will bind and its effectiveness at reducing body roll is diminished. This is not usually noticed immediately, as lowering the car also helps reduce body roll, but replacing the factory fixed-length end links with adjustable links that allow you to retain full function of the sway bar articulation will be incredibly noticeable. Our Performance Adjustable End Links allow you to eliminate the preload that is applied to a sway bar and associated with lowering a vehicle to gain back the handling advantages of a fully functioning sway bar and further reduce your body roll in the corners. Additionally, they will help prevent wear to your suspension components, sway bars themselves, and the sway bar bushings which will return their expected lifespans back to normal. Less maintenance means more time on the track, after all. |
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Rear lower control arms on BMWs have always been fixed lengths. This is fine for someone who does not wish to change the suspension geometry from the factory settings, but less than ideal for anyone who wants to maximize their traction and handling abilities on the track or lower their vehicle without negative effects to certain driving situations and tire wear. With Turner Motorsport Performance Adjustable Lower Control Arms, you can adjust your roll center, camber, and track width easily to return your lowered BMW to factory specs or find your own ideal settings for your needs while you have the confidence that these upgrades are more durable than their OEM fixed counterparts. The adjustments offered with these control arms should be the first consideration for anyone lowering their BMW and are crucial to correcting your alignment after lowering the car to your desired height.
Of course, all these upgrades have to offer more than just their physical functionality. Without the guarantee of durability, longevity, and visual appeal, they are purely theoretical and less critical to someone just concerned with looking good on the street. Fortunately, all these adjustable suspension components are constructed from 6061-T6 Billet Aluminum, stainless steel, Titanium, Chromoly, and Lightweight Aluminum for the best durability and coated with classic Turner Motorsport blue for those critical style points. So you can have all your suspension and handling benefits with none of the downsides or worry that your latest upgrade will offer weak points of its own. Thanks to our years of developing parts for our race cars and yours, we are proud to give you all the adjustment capabilities you need to fully maximize your BMW’s handling wherever you choose to drive it. | | | TURNER MOTORSPORT PERFORMANCE ADJUSTABLE SUSPENSION LINKS | | | | TURNER MOTORSPORT SUSPENSION UPGRADES | | | | TURNER MOTORSPORT BMW PERFORMANCE UPGRADES | |
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