i own a 90 325is and i have heard that the front and rear axle from a 318ti can be used on my car which would give me the five lugs so i can open my option on wheels for my car that i dont have with 4 lugs. my concern is is this true and if so will it increase or decrese the value and reliability of my car. also does anyone know of a website where i have a pretty good chice of wheels for my car? greatly appreciate any info as i am a newbie. thanks
5 lug wheels are not the only reason to do this swap. You get the chance for much bigger brakes on the front. If you don't care about that, sell the suspension parts and just buy the better 4 lug wheels. There are tons available. Just so you know, the rear is pretty easy to do if you have the tools. You have to pull the hubs out of the bearings, which will pretty much kill the bearings, so you you should replace those while you are there. Without the tools it is a real PITA and you will rue the day you ever heard of a 5 lug swap. The front is not a straight swap, because you really ought to have the E36 M3 struts coil springs as they are smaller diameter and actually fit in the E30 strut towers. Keep in mind that in addition you will need the calipers and brake rotors from the E36. The earlier 318ti has solid rotors in the front, so you really don't want those anyway. For super sized brakes, the E46 330i is the way to go, but this really throws off brake bias on an E30. If you don't care to do all the work (and there is a decent amount of expense involved if you take it to a shop for this) email me as I may be interested if the price is right. Of course, I have the bearing pullers, tools, a lift, etc.
BTW, the conversion won't really change the value of your car unless you put really cheap and crappy wheels on the car. The next owner won't be able to switch back to stock. Tire Rack has a gazillion wheels. http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/results.jsp?autoMake=BMW&autoModel=325i&autoYear=1990&autoModClar=
