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      02-01-2016, 10:39 AM   #1
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NEW RELEASE: Dinan F2x/F3x Adjustable Camber Plate Kit

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Part Number: D160-0007 - Dinan Adjustable Camber Plates for BMW F2x M235i & 228i / F3x 320i, 328i, 335i, 340i, 428i, & 435i
Labor Time: 3.5 hrs
Details and Pricing: Consult www.dinancars.com.

Dinan's F2x / F3x Camber Plates allow an impressive 43mm of total camber adjustment (30 negative, 13 positive) providing for a more aggressive negative camber setting that dramatically improves grip in the turns for reduced understeer and razor sharp turn-in. The positive adjustment range on the camber plates is unique to Dinan and allows the end user, if desired, to retain OEM camber settings on a lowered car or to combat excessive negative camber brought upon by springs that aggressively lower the car. Not only do the Dinan camber plates provide a wide range of adjustment but they also have ride quality in mind like all of Dinan's suspension components and are designed to properly retain the bumpstop so that it compresses as designed from the factory. There is no reason for camber plates to wildly inhibit ride quality if engineered properly. Dinan camber plates are also built to take a beating and are the only ones that utilize a steel alloy mount plate that will resist deforming from pot holes on the street or curb hopping at the track.

Aggressive drivers will benefit from reduced outside edge tire wear as well.

Benefits of the F2x / F3x Camber Plate Kit:
  • 43mm of total camber adjustment (30 negative, 13 positive from OEM)
  • Decreased understeer
  • Decreases outside edge tire wear
  • Steel alloy mount plate and not aluminum
  • Fits with factory strut tower weather seal
Dinan warranty applies to all parts except for the spherical bearings. A separate maintenance kit with new spherical bearings, snap rings, and loctite will be available to customers that want to eventually replace worn/noisy bearings.

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Last edited by Dinan_Engineering; 02-01-2016 at 02:03 PM..
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      02-01-2016, 03:43 PM   #2
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Looks like those mounting bolts will interfere with the spring perch... They're way too long...

Also: interesting choice on shape of the mount plate... Do you supply a matching washer gasket a la this OEM piece (#4 in this pic):
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=31_0950
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      02-01-2016, 04:28 PM   #3
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      02-01-2016, 04:54 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
Looks like those mounting bolts will interfere with the spring perch... They're way too long...

Also: interesting choice on shape of the mount plate... Do you supply a matching washer gasket a la this OEM piece (#4 in this pic):
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=31_0950
You are correct, the bolts in the imagery are too long. The bolts used in the image were placeholder pieces that were at least similar for photo purposes. Didn't want to delay release anymore then needed because of a photo. Supplied mounting bolts with the kit are M8 x 14.

Shape of the mount plate was done that way to shave off extra un-needed weight. Since we are using a steel mount plate for durability as opposed to aluminum anywhere we could close that weight differential we did. In regards to the washer gasket-- we do not supply one in our kit and recommend re-using the stock gasket.

Detailed installation instructions should be posted to the product page within the next 48 hours (plugging in photos, spellchecking, etc).
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      02-01-2016, 06:41 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dinan_Engineering View Post
Shape of the mount plate was done that way to shave off extra un-needed weight. Since we are using a steel mount plate for durability as opposed to aluminum anywhere we could close that weight differential we did.
What about load distribution across the top of the strut tower? Does the smaller contact patch increase the likelihood of tower failure (a la e36)?

Last edited by rwalker; 02-01-2016 at 07:25 PM..
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      02-02-2016, 08:01 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
What about load distribution across the top of the strut tower? Does the smaller contact patch increase the likelihood of tower failure (a la e36)?
No. We have had multiple test cars running the camber plates for over 10k (hard driven) miles at this point and none have shown any signs of premature wear on the strut tower.
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      02-02-2016, 09:40 AM   #7
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Finally......now I can do this without trying to break the code.
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      02-02-2016, 09:42 AM   #8
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"the code"?
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      02-06-2016, 07:45 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker
"the code"?
Which plates aren't going to break early. I like that these are rebuildable.
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      02-19-2016, 09:44 PM   #10
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I just got a set of these to test, compare to my Ground Control plates. I've unpacked and inspected them. They're quite robust looking and feeling.

Unfortunately, they're not ready to go on the car yet, so my review will have to wait.
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      02-20-2016, 02:21 PM   #11
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Hopefully I will be able to pair these with the KW V3's and get a ton more fun out of my car. I am looking forward to your review when you get them installed.
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      03-08-2016, 03:22 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
I just got a set of these to test, compare to my Ground Control plates. I've unpacked and inspected them. They're quite robust looking and feeling.

Unfortunately, they're not ready to go on the car yet, so my review will have to wait.
Any update?
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      03-08-2016, 05:31 PM   #13
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They're on the car, and they're so far free of the noise that the GC plates had. I have approximately 500 miles of street driving on them. I'll double or triple that this weekend with a BMW CCA HPDE at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.

Unboxing
Everything you receive is labeled, wrapped, and padded.



Here's an interesting comparison to the stock plates. Note that the stock plates use the same part for both sides, which means the holes on the towers are asymmetric. The Dinan plates aren't symmetric either, you can see that the flying spaghetti monster shape points rearward on the right plate and to the right on the left plate.




As a result, the sliders are also different from side to side, they're notched to clear the mounting bolts.




This is a nice touch: they include little rubber grommets to plug the holes in the body where the stock plates' alignment pins go.



Stack height is identical to stock, as is the distance from the plate top to the seat of the spherical bearing.



Installation

Installation was a little more difficult than with the GC plates, owing to Dinan's use of bolts as opposed to studs for the tower mount. Studs are a lot easier to deal with than bolts when mounting the strut from beneath; it's very difficult to line up the holes while simultaneously getting the plate aligned with the tower top to avoid cross-threading. Studs allow one to just stuff the studs through the holes, get one nut on there and tighten around.

The asymmetry means a little more care is needed when doing assembly.

One nit: I think the top nut should have elevated corners. Corners close to the spherical bearing are difficult to reach when there's camber dialed in. In my case, my universal sockets didn't fit in the bearing retainer at all. A standard-walled passthrough socket is needed to tighten the top nut supplied by Dinan. I ended up using the top nuts from my GC plates instead of going out for a new tool. This is not a problem others would have

Installed


Wins
I really like the slider design. There's a lot of adjust-ability there and it's really butt-simple to adjust, with robust adjuster screw locations.

The use of the stock spring perches is a great feature for noise isolation. It also preserves the stock steering feel. The bearings in my GC plate had gotten so gritty they had actually started robbing me of steering feedback.

The fact that the plates are steel rather than aluminum is also a really nice aspect. Steel seems to isolate noise a bit better, and I'm a lot less afraid that a little over-torque of the mounting bolts will wreck my day.

Overall a nice piece of kit. Obviously designed with a lot of attention to detail.

I'll update more (track findings) sometime next week. I don't expect any revelations, though: I'm running exactly the same camber as with my GCs.
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      03-11-2016, 12:51 PM   #14
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Thanks for the great write up. I think I'll have to invest in a set of these.
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      03-12-2016, 05:10 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker
They're on the car, and they're so far free of the noise that the GC plates had. I have approximately 500 miles of street driving on them. I'll double or triple that this weekend with a BMW CCA HPDE at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.

Unboxing
Everything you receive is labeled, wrapped, and padded.



Here's an interesting comparison to the stock plates. Note that the stock plates use the same part for both sides, which means the holes on the towers are asymmetric. The Dinan plates aren't symmetric either, you can see that the flying spaghetti monster shape points rearward on the right plate and to the right on the left plate.




As a result, the sliders are also different from side to side, they're notched to clear the mounting bolts.




This is a nice touch: they include little rubber grommets to plug the holes in the body where the stock plates' alignment pins go.



Stack height is identical to stock, as is the distance from the plate top to the seat of the spherical bearing.



Installation

Installation was a little more difficult than with the GC plates, owing to Dinan's use of bolts as opposed to studs for the tower mount. Studs are a lot easier to deal with than bolts when mounting the strut from beneath; it's very difficult to line up the holes while simultaneously getting the plate aligned with the tower top to avoid cross-threading. Studs allow one to just stuff the studs through the holes, get one nut on there and tighten around.

The asymmetry means a little more care is needed when doing assembly.

One nit: I think the top nut should have elevated corners. Corners close to the spherical bearing are difficult to reach when there's camber dialed in. In my case, my universal sockets didn't fit in the bearing retainer at all. A standard-walled passthrough socket is needed to tighten the top nut supplied by Dinan. I ended up using the top nuts from my GC plates instead of going out for a new tool. This is not a problem others would have

Installed


Wins
I really like the slider design. There's a lot of adjust-ability there and it's really butt-simple to adjust, with robust adjuster screw locations.

The use of the stock spring perches is a great feature for noise isolation. It also preserves the stock steering feel. The bearings in my GC plate had gotten so gritty they had actually started robbing me of steering feedback.

The fact that the plates are steel rather than aluminum is also a really nice aspect. Steel seems to isolate noise a bit better, and I'm a lot less afraid that a little over-torque of the mounting bolts will wreck my day.

Overall a nice piece of kit. Obviously designed with a lot of attention to detail.

I'll update more (track findings) sometime next week. I don't expect any revelations, though: I'm running exactly the same camber as with my GCs.
I have same problem with my tckline the top nut is hard to torque properly. Nice review ?
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      04-30-2016, 09:38 PM   #16
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Rwalker--Still satisfied with the Dinan camber plates? Good performance at the track?

Bob
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      04-30-2016, 09:51 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foglesre View Post
Rwalker--Still satisfied with the Dinan camber plates? Good performance at the track?
on track performance is super, and front tire shoulder preservation in sporty street driving is excellent as well
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      05-01-2016, 06:57 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
on track performance is super, and front tire shoulder preservation in sporty street driving is excellent as well
Thanks for the quick feedback. I'm convinced. I'm going to do Dinan springs and camber plates at the same time.

I would be interested to hear what alignment you're using for street/track. I'm thinking something along the lines of

Front camber: -2.5 deg (max for Dinan plates)
Front toe in: 0.1 deg
Rear camber: -2 deg
Rear toe in: 0.2 deg

Not planning on doing the M3 LCAs at this point.
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      05-01-2016, 07:28 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foglesre View Post
I would be interested to hear what alignment you're using for street/track.
http://www.2addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1213402

I've reduced front toe since this was posted to very near zero.
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      05-01-2016, 08:15 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
http://www.2addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1213402

I've reduced front toe since this was posted to very near zero.
-3.5 deg front, -2 deg rear. I guess you need the LCAs for that much front camber, huh? Are you maxed out on the Dinan plates?

That's also a lot of front end rubber. Probably need all that camber to get the 255s under there, huh?
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      05-01-2016, 10:07 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foglesre
Quote:
Originally Posted by rwalker View Post
http://www.2addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1213402

I've reduced front toe since this was posted to very near zero.
-3.5 deg front, -2 deg rear. I guess you need the LCAs for that much front camber, huh? Are you maxed out on the Dinan plates?

That's also a lot of front end rubber. Probably need all that camber to get the 255s under there, huh?
You don't. I run the same tire setup, and I'm at -2.3 in the front.

*Correction - if you are not running the M4 LCAs, you do not need that much front camber to fit 255 section tires.
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      05-01-2016, 10:10 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foglesre View Post
-3.5 deg front, -2 deg rear. I guess you need the LCAs for that much front camber, huh? Are you maxed out on the Dinan plates?

That's also a lot of front end rubber. Probably need all that camber to get the 255s under there, huh?
The LCAs compromise clearance, so yeah, I pretty much need that much camber to fit the 255s. I don't have the Dinan plates maxed: my guess is there's another centimeter or so of adjustability in them, but at that rate I might end up with the spring touching the inside of the strut tower.

Last edited by rwalker; 05-01-2016 at 08:43 PM..
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