[subieworx]

I haven't seen any talk of this and wanted to know if anyone has done it for more front camber adjustment? It would be pretty damn easy to do and would get a lot more camber for the camber challenged front.

I don't want to do camber plates yet until I decide which coilovers I am going to go with; I just don't feel like pulling it back apart. It's easy enough for me to drop the three topnuts on either side and lower the suspension down, slot the holes and realign it. I'm planning on trying it today. Hopefully all goes well.

[subieworx]

So I was in the process of pulling the front suspension apart and found something interesting.



That would be a dead tophat. The rubber completely separated. I had just started to get some noises out of the front this week and hadn't had time to tear into it yet. I was just at the track last weekend with the car where this corner was subjected to quite a lot of load considering all the right had turns at the track.

Aside from slotting the holes I am also going to be changing out bump stops as the stock ones are too long for the H&R sport springs and cause it to ride very rough. I'll start a new thread for that though.

[The HACK]

There are none destructive ways on this chassis to get more camber out of the stock suspension. Why would you EVER want to cut up a load bearing part of the chassis?

[subieworx]

Bah, cutting it up is a bit extreme. I slotted the holes 5mm inward. hardly noticeable to the untrained eye. Besides, this is BMW's way of adjusting camber from the factory.

I understand the other methods of adding camber (plates) and don't want to go there as this is a street car and I don't feel like adding the harshness to it. My company has long standing relationships with many other suspension companies, but I am approaching this project with a small budget to attempt to replicate the "working man's" struggle.

[The HACK]

Originally Posted by subieworx

Bah, cutting it up is a bit extreme. I slotted the holes 5mm inward. hardly noticeable to the untrained eye. Besides, this is BMW's way of adjusting camber from the factory.

I understand the other methods of adding camber (plates) and don't want to go there as this is a street car and I don't feel like adding the harshness to it. My company has long standing relationships with many other suspension companies, but I am approaching this project with a small budget to attempt to replicate the "working man's" struggle.

I still think slotting the holes larger is a mistake. BMW strut towers are NOTORIOUSLY weak. Enlarging the hole is not what *I* would choose to do that's for certain, especially when stuff like M3 lower control arms are available that adds decent amount of camber without sacrificing comfort and longevity.

At least, if you really do want to attempt it (or have already done so), I would add some reinforcement to the area to prevent it from doing further damage. I've seen cracks form from the holes on the strut tower on race cars and it's not pretty...And that's without any modification to enlarge the strut mounting holes.

Too bad BMW went away from this style strut up front. I can add up to 1.5 degrees of negative camber with $10 worth of parts from a hardware store.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...58&hg=31&fg=10

Now, if you ALREADY have M3 lower control arms...Well, I still think camber/caster plates are better solutions. You've got to keep in mind that these BMWs aren't designed for rally racing and off-roading like the Subarus, the suspension hardware aren't designed with enough redundancy and extra strength to allow that sort of modification IMO.

By the way, I ran over a parking block at high speed the other day when my wife and daughter was distracting me while driving in the parking lot looking for a place to park in the mall...Luckily we were in my WRX Wagon. Had it been either one of the BMWs that would have easily been $5,000 in repairs. Put the Subaru up on the rack yesterday after work and inspected all the suspension components as well as the frame rail where the parking block had high-centered itself. No signs of damage whatsoever. None. Also, ran over a large block on the freeway at speed and blew out a tire. Same deal. On the E46 that tore through my tires and bent the strut casing AND control arm and nearly punched through the strut tower (split the welding seams).

Just FYI.

[subieworx]

I was thinking about that as BMW and Mini both have issues with the strut towers falling apart (you'd think they would have designed it better). The mini guys have had much success with the M7 strut tower brace that has a doubler plate on the top to match the one on the underside to sandwich the strut tower for added strength. I think it would be a great idea for this car as well. I think I'll have to hit up the CNC guys to get going on that.

I'm not one to shy away from mods or performing them so it's already done. I was able to get an additional .8* of camber which is huge considering -.7* is all I could get evenly. It's currently sitting at -1.5* per side and feels much better already. Still needs much more to go.

[subieworx]

Here's some pics. 5mm is what I ended up slotting them. The most I could go without switching to different nuts and really all I'd want to do.

[MalM3]

smart !
How does it stand now ?

[IN54NITY]

Originally Posted by subieworx

Here's some pics. 5mm is what I ended up slotting them. The most I could go without switching to different nuts and really all I'd want to do.

Wow. Just wow. How do you walk with balls so big?

Edit: If my balls were that big, I would have put even bigger washers (and under too) than the "built in" ones on those lock nuts.

[ajsalida]

This is a common mod on street-based race cars with McPhearson struts (like for SCCA Improved Touring). No big deal, esp if you slap on a decent strut bar afterwards. Since it keeps the strut/tire geometry in place, you don't have to worry about tire clearance against the strut.

You're right, on the old e36 cars you could just put washers between the lower strut housing and the hub where the bolts went through.

Some guys on even older cars used to bend the lower strut housing to get even more camber. One guy I knew sliced a small wedge section out of each strut housing and rewelded them, after putting Koni inserts in. Had to watch tire clearance closely on the upper strut though. Unfortunately under heavy load in a practice situation one of those welds let go and totalled the car.

I have never heard of slotting the upper shock tower causing any problems.

[IN54NITY]

>This is a common mod on street-based race cars
>with McPhearson struts ...

You said it: street-based... I forgot the correlation between deep pockets and ball diameter, mass, and density. I say go for it, but I'll just spend the money on camber plates, and reduce some risk.

[ajsalida]

Can you get camber plates for e9x cars that do not require coil overs?

[IN54NITY]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Can you get camber plates for e9x cars that do not require coil overs?

http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...bedc8b0e54dbdb

I think there are others. Search.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by aleckzandr

>You said it: street-based...

By "street based" here I meant dedicated track-only cars in racing classes that are required to be based on street cars. Like Improved Touring classes in SCCA. These are full-on race cars with full cages, gutted interiors, etc. that started life as street cars. It's been a while but back when I knew this stuff IT cars could do minor suspension (coilovers + sway bars) and external engine mods (headers etc.), welded diffs, but were supposed to be "affordable" racing.

Point is the shit got beat out of these cars on race tracks day in day out and none broke due to slotting strut towers, which was SCCA legal.

Now would I do this to my 335i xDrive coupe? No, as I don't need any more camber (yet) and if I wanted a track car it sure wouldn't be this one. Too heavy, too luxo, too sedate. This car is my mid-life snowboarder guy mountain car.

But it is a legit and well understood mod for people who want low-budget camber for whatever reason.

[IN54NITY]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

By "street based" here I meant dedicated track-only cars in racing classes that are required to be based on street cars. Like Improved Touring classes in SCCA. These are full-on race cars with full cages, gutted interiors, etc. that started life as street cars. It's been a while but back when I knew this stuff IT cars could do minor suspension (coilovers + sway bars) and external engine mods (headers etc.), welded diffs, but were supposed to be "affordable" racing.

Point is the shit got beat out of these cars on race tracks day in day out and none broke due to slotting strut towers, which was SCCA legal.

Now would I do this to my 335i xDrive coupe? No, as I don't need any more camber (yet) and if I wanted a track car it sure wouldn't be this one. Too heavy, too luxo, too sedate. This car is my mid-life snowboarder guy mountain car.

But it is a legit and well understood mod for people who want low-budget camber for whatever reason.

I never meant to disagree with you or challege, and I completely agree with this ^ post. I only track this car because it's all I got to track right now, and the inside of my mucous membranes itch.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by aleckzandr

I never meant to disagree with you or challege, and I completely agree with this ^ post. I only track this car because it's all I got to track right now, and the inside of my mucous membranes itch.

Ha ha, that's a bad itch! Good luck with your track activities.

[zsapphire7]

i thought about doing this heh.... Its tough to say how this will effect your car in the long run. You just increased the size of a stress concentration. Hopefully bmw overbuilt it....

[subieworx]

I don't think I have removed material in a way that will cause the strut tower to fail any sooner than fit would have in the first place. If it does I I'll fix it. Not worried. I also don't worry about molding the car as that is what I do for a living. I'm used to it.

This isn't really a track car for me which is why I don't want to do camber plates. I will take it on track from time to time to have fun with it, but that it. When I really want to have fun on track I'll drive the race car.

[subieworx]

So far I have to say this is working great. Haven't really had a chance to beat on it yet, but will soon.

[Cooper35]

http://www.ground-control-store.com/.../II=842/CA=269

these are made for stock springs and arent ridiculously priced

[IN54NITY]

The "ones" the OP installed are even cheaper. I think they're either "made" by DeWalt or Makita or the like.

[subieworx]

Matco actually. We only use the best tools.

Those aren't badly priced though. I wonder how much adjustment range there is with them? I have a set of m3 control arms coming that should allow me to get to the 2.3* range without adding stiff camber plates.