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Well I just threw my Tarrett (ERP parts) camber plates in the car, and well the strut tower appears to obstruct the adjustment pretty heavily. I need to dial in a bit more camber than I currently have to solve some aggressive offsets of my wheels. Any suggestions? I believe I read somewhere about modifying the opening of the strut tower, but I’d like to avoid that if I can.
Here’s some photos of the current adjustment, and one last photo of the new 4x4 stance since the height of the camber plates is much different to the stock strut bearings
Camber plates aren't a bolt-on item, even though most vendors sell them as such. They really require an RS style strut which has a longer threaded stem and a shorter body. Otherwise you get- no thread engagement on the top nut (do not drive like that yikes!), no compression travel at less than RoW height (riding on bumpstops).
The Ground Control mounts avoid some of the height issues and you have the ability to increase caster by an additional 1°. They still require correctly setting up the travel with the spacer stack above the upper spring perch and a strut with a longer threaded stem. Don't forget to make some kind of seal/barrier to keep road grime from quickly destroying the bearing.
Notch the chassis
get a couple jam nuts use loctite
the kw threaded area is short.
i replaced the fronts with a shorter shaft kw for better droop and setup. The stock shock was too long for low height. They will sell shorter one in us as it’s not tuv approved for road use in Germany.
Notch the chassis
get a couple jam nuts use loctite
the kw threaded area is short.
i replaced the fronts with a shorter shaft kw for better droop and setup. The stock shock was too long for low height. They will sell shorter one in us as it’s not tuv approved for road use in Germany.
did you have to send in your existing one, or did you buy the others outright?
did you have to send in your existing one, or did you buy the others outright?
KW makes a shorter shock for the front but it's not in the kit. It's designed for lower than RS ride heights. Its not TUV approved so they don't sell it in kits, its an "offroad use only" part... but that is more of a German TUV thing...
KW makes a shorter shock for the front but it's not in the kit. It's designed for lower than RS ride heights. Its not TUV approved so they don't sell it in kits, its an "offroad use only" part... but that is more of a German TUV thing...
Awesome, thanks for the clarification. I reached out to Chris later that night after talking with you, but I have yet to hear back. Fingers crossed he replies soon. I'd like to get this stuff on order before I head to Moab in a couple of days (and subsequently have no service)
Spyerx- you didn't happen to jot down the strut part number did you? I wonder if they're just sending out an RS strut. The V3 RS struts are #710-1007, Clubsport RS are #712-1007.
SR20- people have used a step nut with regular struts to compensate for the stem height, but you're still going to have problems with ride height and compression travel. Assuming you don't plan to keep the new 4x4 look.
Camber plates aren't a bolt-on item, even though most vendors sell them as such. They really require an RS style strut which has a longer threaded stem and a shorter body. Otherwise you get- no thread engagement on the top nut (do not drive like that yikes!), no compression travel at less than RoW height (riding on bumpstops).
The Ground Control mounts avoid some of the height issues and you have the ability to increase caster by an additional 1°. They still require correctly setting up the travel with the spacer stack above the upper spring perch and a strut with a longer threaded stem. Don't forget to make some kind of seal/barrier to keep road grime from quickly destroying the bearing.
@nick thanks for sharing that diy hack to make a seal for the camber plate bearing. I am about to reassemble my mode plates with new bearings. What material did you use?
With regards to "enough" threads for the front coilovers, contact rennline. They made some custom step nuts (aka "tosi nuts") for the kw and other applications.
Spyerx- you didn't happen to jot down the strut part number did you? I wonder if they're just sending out an RS strut. The V3 RS struts are #710-1007, Clubsport RS are #712-1007.
SR20- people have used a step nut with regular struts to compensate for the stem height, but you're still going to have problems with ride height and compression travel. Assuming you don't plan to keep the new 4x4 look.
I'll look into that for the time being. I reached out to Spyerx's guy at KW about the shortened struts (or a temporarily solution until I feel I've gotten my moneys worth out of the current V3s).
Btw, where did you get that rubber sheet from? I'll have to do the same.
Edit: Also where did you get the (presumably) aluminum spring hat? The plastic one that KW sends out on mine had the top completely sheared off, I'd like to get something that will stand up a bit better.
Hardware store, craft store, amazon, ebay, etc for the rubber. Search for 1/8" rubber sheet and you're bound to find it. Cuts easily with strong scissors.
Good to mention, the spring hats aren't an insignificant part of the assembly. The hat pitch/angle and design can determine the minimum spacer thickness needed before the hat hits the bottom the of the camber plate as the steering is flexed. The strut angle changes quite a bit from steering lock-to-lock. Possibly what happened to your composite hat? Those should typically hold up just fine. Someone on the 993 list damaged a factory RS camber plate and discovered how important the bearing-to-hat spacing is.
The purple spring hat is alloy and came with the RS V3 kit. The Silver one came with the Ground Control plates and incorporates a thrust bearing to avoid coil binding. It's a nice detail, but this style isn't super effective. Also in the pic is the black/yellow bmw sealed thrust bearing which works a treat. Lots of tricks to setting these up for good street manners.
Somewhat related- I discovered recently that bmw only has about 0.5" of strut compression travel before contacting the bump stop. Seems like a crazy small amount but they must rely on long and progressive bump stops to act as a secondary spring.
Well the new "RS" struts arrived yesterday, and I dove right in. Definitely something wrong here (or maybe multiple things) but I'm hoping to field some suggestions; hint hint @-nick and @Spyerx
So first things first I just noticed the PNs Nick had listed before for the RS struts doesn't match what ended up being on my invoice:35371204 - COILOVER STRUT FRONT LEFT V3+
35371304 - COILOVER STRUT FT RT V3+
65030083 - Upper Spring Seat Purple
Lets start here. Maybe it's a trick of the eye, but the new one looks to be just a hair higher. Also the bottom adjustment **** seems to be just a bit thicker.
Obviously the spring hat being much shorter is going to cause a good portion of the next issue. Funnily enough, I feel like I could have gotten away with just the aluminum spring hats to fix the original issue of not having enough thread on the stock V3s. :|
Note the top spacer from the camber plate is a bit popped out here, but there is MILES of spacer I need to put in there. Stacked washers or whats the best play here?
And this brings us to the problem I don't know how to solve, as the spacers shouldn't change the position of the strut body relative to the tierod bolt since the two mounting holes are a fixed diameter. This one really perplexes me. Any help on figuring out what the correct play here is? Did KW just charge me $1700 and 5 weeks of time to ship me the wrong struts? or whats actually happening?
I don't know, the shaft top looks long, I know on mine we had to use a SHORT nut as there was very little thread at the top when used with the right bits/ERP top camber plates. Its possible KW made a change on the shaft to address the issue with aftermarket camber plates. Dunno. I posted a few pictures in my build thread, take a look. I you could use some spacers under the camber plate to space it out so you can get torque on the shaft top nut.
Regarding the bottom, I don't know, I have Clubsport shocks on mine, BBI uprights, BBI/ERP tie rods, etc etc.
These things often don't go together plug and play, when I redid the front shocks on mine there were several parts the shop got to make them fit and work correctly.
I don't know, the shaft top looks long, I know on mine we had to use a SHORT nut as there was very little thread at the top when used with the right bits/ERP top camber plates. Its possible KW made a change on the shaft to address the issue with aftermarket camber plates. Dunno. I posted a few pictures in my build thread, take a look. I you could use some spacers under the camber plate to space it out so you can get torque on the shaft top nut.
Regarding the bottom, I don't know, I have Clubsport shocks on mine, BBI uprights, BBI/ERP tie rods, etc etc.
These things often don't go together plug and play, when I redid the front shocks on mine there were several parts the shop got to make them fit and work correctly.
That was my only thought about the bottom fitment too. I wonder if you didn't run into issues because of the BBI uprights. That said, I can't imagine that some people haven't run RS bodied struts with stock uprights before.
I'm really curious where Nick got his PNs for the RS struts, or if there is any way to identify what PNs they sent me. These were what was given to me by one of their sales reps. I just hope they'll take a return if they're the wrong ones since one of them has already been installed.
Also, on my A-arms, they mounted the lower link on the TOP of the A-arm, not under it.
BTW, the original shocks I had on it were blown out, just looked at them they are in the shop need a rebuild... from running them so low. the RS shocks seem good.
02-01-2020, 05:15 PM
Camber plate adjustment
