OEM Strut brace

[Attilio]

Something not right are you sure this one isn’t the M3 bar!!

Heres mine fitted

Thanks for the pics, and congratulations for the supercharged Z4!!!

Yes, I am positive it is a Z4: it comes from a Z4 and I also used to have the E46 M3 bar and it looks very different:

IMG-0263.jpg (215.59 KiB) Viewed 137 times

[AndyBeech]

Honestly it looks fine to me, you've fitted it all correctly, nothing is the wrong way around from the pictures you've shown. If your only issue is the bar is a bit difficult getting it off the lug bolts then you can see by the holes on the bar that its quite a tight fit over them, which is how it should be otherwise it'll move about under load, bearing in mind the nuts only torque to about 25nm from memory?

Try taking it off and moving it about a bit / see if it will fit slightly better if it'll ease your mind but I really don't think there's anything wrong here. If it helps, a local specialist installed mine for me originally while some other work was being done and it's been off / on again since by myself and others and no one has ever mentioned it being an issue or not being correct.

If you're concerned whip it over to your local specialist for a quick look, will take them minutes to see if anything's wrong but I really don't think there is unless missing something from your pictures.

[mac27040]

defo something not 100% right with how the bar sits below the 2 bolts, it should sit level

[mmm-five]

Can the bar itself be flipped over - so still pointing to the front, but flip it left to right - or is there a slot underneath the bar to fit into?

There's some close up pictures of this bar on the ECS Tuning website - and they all seem to be flush and at the correct angle.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 710305114/

Otherwise, has it been bent in an accident?

I'd measure/photo mine, but it's 300 miles away...still!

[AndyBeech]

defo something not 100% right with how the bar sits below the 2 bolts, it should sit level

I can only suggest it's something to do with the camber / alignment he's running? There is only one way to install the strut bar and he's done it correctly so don't know what else to suggest. Need someone else with an M running this bar to confirm really.

The bar doesn't flip it only fits one way mmm-five.

[Attilio]

Can the bar itself be flipped over - so still pointing to the front, but flip it left to right - or is there a slot underneath the bar to fit into?

There's some close up pictures of this bar on the ECS Tuning website - and they all seem to be flush and at the correct angle.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 710305114/

Otherwise, has it been bent in an accident?

I'd measure/photo mine, but it's 300 miles away...still!

The car has still the camber pins holes in the same position so the camber is not different from the OEM standard...

I noticed some micro-cracks on the clearcoat of the strut brace, maybe it has been bent and that is why it doesn't fit...


P.S. the E46 M3 one I used to have fitted ok and it was relatively easy to separate the cross brace from the "attachments" on the towers