Missing bolt suspension

K

kennyv

Member
Hello,


It has been a month that i bought a Z4 2.0. yesterday i opened the hood
and i noticed that a bolt/screw was missing where the shock absorber is attached to the car.
I have included a picture. This is at the drivers side. Can anyone tell me what function this screw has, i read
i has something to do with the camber adjustment((??)) Do I have it fixed quickly as possible?



 
That is the MacPherson strut top mount. That bolt is pretty important and id strongly advise against driving the car without all bolts in place and torqued accordingly.

If the bolt has sheared, youll need the strut taking out and a new top mount fitting (shouldnt cost too much). I once had a bolt 'go' when fitting a strut brace on a previous car. if it is simply missing, ask a dealer for a new bolt and give it a try. Maybe work has been done on the car and its been misplaced?
 
I'd say the opposite - my bolts that fit in that hole are currently out. It's not a strctural bolt.

They're a very small diameter bolt and don't function in attaching the suspension: they're only a guide bolt for locating the position of the top of strut. It's the other 3 bigger bolts visible in that pic above which hold the top mount/strut in place. The smaller one missing above can be removed to allow front camber adjustment (which is what was done by my local guy when I had my alignment set up).
 
My apologies, a11y is correct, i only looked at the picture thumbnail and assumed one of the larger bolts was out!

Yeah dont worry about that one! :oops:
 
okey thx, i can now sleep on both ears :D .
But you say that if you remove the screw the front camber can be adjusted?
So doesn't the screw "lock" the alignment and shouldn't it be back in place?
I'm sorry but i don't know much about alignment of suspension.
 
kennyv, have a read of this post: http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6469&p=97476&hilit=camber+bolt#p97476.

Curtis explains it quite well: although he no longer posts on the forum, I had a good bit of communication with him a while back and trust what he says as it's all been true so far! He refers to that small bolt as the "dowel in the upper strut mounts" - removing it and moving the top of the struts as much inboard as possible should give approx 1.5deg negative camber on the front.

Basically, no, you don't need the small bolt to go back in. In fact, if you remove it and move the struts inwards you'll find the bolt hole doesn't line up anyway, making it impossible to reinsert the bolt. The top mount is purely held in position by the 3 bigger bolts.
 
Oh yeah, and this thread should help give a basic understanding of alignment and suspension:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15245&p=223658&hilit=alignment+for+dummies#p223658

Hope this helps :)
 
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