New top mounts and camber queries

M

mjennings23

Senior member
 North West
Morning all,

Doing the last stage of the suspension refresh this weekend, involving new struts and top mounts. I've read a few bits about the locating pins in the top mounts preventing people getting the front camber they want, any inputs as to whether or not it's worth removing them before installing?

I'm probably going to get my car set up closer to the M spec, which I believe is higher negative camber on the front, less toe in and less negative camber on the back compared to the standard Z4?
 
Leave them out and push the struts right in as you tighten the bolts. You almost certainly won't want any less camber than that gives you.
 
Just to be clear, I assume you mean remove the pins and push the top of the strut as far inboard as possible, thus creating a higher negative camber?

I should say it's booked in for alignment on Monday morning so any changes I make would likely only be temporary, but if I can save them time having to pull pins out then I may as well!
 
I had the pins removed on mine for the alignment, but when i had the wheels off to do the front anti roll bar bushes, i noticed some the spring showed signs of rubbing ! Can only assume its rubbed the inside of the shock tower area, has anyone else experienced this ?? Surely there can't be that much camber by taking the pin out ?
 
Yes, push top of the strut inboard.

As regards rubbing on the springs if you could see it then it'll be on the tyre side. The tyre often touches the spring as you put the wheel on as people commonly angle the wheel without realising it to hook the top part of the inner lip onto the hub. The same is also true as you remove the wheel as it tends to splay bottom out/top in as you take it off. I've noticed marks on the springs on my car like this, the clearance is only a finger or so. If it's actually rubbing when it's on then you need some spacers or a narrower tyre.
 
Just before I took mine for alignment, I raised the front wheels, slackened the top mount bolts right off and removed the camber pins. I then lubricated the strut top plate and underside of the body mounting area, pushed the tops all the way in and tightened the bolts. Reason being is that once the car is on the ground, it's much easier to reduce the camber to match side to side than is to increase it, due to the fact that you are effectively moving the plate uphill against the weight of the car when increasing it, whereas it's downhill to decrease it if that makes sense.

Mike
 
kammy1975 said:
I had the pins removed on mine for the alignment, but when i had the wheels off to do the front anti roll bar bushes, i noticed some the spring showed signs of rubbing ! Can only assume its rubbed the inside of the shock tower area, has anyone else experienced this ?? Surely there can't be that much camber by taking the pin out ?
Click to expand...

Altering the camber doesn't change the tyre to strut/spring clearance at all. As said above, probably marks from wheel removal/replacement.

Mike
 
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