Strut Brace needed a fiddle. . . .take note si owners

[paulgs1000]

So Mike (Cherrym) had a day clear and offered his garage to fit my strut brace. I was hanging on for warmer weather (my garage is full!)

This is a popular fitment and I thought would be straightforward - it turned out that was not quite the case. 'si' owners take note -

Firstly, the strut brace available from BMW does not fit the 3.0si (well not without some fiddling). The strut towers need to be reversed in order to
1. clear the oil filler cap and 2. fit the studs on top of the struts



Even then there is a need to file away part of one of the location holes for it to fit - here you can see where we had to remove 2/3mm on one stud locator to make each side fit.



It's surprising that the strut tops would only fit two of the studs and the third one - pointed out here - needed the locator hole fiddling with a file to fit. . .



Once we were happy with the fitment of the strut tops. . . .



We then had an issue with the strut bar - it was under tension. . . you can see it is slightly out. . . and so needed a slight pull to line up with the correct location. . . .



But we were happy eventually that all was just so, even if amused that the old fiddling skills (learnt over the years messing with old cars and motorbikes) were still needed, even with modern machinery! (The nuts need 32 nm - not particularly tight and use some lock tight)



Many thanks to Mike for the use of his garage (and the coffee after )

 

[Swiftly]

Nice write up Paul

I never realised that it required so much fiddling to make the strut brace fit correctly, hopefully you should be able to notice a difference

 

[srhutch]

What that says to me is that the strut bolts are not equally spaced, so when you reversed it the holes didn't line up.

Didn't you know about the bar covering the oil filler on the N52 engine?

 

[gwatson]

Did it touch the cap, or just get in the way?

If the latter, it only takes 1 minute to remove the centre bar, so I'd personally of fitted it the correct way and taken the "hit" at each oil change.

 

[Swiftly]

When I bought my 3.0si it had the same strut brace fitted by the dealer and it points in the same dirtection. If it faces forward it covers the oil filler cap. This has been well documented on other threads

 

[paulgs1000]

It wasn't just the oil filler that was the problem. . . . (it was my intention to fit it forward despite this but. . . .)

The strut top bolts do not line up with the holes on the brace plates - they simply will not fit - they are way out.

The only way they fit is if the plates are reversed and even then a certain amount of fiddling is needed - I guess this is why Swiftly's brace is attached the same way.

As said in the title, 'si' owners take note - the reason BMW do not list the 'si' in the fitment is because it does not fit. It must be the 'Sport' suspension that causes the problem.

 

[srhutch]

Si refers to engine not trim level, but I cant see either of these having any effect as the shell is the same for all Z4's. The oil filler is a problem for the N52 2.5 also which comes as non Si and Si spec.

Only other thing I can think of is your struts have been moved to make the alignment work. Are the camber pins still in place?

 

[srhutch]

Just looked at the photos and indeed your near side camber pin is missing, this could explain why you had trouble lining it all up as the strut could have rotated a bit.

 

[aquazi]

I have seen these fitted the right way around on the N52.. and indeed i did line it up on my car when i was going to fit it.. just wanted to wait for my insurance renewal... which never happened :lol:

I would actually agree with Steve that the missing camber pin could have shifted the strut.

In the grand scheme of things though... forwards or backward wont make much difference to its effectiveness.

 

[McKoval]

Thats why I bought a Wiechers-sport strut brace dedicated for 3.0si - fitting took like 10 minutes, and everything fots perfectly.
Plus wiechers is much cheaper then the oe bmw one

TapaTalking

 

[paulgs1000]

Just looked at the photos and indeed your near side camber pin is missing, this could explain why you had trouble lining it all up as the strut could have rotated a bit.

Tell me more about this srhutch - don't know what this is nor whether having one and not the other is a bad thing . . . . what do I need to look for and do I need to get it down to my specialist (damn - would have been useful to know before the year's warranty came to an end).

Thanks



Just done a search on the forum and found out what the camber pins are - can't see how it would affect the spacing of the plate mountings holes which do not change but would certainly explain the misalignment of the strut bar when I came to fit that. (I'll have a word with my specialist independent when it goes in for a service in March).

 

[paulgs1000]

I have seen these fitted the right way around on the N52.. and indeed i did line it up on my car when i was going to fit it.. just wanted to wait for my insurance renewal... which never happened :lol:

I would actually agree with Steve that the missing camber pin could have shifted the strut.

In the grand scheme of things though... forwards or backward wont make much difference to its effectiveness.

No criticism intended aquazi - I checked the BMW fitment list before I purchased it from you and saw that the si was not included but guessed that the one I'd seen on Swiftly's 3.0si was the same - no problem.

There is no way the bases would fit over my strut bolts on either side facing forward, no way at all, the holes were miles out but when reversed two would fit and the third needed the fiddling, on both sides, not just the near side (it might have been possible to tighten the bases down and 'pull' the bolt into place, when reversed but I didn't fancy that solution at all). I'm fairly convinced that the reason this particular strut brace does not have the si listed as a fitment option, is because it doesn't fit - I thought this when I bought it from you and expected to have to reverse it.

I stand to be corrected and have no idea about the missing camber pin (bit worried about this though - hopefully srhutch will put me in the picture) but how on earth the plates would fit forward I can't see at all - and two other owners looked at the fitment with me . . .

I too expected a 10 min job but thought this would be of interest to other si owners - perhaps they know what the problem is?

As you say, forward or backwards it's effective - and that's why I bought the strut brace.

 

[T2FFN]

It could just be the photo but that bolt you're pointing to does look at an odd angle compared to the other studs. As far as I recall mine are all uniform, as I fitted new top mounts last year so recall they were all parallel. Might be worth a closer look at the top mount, could it be failing? I've seen pics on the net where it sort of collapses on itself a little.

 

[paulgs1000]

It could just be the photo but that bolt you're pointing to does look at an odd angle compared to the other studs. As far as I recall mine are all uniform, as I fitted new top mounts last year so recall they were all parallel. Might be worth a closer look at the top mount, could it be failing? I've seen pics on the net where it sort of collapses on itself a little.

Must be the photo T2FFN, as all bolts were parallel, the top mounts looked fine, couldn't see any indication of distortion, damage or failure . . . .

 

[aquazi]

No criticism intended aquazi - I checked the BMW fitment list before I purchased it from you and saw that the si was not included but guessed that the one I'd seen on Swiftly's 3.0si was the same - no problem.

Hi Mate... thats ok.. didnt see it as criticism!! 8)

Just a little strange why it doesnt slot straight through... Here is a pic of the fitment the other way:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12092&start=15#p184300

Little awkward with the fitment over the oil cap and the airbox hose... but on mine it did drop on top through the bolt holes... i just never removed them!

Also as you have had the bolts off might be worth getting a Hunter alignment done at some point incase the struts have shifted slightly.