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2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
You are beating me to it. Mine are sitting on the shelf waiting for me to make the time to get them installed. I have an undated part for mine being shipped now. Will allow a little more adjustment. Looking forward to your review.
Yes, K-Mac makes them for almost every Mercedes, including the C63, normal and Black Series.
It allows to adjust camber as well as caster by a couple degrees (about 3 degrees) but does not change ride height at all.
The reason why I am installing it is to reduce outer tire shoulder wear when tracking my car. It may also improve cornering grip a bit due to better alignment of the tire underside with the ground when the car leans into a turn.
The K-Macs went in yesterday and I am driving the car with new alignment now! A couple of first impressions:
1. The adjustment range of the K-Macs is larger than what the opening on top of the strut tower allows. If I wanted to fully exploit the K-Mac adjustment range, either the opening on top of the strut tower would have to be ground out or the large center nut holding the shock absorber rod would have to be machined to be flatter. This is especially true, if I wanted to go to high camber and high caster at the same time.
2. My alignment started out with 1.5 degree camber, the K-Mac would enable up to 4.2. We set it to 2.7 degrees for now and I will observe both how it drives and how the tires wear - then maybe adjust later.
I really like the way it drives - it turns in a bit more eagerly, while still running straight very well. Feels great!
I'll follow up with some pictures soon, when I get to it.
2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
Glad to hear the install went well and you are getting the adjustment range you want. Really looking forward to installing mine but I am really busy with grounds work and painting the house so I might have to wait till the winter layover. Maybe I will have to sneak out to the garage to get it done...lol
Hope this works well on the track and looking forward to pics and further review.
2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
The K-Mac part #s for the W204 Strut Tops
K-MAC STRUT TOPS CHECKLIST / FEATURES 1. Stage 2 (Street/Race) P/N 503016-2L and Stage 3 (Full Race) P/N 503016-3L 2. Simply replace existing OEM top mounts 3. Can adjust with strut brace fitted 4. Does not alter suspension height 5. Can adjust from engine bay – fast accurate under load direct on alignment 6. Can record Street/Track settings 7. Massive (PTFE lined) spherical bearings 8. Stage 2 bearings (22mm hole diam.) encased in elastomer for extended wear life/commuter use 9. Stage 3 bearings (30mm hole diam.) 10. Both Stage 2 and 3 bearings are replaceable for virtual life time usage 11. Separate radial thrust bearings for steering loads 12. Both kits manufactured from ultimate aircraft grade 7075 alloy (weight 2.2lbs)
13. Designed for absolute minimum stack height
First a view of the adjustment of the strut. You can see that the strut rod is now off center, more to the inside of the car and more back to produce more negative camber and more caster, respectively. The nut just barely slides under the metal of the strut tower and can be adjusted further if needed.
Here a view of the car. The increased camber of a bit over 1 degree is hard to tell, however, the upper edge of the tire is now further inward compared to before. I ordered thicker spacers and will move it out another 5 or 10 mm back to where it sits optimal inside the fender and fills it completely. The bottom, where the tire touches the road will then be about 15-20 mm wider than before.
Forgot to answer the dealer question:
Ordering the camber plates directly from K-Mac Australia is painless via the internet. You can pay via Paypal through your Paypal account or by directly using a credit card. Delivery from Australia is amazing fast - less than a week overall. It only takes a couple days for the product to arrive in LA and clear customs, then it still had to get to me to Ohio. Overall it took 4 days I think. They ship with DHL Global.
It will definitely turn better at high speed with that much camber, but your inside tire wear is going to be a ***** if that is an every day setting. The car will only roll onto the full tire under aggressive cornering. The rest of the time breaking and cornering it will be hard on the inside edge. You may not care - that can be solved with money for new tires.
The last car i had that was road/track with camber plates I would just kick it over for more camber at the track and kick it back when I was done. I had it aligned for the road setting. It yielded better performance and wear at the track even through the alignment wasn't maximized. What did I care anyway? Its not like I was racing.
You are right, each setup is only ideal for a certain combination of going straight and cornering. Unfortunately changing back and forth is not straight forward since adjusting camber also changes toe. That is why my camber setting is very modest at 2.7 degrees
A quick update: I took the car to the Mid-Ohio race track last weekend and drove it with 2.8 degrees camber dialed in thanks to the K-Mac strut mount camber kit. It went PERFECT! The camber was ideal for that track as confirmed by taking tire temperature measurements after each session on the inside and outside of the tires - they are now the same and shoulder wear is much reduced. Could not be happier.
I must say, Mid-Ohio is not very hard on tires/tire shoulders compared to some other tracks. When I take the car to a harder track, with more slow/long corners, I may set it up with a bit higher camber (I can go to 4.2 degrees with the adjustment range available, so I have wiggle room left). For Mid-Ohio, 2.8 degrees was perfect.
Love those camber plates, they are a great enhancement for tracking!
A quick update: I took the car to the Mid-Ohio race track last weekend and drove it with 2.8 degrees camber dialed in thanks to the K-Mac strut mount camber kit. It went PERFECT! The camber was ideal for that track as confirmed by taking tire temperature measurements after each session on the inside and outside of the tires - they are now the same and shoulder wear is much reduced. Could not be happier.
Glad to see the improvement in tire wear!
Tell us about the feel and the performance. Have you driven Mid-Ohio before? How much difference did the camber changes make?
When adjusting the camber, I also increased caster. As a result, the car is very eager to rotate while at the same time having a very stable straight line at higher speeds. As my tuner called it - 'the rear inside corner of the camber plate kit is the fun corner'.
With more negative camber, low speed understeer is reduced and hence lap times get directionally better. Last time I ran Mid-Ohio, I did not yet have a lap timer so do not really have data, but I do know that tire wear is more uniform now.
Obviously, if all you used the car for was long distance interstate runs, then that level of camber would not be beneficial and would increase inside tire wear.
08-18-2015, 07:45 AM
