rbaker

Anyone try the Mercedes camber bolts on a C32/C55? I've used some on other cars, the kind that attach at the strut end, but the one's from Merc replace the bolts at the inside mount of the lower control arm instead. When I saw the bolts, they aren't offset, they just have 2 grooves that appear to lock into matching grooves in an offset bushing. Yet when I look under my car, the bushings don't appear to have any offset. Anyone else try this yet and know? Do these bolts require different bushings to work?

nukblazi

For a minor adjustment, you could use shims machined to work with the lower strut bolts (lower wheel carrier), acting as a washer, they can each give you -.5 d camber each. I know some e36 racers who do this.

I am having customer camber/caster plates built. Which is IMHO the best solution.

dsC32

I bought the negative camber bolts and the dealer installed just one of them, telling me that all they could get was about -0.7 degrees negative camber, and that it was not necessary to install the other one because they got that much from the standard bolt on the other side. Then I had to pay for the alignment. Almost a waste of time. I think the camber bolts are made so that adjustments can be made if necessary when they cannot get the alignment within spec with the stock bolts, and are not designed to give us the opportunity to obtain substantial negative camber. The plates that were mentioned by Nukblazi would be a great aftermarket part. My question is how much negative camber will they give, how much are they, and how difficult are they to install? If they are not too much money, I might be interested in buying a set to give it a try, if the shop could make an extra set at the same time. Might save some money for both of us. On second thought, it might be will to wait for a performance report from you before investing. Nublazi, you might mention to your fabricator that there may be a bunch of people interested if they work out.

nukblazi

I have someone making me a set right now. I have V2's to install so I need to measure and photgraph with the struts out of the car. Should yield -3 degree of camber, that's my goal. May require cutting a hole in the top of the strut tower and three bolts. Won't know for sure until I pull the current coilovers. May be able to get away with not cutting, but might not get -3 out of it that way. Complete set up would require 2.5i.d. springs as well and a adapter.

If you'd be interested, make a list and I will make sure it's seen.

1. nukblazi
2.

rbaker

I've used washers on the lower strut mount before on my e36 M3, and this was my first thought. Thing is, you generally need longer bolts to compensate for the washer thickness, unless the factory bolt is plenty long. This is not exactly a connection you want to risk pulling out under load! When I went to install the washers, the damn Mercedes bolt is a short little M12 x 1.5 pitch (grade 12.9) and this is really a pain to find, since this is considered a "special" pitch for an M12 bolt. Normal is 1.75, and this is what BMW uses.

I may try a very thin washer, so I don't lose more than one thread, but that'll probably only give me an extra -.25 camber. Maybe combined with the inner eccentric bolts I can at least wind up with -1.0 if I'm lucky.

smgC32

Count me in!

nukblazi

smg you have PM!

Tom