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First off, this is the correct camber bolt kit for my 2011 E350 4matic. As mentioned in the related thread, you can install 2 kits per side in order to allow a few degrees more of camber & caster alignment adjustability. The bolts are easily identifiable, as in my case, the stock bolts are 6 pt heads and these alignment bolts are torx head. That's important to know the difference as you do not want to spin the bolt itself once it's in place.
This is my preferred method to get the car up and safely support it. Up on the ramps and rear wheels chocked.
Then I removed the 3 belly pans. I like to get all of them off to inspect the underside for leaks or any pending trouble, plus I clean them and apply some light grease to the 8mm attachment screws.
Jack goes under the front center support to get the car wheels just up off the ramps. I can then remove the wheels and support the car with jackstands at the side jack points. I also leave the jack snugged up under that front support as well.
Here's the surprise part - when I took it in for dealer alignment, I was told that it needed camber bolt kit(s) on both sides as it was still slightly out of spec after alignment. It also pulled to the right before/after alignment, not affected by tire rotation or road crown. But when I got up under there, ready with my four bolt kits, I found that 3 out of the 4 control arms already had the camber kits installed
Methinks I will call the dealer tomorrow to ask them what's going on here..... Edit - confusion and some miscommunication, they had noted kit needed when they had aligned it, I thought I heard kits needed as in plural. They have been very good with service so I wanted to make note of my oversight to be fair.
These are the existing camber bolt kits, as you can see they do have the torx heads as well as (what you can't see) the slot down the side of the bolt and proper washers.
Driver side front and rear control arms:
Passenger side front control arm:
At least I only had 1/4 of the work to do, just one control arm, rear arm on the drivers side. As mentioned the car was up and the wheel was off.
Before doing anything I made a reference mark on the arm and the frame mount. I then loosened up the bolt and pulled it out towards front of car. Easy enough, nothing was seized and the control arm could be wiggled easily to remove the bolt.
This is the stock bolt 6pt head, identifying it as a non-adjustment bolt.
Here's the part that's a bit hard to describe, but once you are actually installing the bolt, it is pretty straightforward. The frame holes are more rectangular looking, allows for in/out adjustability. At the inner and outer edges of that hole, there are 2 tangs shaped into the metal mount. The picture is at an angle but you can figure out inboard and outboard sides of the hole.
The washers of the camber bolt kit have corresponding bumps that go right into those tangs. The washer can either fit into the inner or the outer tangs, depending on alignment requirements (pushes the control arm in or out).
Again looking at the bolt picture, the slot that is right under the head as well as the slot running down the length of the bolt fit over the center part of the mounting tangs. This allows the bolt to properly fit into either the inner or the outer position. If the bolt didn't have those slots, ti would not be able to shift slightly in or out in order for the washers to align properly with the tangs. So the bolt can only be installed in 2 positions - either with slot facing in or the slot facing out, depending on where the control arm alignment needs to be. This is also why you must not turn the bolt when tightening the nut - if you do, you will wreck the alignment tangs on the frame mount. Clear as mud right?!?
Before installing the new bolt kit, I checked the alignment mark I had put on the control arm. In my case I installed the new washers with the tang to the inside. This meant that the slot in the bolt faced outside to allow space for the washer to be installed properly into the frame mount tangs. As you can see the washers MUST be sitting flat on the frame mount. If you do not have them properly indexed into the frame tangs, they will not sit flat.
Last step, once both washers are secured into the frame mount tangs is to tighten the nut. I made a mark on the bolt head to easily verify that the bolt didn't move. Torx socket and breaker bar held it in place.
EDIT - forgot to mention that before tightening the nut, I got the wheel back on and put the ramp back in place. That allowed me to put car weight on the control arm/bushing before tightening. This way the bushing doesn't get twisted.
As you tighten the nut, keep checking both washers to be sure they haven't popped out. If you are able to spin them, that's bad - they will feel locked into place when properly installed. In this pic, the washer is a tad loose but still properly located. You need to constantly check bolt and washers stay in place as you tighten the nut. Once snugged up, even more important to keep the bolt locked into place. There wasn't enough room to get socket and torque wrench in there, had to use a closed end wrench, so I made it all good-n-tight.
All in all, it's really pretty straightforward, not worth paying big bucks for someone else to install. I read where folks had to horse the control arms around to get bolts in and out but in this case it was really easy.
Thanks to 95Viper for his explanation before I got into this.
Very well written, I will be definitely doing this when I get settled in my new garage. You'll have to tell us how it drives now. I'm thinking the wandering will go away almost entirely.
Nice write up. Thanks for providing this. I still need to get the bolts. Maybe it will be warm enough this weekend to tackle it. So you were able to remove and reinstall the bolts without having to horse the arm around?
It was just one bolt kit to be installed, the arm pretty much just sat there. Very easy to maneuver it with just a screwdriver but other arms or cars may vary in difficulty.
Nice write up. Thanks for providing this. I still need to get the bolts. Maybe it will be warm enough this weekend to tackle it. So you were able to remove and reinstall the bolts without having to horse the arm around?
The arms need to move of course to pull in camber. They move toward center of car. Mark them and frame first with marker. Remove bolt. Insert large screwdriver and wedge it inward. Visually see the tabs through the frame holes. Make sure both slots on the new bolts go into the two tabs on arm. Make sure the line on the bolt in parallel to arm. Tighten with load on suspension.
1. Is my assumption correct, that the adjustment bolt must always go into the bushing only in the center position, i.e. between the 4 bushing nothches, as shown in the below picture, the bolt cutout either pointing to the right or to the left (perfectly horizontally)?
2. about to change all 4 control arms, and one of them has 1 adjustment set installed (bolt + washers). Since everything will be new, I'm thinking about installing them in the default position(middle), but doing to is not possible with the adjusetment set, because it must stay either aligned to the right or aligned to the left of the adjustment range, otherwise that custom washer will not fit sit correctly. So I guess I need to buy some standard bolts and washers. Later, if alignment measurements require so, the adjustment set can be installed.
Br,
Attila
Last edited by Zsigmond Attila; Oct 28, 2021 at 02:43 PM.
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