Hi All,

I'm new to the M3, but have been in the VW/Audi scene for a while. Currently I have a no-paintwork-low-mile-smg-m3 that I installed the height only adjustable FK coilovers. They feel great btw, I recommend them if you are keeping your stock seats, but I imagine if you upgrade your seats, these may feel a little soft.

Anyway, I have some crazy camber in the front now, and I'm running 15mm spacers in the front. See pics below. What am I doing wrong here? (I've searched and searched and found no answer). I don't know if camber plates can fix this, would they? are they necessary? I've seen lots of "slammed" m3's on this forum, and I don't see specific mention of camber plates.. Should I instead go for 25mm spacers in the front, and put the 15mm in the rear?

Problem pic:
http://thinkad.com/i/1.jpg

This pic is unrelated, but I thought it was nice:
http://thinkad.com/i/2.jpg

did you get an alignment after the install? that seems like a ton of camber but it also seems like that pic is very deceiving as well

did you get an alignment after the install? that seems like a ton of camber but it also seems like that pic is very deceiving as well

No, but I should mention, that my shop did pull the shocks as far outward as possible on the shock tower mounts. They mentioned to me, that is the only way to adjust the camber on this car, so while I will get an alignment, they said it will not change the camber situation.

could be a bad installation or bad parts...

maybe the swapped the top plates from side to side

Take some pictures from around inside the wheel well.

maybe the swapped the top plates from side to side

I watched the entire install. The shop is very professional, clean. 2 guys, one doing front, one doing rear. Each corner at a time was re&re'd, so there would be no mix-up of parts. They have built cars for me in the past with great success. Maybe it's too low? Although the car doesn't really look that low to me.. Ideally I'd like to be about .5-1" lower all around.

I watched the entire install. The shop is very professional, clean. 2 guys, one doing front, one doing rear. Each corner at a time was re&re'd, so there would be no mix-up of parts. They have built cars for me in the past with great success. Maybe it's too low? Although the car doesn't really look that low to me.. Ideally I'd like to be about .5-1" lower all around.

DEFINITELY not the problem

Edit: not from NY are you? I could double check the install for you.

Take some pictures from around inside the wheel well.

Will do!

Instead of a pic (with what looks like a fishy eye lens BTW), how about posting your alignment specs?

DEFINITELY not the problem

Edit: not from NY are you? I could double check the install for you.

Believe it or not, I'm in the Vancouver, BC area :) Thanks for the clarification on the "not too low" thing. It's weird because, it feels good, no clunks, everything is super tight and wonderful, except needing to adjust toe (which will happen with the alignment). I'd like to take it down another 0.5"-1".

I have the FK coilovers on my car and they sit perfectly. Look:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-f1EmiEKJeM/S9MFoMmxGiI/AAAAAAAAHlE/-rsZR1GXWL8/s640/IMG_5689.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-f1EmiEKJeM/S9MFpJ2RfFI/AAAAAAAAHlI/6RTOT0bDRd4/s912/IMG_5690.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-f1EmiEKJeM/S9MFsp3GRbI/AAAAAAAAHlU/zHtgHuS4-HI/s640/IMG_5693.JPG

Also, the first time I sat the car down after the install, I had it "all the way down". The front rims were tucked over an inch under the fender with OEM 19's. Wheels were straight up and down.

I have alot or front camber also with my PSS9's..although I have them in middle "oem" position in front strut holes.. You may have to get camber plates or re-adjust your drop higher

Believe it or not, I'm in the Vancouver, BC area :) Thanks for the clarification on the "not too low" thing. It's weird because, it feels good, no clunks, everything is super tight and wonderful, except needing to adjust toe (which will happen with the alignment). I'd like to take it down another 0.5"-1".

take it to CG Motorsports in Richmond if you can't get things figured out, they have fixed nasty alignment problems for me

They must have definitely swapped the stock strut hats side to side. That will give you around -3 to -3.5 degrees of camber in front..just like what you have there.

The car will handle corners much better like this but your tires will wear prematurely. If you leave it this way, get an alignment and have them max out the caster and set the toe at 0 degrees.

Or swap back the hats on top of the shocks.

Ugly photos, with crappy camera, but here's what it looks like:

http://thinkad.com/i/3.jpg

http://thinkad.com/i/4.jpg

Looks weird to me. The shop only re&re'd, and the only thing they did change, was they pulled the struts as far outward as possible to fix the crazy camber issue. Maybe an alignment shop can fix it. But it looks extreme. And that is using 15mm spacers too!

LOL something isn't right! You can't get that much camber without putting something together the wrong way. LOL...sorry I don't mean to laugh but that's just crazy!

The shop let that go?? They didn't notice that?

dude that's a lot more than -3 degrees of camber. Mine is set at -2.9 all the time with no spacer, and looks a lot different than that.

Everything was checked, road-tested, torqued, measured, etc. They only removed the entire assembly including the top mounts (speaking of, can the top mounts be installed the wrong direction)?

Only one corner at a time was done. There wasn't a time when both corners were removed.

does the drivers side cambers in like that too?

yeah probably wrong hats on different side btw you most likely need to change your rear control arms that doesn't look like you have enough camber in the rear at all especially after lowering the car.

stock once`s will bend from you even hitting the curb

does the drivers side cambers in like that too?

Yes both sides are like that.

Can the mount be installed improperly? Like not swapped Left and Right, but rather rotated?

Yes both sides are like that.

Can the mount be installed improperly? Like not swapped Left and Right, but rather rotated?

Nope. Go take pictures from all inside the wheel wells.

Regardless, you really should be asking why your so called shop let the car leave that way - in your last pic, I'm sorry to say, it looks like a busted a$$ front suspension - really bad. Besides wearing out tires very fast, who knows if the toe is even close, or how badly it's wearing other suspension components.

Check the position on how your front struts were installed. Happend to me when I had a shop install my suspension on my old E36.

you can easily check if the strut hats are on correctly by looking at your strut towers under the hood, just take of the round plastic covers and you should be able to see an arrow that should be pointing to the front of the car, and an L or R.

i'll tell you what the issue is, when i was dropping my car the hat doesnt sit right and when you lock the bolts down for some reason the hat moves and slides and now you are about a -5 to 6 camber. its not right. even when my car was bottomed out with -2.5 camber it wasnt even close to what you have. make sure you fix that asap, thats not right. be safe good luck.

you can easily check if the strut hats are on correctly by looking at your strut towers under the hood, just take of the round plastic covers and you should be able to see an arrow that should be pointing to the front of the car, and an L or R.

Winner! They are both pointing to the side. I am going to fix this tomorrow. I will report back when it's completed, but I'm quite sure this is it.

Thanks for everyone's responses, you've been great! :)

^^^^I was going to suggest that, but since the OP was so adamant that it was impossible that the top hats could have gotten switched, i didnt bother.

glad to hear you got it figured out! so that means they DID have both front sides pulled apart at the same time? i'd go in there with the car like it is and raise hell.

^^^^I was going to suggest that, but since the OP was so adamant that it was impossible that the top hats could have gotten switched, i didnt bother.

glad to hear you got it figured out! so that means they DID have both front sides pulled apart at the same time? i'd go in there with the car like it is and raise hell.

The strut mounts are rotated, not swapped L for R.. Apparently the arrow (as posted above by another fine member of this forum), is supposed to point to the front of the car. But each side is correctly identified as L and R respectively, they are just rotated the wrong way. From my research (I could be wrong), but this is acceptable to achieve greater degrees of camber, although it does look crazy, nothing was compromised. I will verify with my shop today.

Once again, thanks for everyone's help :)

The strut mounts are rotated, not swapped L for R.. Apparently the arrow (as posted above by another fine member of this forum), is supposed to point to the front of the car. But each side is correctly identified as L and R respectively, they are just rotated the wrong way. From my research (I could be wrong), but this is acceptable to achieve greater degrees of camber, although it does look crazy, nothing was compromised. I will verify with my shop today.

Once again, thanks for everyone's help :)

I don't think you can rotate the top hats. In addition to the 3 bolts that pop up and through to the engine bay, there is a little "nipple" that also has to slide into its appropriate hole. I don't think you would be able to acheive the proper torque rating on the bolts if this was not in correctly. could you take a picture of the top of the strut with the strut bar removed?

I hope I didn't screw anything up but I took that little allen nut out of the top strut hat so that my reinforcement plate would fit on my right side strut. It didn't really appear to be doing anything besides preventing the improper rotation of the strut, like what happened above.

I don't think you can rotate the top hats. In addition to the 3 bolts that pop up and through to the engine bay, there is a little "nipple" that also has to slide into its appropriate hole. I don't think you would be able to acheive the proper torque rating on the bolts if this was not in correctly. could you take a picture of the top of the strut with the strut bar removed?


Crazy camber issue has been fixed!!

In fact you can rotate the strut mounts 120 degrees at a time to dial in extra camber.

Hu///mmell: The little nipple is not necessary.

Now to adjust the coils a little lower :)

Thanks again for everyone's help!!