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Strut Mount and Camber Plate Comparison

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    Strut Mount and Camber Plate Comparison

    There are a handful of options out there for strut mounts/camber plates, but not a whole lot of information on the details and differences. I’m mostly concerned with streetable, quiet options with some sort of isolation. I wanted to see the differences up close and figured I would share the info. Hopefully this makes sense.

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    In regards to ride height and suspension travel, these are the two main measurements I took: top of mount to thrust bearing seating surface and top of mount to strut shaft seating surface. Examples:
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    OE BMW Strut Mounts
    Top of mount to thrust bearing seating surface: 36.25mm
    Top of mount to strut shaft seating surface: 80.5mm
    Difference: 44.25mm
    Mounting stud length: 18.5mm
    Top plate surface diameter: 145mm
    Weight: 1.72lb

    Ground Control Street
    Top of mount to thrust bearing seating surface: 38.75mm
    Top of mount to strut shaft seating surface: 68.75mm
    Difference: 30mm
    Additional bump travel compared to OE Strut Mount: 14.25mm
    Change in ride height compared to OE Strut Mount: +2.5mm
    Top of mount to GC 60mm spring perch (if used): 55mm
    Mounting stud length: 16mm
    Top plate surface diameter 120mm
    Weight: 2.49lb

    The Ground Control Street plates use an OE type thrust bearing to support the weight of the car, and a large urethane bushing to locate the strut shaft. The thrust bearing and shaft bushing are mounted at a slight angle, which GC says is similar to the OE strut mounts. The idea is that this will reduce side loads and binding. I should note that the GC mounts came with a wrap of electrical tape where the thrust bearing sits, apparently to take up some lateral play. The GC plates don’t have a lot of caster adjustment; the caster adjustment is made up of “slop” in the camber adjustment slots ( ~1/8”). Probably not a big deal… How much caster adjustment do you need? The GC plates have about an inch of camber adjustment.

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    Turner Street
    Top of mount to thrust bearing seating surface: 31.25mm
    Top of mount to strut shaft seating surface (including 7mm shock spacer): 70mm
    Difference: 38.75
    Additional bump travel compared to OE Strut Mount: 5.5mm
    Change in ride height compared to OE Strut Mount: -5mm
    Top of mount to Turner 60mm spring perch (if used): 50.5mm
    Mounting stud length: 26mm
    Top plate surface diameter: 127mm
    Weight: 2.21lb
    Shock spacer thickness: 7mm

    The Turner Street plates use an OE type thrust bearing to support the weight of the car, and a smaller (purpose-made?) urethane bushing to locate the strut shaft. The Turner website mentions that the Street plates incorporate the same mount angle as the OE strut mounts, but everything sure looks square to me. Turner supplies a 7mm “shock spacer” that is supposed to go on the shaft between the mount and the stock strut washer. See E46_M3_Camber_Plate_street.pdf The purpose of the spacer is to prevent the stock large strut spacer disk from contacting the camber plate body itself. If the large strut spacer disk isn’t used (i.e., with coilovers), I think the Turner shock spacer could go on top of the plate to gain 7mm of bump travel. With coilovers, you could also raise the car to make up for the 5mm ride height lost with these plates. In total, that could give you an additional 16mm or so additional bump travel compared to stock strut mounts. The Turner street plates have about 0.5” of caster adjustment and just shy of an inch of camber adjustment.

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    Turner Hybrid
    Top of mount to thrust bearing seating surface: 35.75mm
    Top of mount to strut shaft seating surface (including bushing as shown in instructions): 55.3mm
    Difference: 19.5mm
    Additional bump travel compared to OE Strut Mount: 24.75mm
    Change in ride height compared to OE Strut Mount: -0.5mm
    Top of mount to Turner 60mm Spring perch (if used): 54.5mm
    Mounting stud length: 22mm
    Top plate surface diameter: 122mm
    Weight: 2.67lb
    Shaft bushing 1 stack height: 9.4mm (installed on bottom for measurements above)
    Shaft bushing 2 stack height: 11mm

    The Turner Hybrid plates use an OE type thrust bearing to support the weight of the car, and a spherical bearing surrounded by urethane to mount the strut shaft. The spherical bearing allows the angle of the shaft to change freely as the suspension moves up and down, but the urethane provides some isolation of NVH. The thrust bearing is mounted parallel to the plate. The hybrid plates came with a package of hardware (bushings, spacers, rubber “seals” and adapters) and instructions for the street plates that aren’t really applicable to the hybrid plates. After playing around with the parts, I think I was able to figure out how the parts in this package are intended to fit together. The spherical bearing is not sealed, so Turner includes rubber seals to go on the top and bottom of the plate. The bottom seal uses the included large strut spacer disk to center it on the strut shaft (the stock spacer disk would not do this), and the top seal uses an included spacer ring to center it. I don’t love the way the seals fit (especially the top one), but better than nothing I suppose. The inner diameter of the spherical bearing is more than 16mm, so Turner includes bushings to fit OE shaft diameters. For some reason there are two different bushings (two pairs of top and two pairs of bottom), and one has a taller stack height than the other. I thought installing the taller bushing on the bottom of the bearing provides more clearance for articulation, so my pictures were taken like that. I later found that Turner provides installation instructions for the E9x Hybrid plates: PDF_3407_BMW_E9x_M3_Turner_Hybrid_Front_Adjustable _Camber_Plates.pdf The E46 M3 install should be essentially identical. In the diagrams, it looks like the shorter bushing is intended to go on the bottom.

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    My car is primarily a street car, so NVH, suspension travel and longevity are primary concerns to me. I run a stock-ish alignment these days and the car isn’t very low, so the OE strut mounts would be my first choice if bump travel isn’t a concern. I’m going to try the Bilstein B12 kit and will be using the Turner Hybrid plates to gain almost an inch of bump travel compared to using the stock strut mounts.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by K-Dawg; 09-17-2022, 12:34 PM.
    2003 Imola Red M3 w/ SMG

    #2
    60mm spring perches
    I originally purchased these with the intention of using with TCK coilovers, so I ordered them with 60mm spring perches.

    Ground Control 60mm spring perch stack height (perch only): 3.2mm
    Turner 60mm spring perch stack height (perch only): 6.85mm

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    Thrust bearings
    All of these plates/mounts use stock-type axial thrust bearings for the spring perch. Turner and GC both sell aftermarket thrust bearings. I’m not sure of the COO for the Turner bearing; GC claims theirs is manufactured in Germany.

    BMW (Ina) thrust bearing stack height: 11.9mm?
    Turner thrust bearing stack height: 11.9mm
    Ground Control thrust bearing stack height: 13mm

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    2003 Imola Red M3 w/ SMG

    Comment


      #3
      AWESOME!!!

      Thank you so much for sharing

      Comment


        #4
        Fantastic to have this information, thank you!
        ‘02 332iT / 6 | ‘70 Jaguar XJ6 electric conversion

        Comment


          #5
          Excellent post. The product photos for the GC stuff really suck, I had to search for troubleshooting threads on forums just to see what the parts looked like... Wish this had been around when I was deciding.
          '03.5 M3 SMG Coupe - Jet Black / Black

          Comment


            #6
            Bringing it back from the dead. Did the Ground Control perch work with the Turner plates? I am getting ready to go TCK SA and I would like to use the Turner plates but they no longer offer the 60mm spring perches. I believe the TCK's have 14mm shafts, so that may present a problem as well.
            Old, not obsolete.

            Comment


              #7
              Vorshlag is the answer for this. Only one that doesn't have that crap roller ball thrust bearing.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by bigjae46 View Post
                Vorshlag is the answer for this. Only one that doesn't have that crap roller ball thrust bearing.
                They do have a great reputation, but won't they be pretty harsh on the street?
                Old, not obsolete.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by D-O View Post
                  Bringing it back from the dead. Did the Ground Control perch work with the Turner plates? I am getting ready to go TCK SA and I would like to use the Turner plates but they no longer offer the 60mm spring perches. I believe the TCK's have 14mm shafts, so that may present a problem as well.
                  On a side note, I mentioned this to TCK and he said to run non-M camber plates.

                  I plan to get DA's and want to figure out the best camber plate solution.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by D-O View Post

                    They do have a great reputation, but won't they be pretty harsh on the street?
                    Not really. No worse than other plates.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by bavarian3 View Post

                      On a side note, I mentioned this to TCK and he said to run non-M camber plates.

                      I plan to get DA's and want to figure out the best camber plate solution.
                      You can run non-M plates and get a significant increase in negative camber. Perfect for track, probably too much for street driving.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by bigjae46 View Post

                        You can run non-M plates and get a significant increase in negative camber. Perfect for track, probably too much for street driving.
                        I'll ask again what the reason is, but he actually said the plates wouldn't work when I asked about GC Streets(m3 version).

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by bavarian3 View Post

                          I'll ask again what the reason is, but he actually said the plates wouldn't work when I asked about GC Streets(m3 version).
                          Odd. It looks to me like Ground Control will make them to accommodate the smaller TCK strut shaft and 60mm spring. Please let us know what he says.

                          There is also talk that E36 top hats will work on the E46 with the TCK SA's, but I cannot find exact details on what is required to make it fit.
                          Last edited by D-O; 03-14-2024, 06:33 AM.
                          Old, not obsolete.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I feel like Tbonem3 would know. He seems to have experimented with a lot of different suspension setups.
                            3.91 | CMP Subframe & RTAB Bushings | SMG (Relocated & Rebuilt) | ESS Gen 3 Supercharger | Redish | Beisan | GC Coilovers & ARCAs | Imola Interior | RE Rasp | RE Diablo | Storm Motorwerks Paddles | Will ZCPM3 Shift Knob | Apex ARC-8 19x9, 19x9.5 | Sony XAV-AX5000 | BAVSOUND | CSL & 255 SMG Upgrades | Tiag | Vert w/Hardtop

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I've never used non M plates.
                              DD: /// 2011.5 Jerez/bamboo E90 M3 · DCT · Slicktop · Instagram
                              /// 2004 Silvergrey M3 · Coupe · 6spd · Slicktop · zero options
                              More info: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...os-supersprint

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