Ground Control Street plates doubts

[E46m3zcp]

Hi, I received GC Street plates yesterday and I am not so confident in installing these in my car. I was wondering what the opinion of the community is about them.

What are my doubts?

• The plates arrived with a bearing open and the balls falling off in the package. I had to gather the balls and put them back, and re-clip it back together:

• There seems to be tiny tabs containing all the energy of the spring and I can't trust these (see my photo with the arrow and circles)
• The adjustment nuts that comes with it are not the same as the stock bolts for cars with a strut brace, and I am not sure the plates can be used with the stock strut brace without camber adjustment coming off.
• To adjust camber, I would have to unbolt my strut brace every time (contrary to designs with an Allen bolt in the center for adjustment, the GC street rely solely on the mounting nuts)

TL;DR : I don’t trust the design yet.

Small tabs holding the strength of the spring:


Also their website is glitchy, and there's no installation instruction or adjustment manual anywhere. This was not going to hold me back but the sum of all the factors mentioned above plus this, makes this GC thing look like a school project more than anything serious to me...

[tlow98]

People have been using them for decades with a lot of success. With that being said, if there’s something broken, send them back.

many people that provide the best product don’t necessarily have good websites. A la, Auto Solutions Shifters. The market is generally too small to provide these small businesses with enough cash to outsource a web designer.

i had GC street plates for ~5 years and they were great. Never had an issue.

[eacmen]

I had GC race plates and no issues. Car was in a wreck and the only thing that needed to be changed was the bearings. GC was able to sell me all the parts required to fix them versus buying all new plates.

Their email support isn’t as good as their phone support.

But if you’re not comfortable i’m sure you can return them and get different plates.

For the street i’ve had a good experience with the turner plates. Don’t typically like Turner stuff but their street plates have the same contour as the shock tower. Good design imo.


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[bigjae46]

I had the street plates on my E90 M3. I found them to be a PIA. They worked fine except, as you found out, the bearing is NOT sealed. I would get a clunking after awhile. I pulled the camber plate out, cleaned it up, and re-greased the roller bearing. The race is cheap plastic. I pulled the GC plate apart 3 times before I went back to stock.

GC either needs to use a sealed roller bearing or just use a spherical. The street plate, IMO, is crap. As I said in another thread, the only camber plate that's worth using for street or track is the Vorshlag plate. Ran it on the street and track. I have the same plate that was in my E46 330 and swapped it into my E46 M3, it is 13 years old and has seen over 50k miles. If the spherical bearing goes bad it is a relatively easy replacement.

For track only cars you should run the non-M plate. You get about -2.5 to -4.5 degrees of camber although you gain some caster. I'm at 7.5 degrees which I think is the CSL spec?

[E46m3zcp]

My main concern is these plastic tabs (second photo) which I can’t figure out if that’s how they’re supposed to be. I’m not putting these on my car until I can figure that out.

[zzyzx85]

My main concern is these plastic tabs (second photo) which I can’t figure out if that’s how they’re supposed to be. I’m not putting these on my car until I can figure that out.

I'm currently using GC Street camber plates, albeit with coilover springs. Your camber plate is currently setup for use with OE springs, based on the black metal upper spring perch you have in your photos.

• The black plastic tabs are part of the thrust bearing. The bearing is the part that is supporting the load, not the plastic tabs. I'm not sure what the tabs are used for but they do not support the load.
• Re-use your OE strut mount nuts. They have the proper length to thread onto the studs.
• You do not need to remove the nuts to adjust them. Jack the car off the ground, loosen the plates, and the plate will slide for adjustment. It's not as nice as having the separate adjustment but it works.

Let me know if you have any questions. I've had these plates for a few years now and feel confident with them. I daily drive and track on mine and the alignment has not shifted.

[E46m3zcp]

I'm currently using GC Street camber plates, albeit with coilover springs. Your camber plate is currently setup for use with OE springs, based on the black metal upper spring perch you have in your photos.

• The black plastic tabs are part of the thrust bearing. The bearing is the part that is supporting the load, not the plastic tabs. I'm not sure what the tabs are used for but they do not support the load.
• Re-use your OE strut mount nuts. They have the proper length to thread onto the studs.
• You do not need to remove the nuts to adjust them. Jack the car off the ground, loosen the plates, and the plate will slide for adjustment. It's not as nice as having the separate adjustment but it works.

Let me know if you have any questions. I've had these plates for a few years now and feel confident with them. I daily drive and track on mine and the alignment has not shifted.

Well... I think the plastic tabs would have definitely supported the spring's load had I installed them without the right support. I think it's not clear from my previous photos, though. So here is one more.

[K-Dawg]

It looks like they sent you the wrong camber plates, or they were manufactured wrong. The GC bearings are similar to stock bearings. Those tabs don't really support anything.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/184872-strut-mount-and-camber-plate-comparison

I didn't see anything inherently wrong with the GC plates, especially if you use the stock upper spring pad and strut washer to help shield the thrust bearing.

[bigjae46]

It looks like they sent you the wrong camber plates, or they were manufactured wrong. The GC bearings are similar to stock bearings. Those tabs don't really support anything.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...ate-comparison

I didn't see anything inherently wrong with the GC plates, especially if you use the stock upper spring pad and strut washer to help shield the thrust bearing.

What's wrong with them is the bearings aren't sealed. There's no reason not to get the Vorshlag plates if you are using a non-stock strut mount - it's proven to be extremely durable. It is just like poly bushings - wrong for every application, right for none. But its aftermarket and people buy them.

If you have a Vorshlag plate with the stock springs, you can just replace the spring perch and maybe the inserts if you upgrade to coilovers later on down the road.

[George Hill]

What's wrong with them is the bearings aren't sealed.

What bearing are you talking about? The yellow and black one with the bearing balls? That is a stock part...

I personally prefer not to run unsealed heim joints on pure street cars. IF I was putting camber plates on a stock style spring setup for a street car I'd put the TMS camber plates on it.

[K-Dawg]

What's wrong with them is the bearings aren't sealed. There's no reason not to get the Vorshlag plates if you are using a non-stock strut mount - it's proven to be extremely durable. It is just like poly bushings - wrong for every application, right for none. But its aftermarket and people buy them.

The bearing isn't OE, but it is a very similar design. Is the OE bearing sealed? https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...898#post184898

The reasons to not get Vorschlag plates include the lack of NVH isolation and an open ball joint. You could say they are wrong for a street application.

[George Hill]

The bearing isn't OE, but it is a very similar design. Is the OE bearing sealed? https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...898#post184898

Thanks for the link, and yes I meant fundamentally it is the same design as the factory part.

[Tbonem3]

The reasons to not get Vorschlag plates include the lack of NVH isolation and an open ball joint. You could say they are wrong for a street application.

I loved the vorshalg plates' design/quality/robustness, but I took them off after only a week, and went back to the TMS street for my street car. The solid bearing killed the road feel I love of E series BMWs.

As far as the BMW INA thrust or radial bearing being sealed or not, it snaps together quite tightly, and then is further isolated from the elements by the machine tight fit of the upper spring perch. Seems fine to me?

[bigjae46]

The bearing isn't OE, but it is a very similar design. Is the OE bearing sealed? https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...898#post184898

The reasons to not get Vorschlag plates include the lack of NVH isolation and an open ball joint. You could say they are wrong for a street application.

The OE bearing isn't sealed but it has a large rubber cover.

I really can't say there is a huge difference between the Vorshlag plate with a well setup suspension and the OE strut mount. I've had the same camber plate with the same spherical bearing for over 10 years. Its seen street and track time. Time proven, Vorshlag doesn't sell too many replacement bearings but are one of the more popular camber plates over the years.

[Tbonem3]

There's no rubber on the black and yellow thrust bearing. It sits within a black metal top perch.