Camber/Caster Plates - Pros and Cons?

[zzyzx85]

I’ve had GC street camber plates on my car for 10 years. Of those 10 years, approx 8-9 have been on stock shocks/springs and the rest on Ohlins R&T.

With the stock suspension, they worked great.

Once I switched to the Ohlins, lowered it and started running a square setup (factory style 67s), they started creaking and making weird noises. There is noticeable “stickiness” or something felt and heard when I turn the wheel at slow speeds. I cannot get rid of it. I have changed all the parts on the camber plates except for the aluminum, bushings, spacers, bearings (I bought from GC but they are the same BMW stock ones).

GC does not know what could be causing it, I am starting to think that the geometry is not correct on the camber plates for a lowered car.

I have a new set of Vorshlag plates and reinforcements that I never installed and will do this weekend hopefully to get rid of all the weirdness. I did not want to run the Vorshlags, but the GC are driving me insane.

Also fwiw, the GC on my car were never run with reinforcement plates and I have no damage to the strut tower. I used to track the car, even with slicks.

On my GC Street camber plates, I use thrust bearings between the spring perch/adjustment collar and the spring to avoid binding. iirc, the OE BMW thrust bearing stuck a bit when I was running them alone..

[R1pilot]

I’ve had GC street camber plates on my car for 10 years. Of those 10 years, approx 8-9 have been on stock shocks/springs and the rest on Ohlins R&T.

With the stock suspension, they worked great.

Once I switched to the Ohlins, lowered it and started running a square setup (factory style 67s), they started creaking and making weird noises. There is noticeable “stickiness” or something felt and heard when I turn the wheel at slow speeds. I cannot get rid of it. I have changed all the parts on the camber plates except for the aluminum, bushings, spacers, bearings (I bought from GC but they are the same BMW stock ones).

GC does not know what could be causing it, I am starting to think that the geometry is not correct on the camber plates for a lowered car.

I have a new set of Vorshlag plates and reinforcements that I never installed and will do this weekend hopefully to get rid of all the weirdness. I did not want to run the Vorshlags, but the GC are driving me insane.

Also fwiw, the GC on my car were never run with reinforcement plates and I have no damage to the strut tower. I used to track the car, even with slicks.

[cobra]

This has been one of my primary interests.

Does anyone know if the GC Street plates yield any improvement to strut bump travel? Every mm helps . . .

Here, you will see that someone measured them. The GC street plates add about 14mm of bump travel. https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...ate-comparison

I contacted GC and their race plates add about 15mm (so probably about the same basic dimensions as the street variant)

[LSB4Me]

I think they are worth getting for the travel alone if you lower the car.

This has been one of my primary interests.

Does anyone know if the GC Street plates yield any improvement to strut bump travel? Every mm helps . . .

[cobra]

Agreed, I have GC camber plates and started seeing some stress marks on the shock towers, added the reinforcement plates on top and it's been fine since

Do your GC plates have the stainless steel reinforcement ring pictured above?

What suspension and ride height are you running?

[cobra]

What about the TMS plates are different? I just installed GC and they look "the same" (functionally) as the TMS plates. Interested in learning more also...

Wondering the same thing. The GC has a metal plate that looks similarly sized diameter-wise to the TMS. Maybe because it's thinner it can flex and doesn't distribute the load as well as the thick billet TMS upper part?

Which is interesting because the strut tower reinforcement plates are thin sheet metal too.

[Mayan-Viking]

What about the TMS plates are different? I just installed GC and they look "the same" (functionally) as the TMS plates. Interested in learning more also...

[Casa de Mesa]

I have these same questions. In for the education.

[01SG]

I think they are worth getting for the travel alone if you lower the car.

[Amos]

If you aren't running reinforcement plates then every single camber plate I've seen EXCEPT for the TMS are going to kill your towers). I don't run reinforcement plates with TMS or stock strut mounts, everything else gets them.

Agreed, I have GC camber plates and started seeing some stress marks on the shock towers, added the reinforcement plates on top and it's been fine since

[George Hill]

-Cracking strut towers?

If you aren't running reinforcement plates then every single camber plate I've seen EXCEPT for the TMS are going to kill your towers). I don't run reinforcement plates with TMS or stock strut mounts, everything else gets them.

[fattycharged]

I've run GC street plates with the stock upper strut bearing and no issues or noise for about a decade...on the same bearing with no noise.

prior to moving back to the stock bearing mount and V3 setup, I was running a GC coilover and did not have the BMW reinforcements and cracked the towers....

[timmo]

My experience on my own car as well as a friend's has shown that spherical bearings aren't meant to be loaded the way most camber plates load them. I guess I would describe the loading as "axial" along the orientation of the race. I've seen those bearings wear out as fast as 5k miles, or last as long as 50k, but either way service life seems unpredictable. Clunking ensues.

Yeah exactly, these sphericals are commonly used in suspension links of race cars (albeit much smaller versions) but they can get away with that since it's loaded radially. Looking at the size of sphericals I'm guessing these companies just brute-force it by significantly upsizing it to load axially. I have GC hybrids and so far they haven't had any issues

[Pklauser]

My experience on my own car as well as a friend's has shown that spherical bearings aren't meant to be loaded the way most camber plates load them. I guess I would describe the loading as "axial" along the orientation of the race. I've seen those bearings wear out as fast as 5k miles, or last as long as 50k, but either way service life seems unpredictable. Clunking ensues.

[cobra]

Right now I am running stock strut mounts with adapters to run 2.25" ID, 400lb/in linear springs. It fits together fine and I have no complaints - it's quiet and comfortable. My thinking with sticking with stock camber plates despite upgrading the shocks was that they are a good design that isolates the spring from the damper and runs the spring on a thrust bearing. I am running conservative alignment settings in order to preserve tire wear and I'm happy with the way it drives.

My question is, let's say I am fine with the alignment settings. Are there going to be any other benefits from running an aftermarket camber plate?
-Potentially more bump travel.
-Better steering feel/precision?
-More stable handling when cornering hard?
-More consistent damping feel?
-How much flex is there really in the stock rubber bushing? It feels awfully stiff to me so I can't imagine there is a lot?

What about downsides?
-Cracking strut towers?
-Noise from spherical bearing wear and clunking?

Please share your experiences of the pros/cons of running a camber plate.