Strut Mounts not available- options?

[Tbonem3]

GC street plates do clunk - it's a well known issue. I've experienced it first hand with two separate kits as have several other members.

I've read the accounts. I lean towards improper installs. Maybe there was a batch of imperfectly machined parts on GC's end IDK or a supplied bearing that was a thousandth off.

My real life experience (1 year/7k miles) has been perfect - no noise or movement or anything.

And that's just about CG's. I don't ever remember reading a single thing about TMS' plates.

[PSUEng]

https://ebay.us/m/GfNEYG

While not ideal... used looks like only other option besides the other 3.

1. Waiting on BMW backorder
2. Finding NOS BMW or Corteco (49367470, corteco part # for drivers side)
3. Going down Aftermarket route

Corteco might not be an option...

[bigjae46]

I've read the accounts. I lean towards improper installs. Maybe there was a batch of imperfectly machined parts on GC's end IDK or a supplied bearing that was a thousandth off.

My real life experience (1 year/7k miles) has been perfect - no noise or movement or anything.

And that's just about CG's. I don't ever remember reading a single thing about TMS' plates.

GC uses a really crappy roller ball bearing that is NOT sealed. I had the E90 M3 street camber plate. I serviced it yearly - removed the camber plate, cleaned and regreased the bearing. Clunk free for awhile but it always came back. The bearing would have tons of sand and grit in it every service. I stopped putting the E90 M3 on track and went back to the Dinan strut mount.

As a comparison, my vorshlag plate on my E46 is 15 years old and has never clunked.

[oceansize]

Probably explains why I’ve put 10,000 miles on my GCs with no clunk. Pure street car.

[PetrolM3]

I've read the accounts. I lean towards improper installs. Maybe there was a batch of imperfectly machined parts on GC's end IDK or a supplied bearing that was a thousandth off.

My real life experience (1 year/7k miles) has been perfect - no noise or movement or anything.

And that's just about CG's. I don't ever remember reading a single thing about TMS' plates.

No, it was not improper install. Several veterans including shop owners like George Hill have had the same experience with multiple sets of GC street plates.

The two sets I tried were made years apart and were both new.

It was also not the OE bearing. I thought it was too so I got new ones from BMW but knocking persisted. Used the same bearings with OE strut mounts - zero knocking.

[moproblems]

GC uses a really crappy roller ball bearing that is NOT sealed. I had the E90 M3 street camber plate. I serviced it yearly - removed the camber plate, cleaned and regreased the bearing. Clunk free for awhile but it always came back. The bearing would have tons of sand and grit in it every service. I stopped putting the E90 M3 on track and went back to the Dinan strut mount.

As a comparison, my vorshlag plate on my E46 is 15 years old and has never clunked.

Yeah, BW tried to push GC plates on me when I was specc'ing my MCS coilovers. Almost went with them until I did more research on what style bearing they use for the upper perch. My car is pretty stiff and loud, but at least I don't have to hear spring clunk while turning with Vorshlag.

[BTB]

Bumping this up ... I was(?) looking into finally getting coilovers for my car, after having most all of the lower end suspension bushings and rear end replaced a couple years ago (RTAB, FCAB, diff bushings, solid subframe bushings, new control arms, ball joints etc). I'm pretty sure my front strut mounts are very old as I don't remember having these replaced when I had the Eibach/Konis put in some 80k miles ago. Any other feedback on camber plates? I consider my car a trackable street car (mostly street and is my 'daily' though I don't have a commute and my wife and I also share her car - one or two track days a year). I would hate to have to compromise on ride quality

At the moment I was looking at pulling the trigger on:
- Ohlins road & track kit
- OE left and right front strut mounts (or now, maybe camber plates?)
- OE strut mount nuts (why not)
- Rogue Engineering RSM kit (could do OE with reinforcement plate as well, but it seems like cheaper options do the job fine, and I've had good experiences with Rogue products)
- Install/alignment/corner balance

Also, has anyone installed the OE strut reinforcement plates on their M3? It seems that for M3 the plates may need to be cut? I have had these sitting in a box for years, figure any chassis reinforcement would be welcome (and I understand more necessary with camber plates)

[t44tq]

So an update:
I bought the Turner Motorsport street camber plates, Rogue Engineering RSMs, genuine BMW for all of the rubber bits in the struts as well as the rear spring bushings/mounts, Bilstein B6 struts/shocks.

Everything went well, it's all back together. The Turner camber plates are fine- the only thing that changed in a big way was that I couldn't get the car aligned anywhere near factory spec. I'm maxed at about 7.5 degrees of caster on both sides and that's literally all it could do, just slightly out of spec. I'm way more negative camber than factory spec- evened out at about -2.1 degrees. It's a noticeable change, I hope I don't destroy my front tires.

The NVH is pretty good- not as good as all stock, but it's not bad at all. I'm not sure what had a bigger effect on ride- the plates or the Bilsteins.

The Rogue RSMs for a cabriolet are a pain to install- that metal reinforcement C-shaped piece has to go into the center hole, then rotate into the proper orientation to go through the bolt holes. It's like a puzzle to get it right, it took a while to get it done- I don't want to ever do that again.

[Tbonem3]

Ya the bilsteins are a little harsh, so it's not all the plates. I find TMS plates to be quite good on the NVH.

For the front tires, what toe setting did you go with? -2.1 camber isn't THAT much, so with pretty neutral toe, you won't wear the insides bad.

As far as caster, when you say maxxed out, do you mean the most? Because TMS has a quite a range for caster, and setting it at max (per old forum wisdom) netted me about 8.5 degrees so you might have an issue or it just wasn't "maxxed" actually? I think 7.5 is fine - isn't stock something like 7? I think you're actually in spec.

[t44tq]

According to the shop that did the alignment, the caster was a little below spec- maybe it was 7 degrees and spec was 7.5? Yes, the caster was maxxed out.

Toe was maybe 0.5 degrees in. I should have told them zero, but I wanted to see where they would setup the car without any specific input other than "make it feel sporty."

I didn't find Bilsteins to be harsh, in general- the stock Sachs/BMW shocks were garbage- those were really harsh. At least for this application. Bilstein B6 on my MB E550 were noticeably stiffer, which is exactly what I wanted, and got rid of the floatiness and wallow that the car had with the stock (again, Sachs) suspension.

The Bilsteins on the M3 as well as on my clownshoe are really nice in absorbing small bumps and take the bigger hits pretty well. The damping is pretty much spot-on for a reasonably priced replacement shock type damper.

[Tbonem3]

I love the damping of B6/B8. I think a little toe-in off neutral will be a good thing. I find truly neutral toe to be a bit "wandering".

[xansabi]

Thanks for the reply- any clunking or other noises? How harsh are they on bad roads?

Wait- are clunking from camber plates common? I'm on Ohlins and GC Street, getting a clunk from applying weight to my front struts, that might be it!