Strut Tower questions

[karmasabish]

Hi folks. Couple of questions here - I am replacing the black strut tower ties with a triangulated one from Ultra Racing, mainly because the tabs connecting to the strut towers have sheered. I've also noticed that on one of the holes in the tower where the studs come through there is a small hairline crack (thanks LA Potholes) so I got the E46 reinforcement plates. Before I tackle all of this I figured I'd ask you all about my following concerns:

1) Both reinforcement plates are the exact same, they are mirrors of each other and some holes don't line up: - you can see from their design and the pix of the strut towers





2) On the passenger side there is a small hex bolt screwed into the top, where as this has been removed on the driver's side. Any info on what this is and why one is missing and the other is not?

Driver's side


Passenger's side


as you can see, the extraneous holes in the plate don't line up with every hole in the Z4 strut tower but I know the strut studs do. I think I have to remove the hex bolt in question from the passenger side to make it all work.

Can anyone shed some light on this all for me?

[Finnegan]

Hex bolt isn't required. Most of us deleted long ago to get greater camber angle adjustments. The three main holes are all you need to match.

Good luck with repairs. Ouch!

[Beedub]

i have these fitted to my z4m too..... piece of mind, i aligned them by hand then Tq'd them down..... essential imo with coil overs.......evenmore so with track type coilovers and camber plates which exert more load to the centre of the tower, these combined with the strut brace should really negate any extra stress......

[inTgr8r]

+1 to 2 above.

[karmasabish]

Originally Posted by Beedub

i have these fitted to my z4m too..... piece of mind, i aligned them by hand then Tq'd them down..... essential imo with coil overs.......evenmore so with track type colliers and camber plates which exert more load to the centre of the tower, these combined with the strut brace should really negate any extra stress......

So the ones I have are the same as those you installed then? Do I need to get another alignment after doing this?

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by karmasabish

So the ones I have are the same as those you installed then? Do I need to get another alignment after doing this?

yes they are indeed from the e46 i believe..... i did get an alignment done also, But you definitely need an alignment, your drivers side camber is different to the other i can tell you that much already, one of them has the camber pins in-place from factory , the other side with the cracked firewall tab clearly has more negative camber, infact with the hairline cracks your talking about on the bolt holes, AND the firewall brace location point crack I'm wondering if this side has had some sort of impact, I'm unsure if this is the light but their appears to be some deformation to the tower too at the 9-oclock position.... ... either way you need an alignment.....

[nekky]

Just ordered these.. I have Clubsports and they came highly recommended. Anything I should worry about, or is it just a bolt in affair?

[Small Yellow]

I took the part number in the picture "51717036781" and looked it up on Realoem.com and it doesn't show it as a part for e46 M3, but will it work for the e86 z4m?

[donoman]

Originally Posted by Finnegan

Hex bolt isn't required. Most of us deleted long ago to get greater camber angle adjustments. The three main holes are all you need to match.

Good luck with repairs. Ouch!

i recently tried removing the pins (hex bolts) to give myself more negative camber up front, but found that the shock mounts moved (actually I also heard them moving) when I was coming off a pretty steep driveway. Is this normal, or did I just fail to tighten the shock mount bolts tight enough? I put them to approx 27Nm... Thank you

[XMetal]

27Nm doesn't sound like it's tight enough. When installing an OE strut bar, it called for 35Nm for those nuts

[donoman]

Originally Posted by XMetal

27Nm doesn't sound like it's tight enough. When installing an OE strut bar, it called for 35Nm for those nuts

XMetal, thanks for your help!

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by donoman

i recently tried removing the pins (hex bolts) to give myself more negative camber up front, but found that the shock mounts moved (actually I also heard them moving) when I was coming off a pretty steep driveway. Is this normal, or did I just fail to tighten the shock mount bolts tight enough? I put them to approx 27Nm... Thank you

Yep, not enough torque, as noted above. Do not go above the recommended level either. These can, and do, break. That's not fun either.

I'm sure you know this, but moving the struts inboard will increase toe-out along with increasing the negative camber. If you had a stock set-up and stock toe specs (there's a range, you'd need the alignment read-out, and that's assuming nothing has changed), you're probably running around zero toe now (fine).

Still not a bad idea to get it aligned if you're unsure of the settings to start with.

[donoman]

Originally Posted by Finnegan

Yep, not enough torque, as noted above. Do not go above the recommended level either. These can, and do, break. That's not fun either.

I'm sure you know this, but moving the struts inboard will increase toe-out along with increasing the negative camber. If you had a stock set-up and stock toe specs (there's a range, you'd need the alignment read-out, and that's assuming nothing has changed), you're probably running around zero toe now (fine).

Still not a bad idea to get it aligned if you're unsure of the settings to start with.

Thanks Finnegan. Actually, I chickened out and put the pins back in. I also pinched my finger real good in the process of resetting the struts into the strut towers... do you guys have a trick for doing this so they just "slide right in?" I had to unbolt the nuts from the top, jack the car up until the struts were unloaded and started to drop, then "slide" them (more like manhandle them) into place, semi-tighten nuts, lower back down, untighten to release any residual shear stress, retighten to torque.

I pulled the pins, then replaced the pins, and all I got was this stupid stain on my t-shirt.

[p1nk50ck]

Originally Posted by karmasabish

[/URL]

where did you get this from?

[nekky]

I have to chime in and ask if everyone is sure these will work? I have ordered them and have them, but it doesn't look like they line up for Z4M...

EDIT: Just looking at the picture, we should *all* be able to tell that these are the wrong plates. Please look at the alignment pin location on the strut tower as well as the reinforcement places.. It's dead wrong.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by nekky

I have to chime in and ask if everyone is sure these will work? I have ordered them and have them, but it doesn't look like they line up for Z4M...

EDIT: Just looking at the picture, we should *all* be able to tell that these are the wrong plates. Please look at the alignment pin location on the strut tower as well as the reinforcement places.. It's dead wrong.

these are for another platform, the e46 to be precise, the pin location is different on that car to our cars location, you need to centre the plate and hold it perfectly centred while you Tq down the nuts, it fits perfectly, if you want to re-use your stock pins you can mark and drill a new hole, to clarify, these fit perfectly and mirror the shape of the strut tower to perfection.... Do no try and get these to line up the your z4's camber pin to the plates camber pin otherwise it simply doesn't work.... match the centre bore to your strut tops centre bore.

[Beedub]

the plate perfectly centred is basically invisible..



cheap insurance and must for anyone with aftermarket coil overs, especially the hard ones like clubsport ETC...

[nekky]

Originally Posted by Beedub

these are for another platform, the e46 to be precise, the pin location is different on that car to our cars location, you need to centre the plate and hold it perfectly centred while you Tq down the nuts, it fits perfectly, if you want to re-use your stock pins you can mark and drill a new hole, to clarify, these fit perfectly and mirror the shape of the strut tower to perfection.... Do no try and get these to line up the your z4's camber pin to the plates camber pin otherwise it simply doesn't work.... match the centre bore to your strut tops centre bore.

Ok so I do have the right ones then... Hmm. How do we make sure the strut towers are not moving then? I am getting a "twang"-like sound coming from either side when I go left to right or one side hits a bump while the other is flat, etc. It could be a spring binding or something, but I'm so perplexed. My CS are not quiet in the front right now.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by nekky

Ok so I do have the right ones then... Hmm. How do we make sure the strut towers are not moving then? I am getting a "twang"-like sound coming from either side when I go left to right or one side hits a bump while the other is flat, etc. It could be a spring binding or something, but I'm so perplexed. My CS are not quiet in the front right now.

yes yes all good, you have the right ones, firstly, if your top mounts are Tqed to 35nm on each nut i can assure you the plates isn't sliding, but its very easy to centre on your own with weight off the wheels and the nuts loose, Now... onto your noise, my KW CS are silent, however after a day at the track and when they REALLY hot they make some noises sometimes, not all the time tbh, 9/10 they are silent, BUT.... check the main top nut, these type of track coil overs are sadly noisy at times, they springs click and clang sometimes too...