Front shock tower reinforcement?

[Som]

Hi All,

Just picked up an '87 E30 325i and trying to go through and do reliability upgrades to the suspension.

On my E36, I had installed reinforcement plates on the front shock towers on top of the camber plates I put in there.

Is this a problem on the E30? It seems like the rears have the big problem and I'll want to pick up reinforcement plates for those. What about the front?

If I get camber/caster plates, should I expect to still have to pick up reinforcement plates or will the camber/caster plates take care of that?

Thanks!

Som

[Gertech]

I know the e36 plates you're talking about, but I haven't seen them for an e30. I'm not sure that the e30s have the cracking syndrome as badly as the e36s. It seems to me that a camber plate would serve the purpose of distributing the load tho. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in...

[Northern]

I have never seen or heard of shock tower reinforcement plates for E30s like the E36 M3's have.

I have seen people hack away large notches in the tops of their strut towers for camber plate adjustment bolts with no apparent regard for smooth edges or stress relief, and they don't seem to have problems. Not that I recommend doing that.

[jlevie]

You won't need reinforcements for the front strut mounts on an E30.

[kronus]

I have seen people hack away large notches in the tops of their strut towers for camber plate adjustment bolts with no apparent regard for smooth edges or stress relief, and they don't seem to have problems. Not that I recommend doing that.

I have seen them have problems. The strut tower tops bow out and start to rip, and the upper flanges of the strut mounts get bent as well, which angles the studs and generally makes the whole process of dealing with struts a mess. Not recommended.

If you install camber plates and need to cut for more adjustment, I have seen some people reweld a new "lip" on the cut inner hole, which helps. It is easier to use camber plates with recessed hardware.

[Som]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Sounds like I can get away with just the camber plates as long as I don't have to cut away any of the tower.

I'm sure I'll have some questions about the rears when I get there (bolt in, weld in, best types, etc).

Thanks!

Som