camber problems?

[Cream]

i have a 1989 325is and i am about to order bilstein sport & h&r race springs, do i need adjustable camber plates? this is pretty much just for daily driving and i will be running rt-615 when i get my new rims so i dont want to wear the tires too much. also when i replace my front and rear shock mounts and bearings is it better to go oem or aftermarket?

[jlevie]

Those springs will result in noticeably more negative camber than stock. You could dial that out with adjustable camber plates (I like the GC Spec E30 plates), but setting almost no front toe will almost eliminate the higher tire wear. If you use zero or at most 1/6" toe in you'll be okay.

OE front upper strut mounts are okay if you decide not to get camber plates. but I would suggest better than OE for rears. Bimmerworld is one source for those.

[Cream]

will only adjustable camber plates fix that much of negative camber or can i get non adjustable ones that would work just as well? im not trying to spend $300 on them if i dont need to.

[jlevie]

Non-adjustable plates would be fine, if you can find any that reduce camber. But it isn't that much of a problem. Just set minimal front toe.

[Spec]

Any suggestions on the different options available for E30's?

[rwh11385]

Unless you are looking for MORE negative camber, just keep the stock upper strut mounts. You are going to spend $300 on reducing the wear on $150 worth of tires? ha.

And besides, I ran -3 camber in front daily driver and camber wear wasn't horrid... from the front. Not so much that it wore tires faster from camber than they would have just by mileage. Align your toe and drive.

[Spec]

Lance, you don't think I should try to reduce the amount of negative camber? It does drive straight, so I have no problem there, but I'm concerned my low-pro tires will be eaten up. I put an average of 15k on this car annually.

[jtb_29]

Toe kills tires WAY faster than camber ever will. Spend your money on an alignment.

[rwh11385]

My experience backed with Mystikal's words of advice, multiple times...

Yes, as others said, it's not camber, it's toe. It's actually quite difficult to get the front tires on an E30 to wear with just negative camber, it's almost always a toe issue.

Camber doesn't eat tires. Toe and waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles driving does.

Camber is a good thing. If you wear the inside egdes early, you're not driving hard enough.

Now toe, toe is what will chew through tires, and is the only thing adjustable on an E30. As long as that is in spec, leave the camber alone (as long as they are equal).

For the occasional AutoX and normal driving, don't bother with them. If you start tracking the car more often, then consider them. They have the potential for making unsettling clunks and take a bit of maintenance to keep in good shape. They really improve front grip by increasing the camber, and add a feeling of more direct steering, but at the cost of noise, additional maintenance, and cost.

[Spec]

Thanks for your input, guys! I had the toe adjusted yesterday, so I'll run it for a few miles and see if camber plates are still something I want to go for.

[LivingLegend06]

negative camber from H&R Race will not be bad at all. Ive got a little more drop than H & R race with my ground controls and I'm at -1.7* front, for comparison I've got a buddy who is running more than -4* (alignment rack maxed out at 4), Id expect it to be at about -5*, his tire wear is bad, yours will be fine.