WARNING: DO NOT use 14mm OEM camber bolt in slotted hole

[switchlanez]

*EDIT*
Jump to lesson learned in post #24 below.


--
Does the 14mm OEM camber bolt cancel out or add positive camber to any negative camber afforded by a slotted upper hole?

I had stock struts with camber bolts in the upper holes to yield -1.2 camber. I installed ST coilovers with slotted upper holes, used the same 14mm bolts top and bottom, and held the rotors tilted inwards as I torqued down like I did before to maximize negative camber. That yielded 0 and +0.4 camber. I'm going to try swapping in the stock 16mm bolts up top in hopes of getting negative camber.

Can anyone explain how camber came out zero/positive? I'm having difficulty picturing it in my head.

[whataboutbob]

Ride height variation? I believe that as the front is compressed it gains positive camber.

[garfull]

i was able to get -1.2 in the fronts using smaller bolt in the top hole.

[switchlanez]

^Are you using those with slotted upper holes? Because I also got -1.2 camber when I used OEM camber bolts on my stock struts. But the same set of camber bolts on my new slotted hole coilovers yield 0 camber (the same 14mm bolts x 4 all around).

Originally Posted by whataboutbob

Ride height variation? I believe that as the front is compressed it gains positive camber.

I've heard that somewhere as well. But IIRC, that's after a certain point of lowering, closer to when the car is slammed. The wheel fitment sticky thread shows negative camber results when lowering the car 1". I'm between 1" to 1.25" lower than stock and two guys are running the same coilovers as mine (ST) with the same out-of-the-box height settings but stock 16mm bolts instead of camber bolts. They get close to -2 camber in front. (TeamZleep and Shutter in this thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...t=41432&page=3).

And this guy in another thread posted this regarding coilovers with a slotted top hole without explaining why:

Originally Posted by acx23

Sounds like you might have the 14mm camber bolt. If that's the case, that needs to be placed on the bottom slot instead of the top slot. And you need to set it at max camber.

16mm camber bolt is needed for the top slot.

[Calum]

Do the OEM bolts have an eccentric to allow easy adjustment, or is it just a smaller bolt? If they have an eccentric you may have assembled them incorrectly or adjustment the wrong way.

[switchlanez]

Originally Posted by Calum

Do the OEM bolts have an eccentric to allow easy adjustment, or is it just a smaller bolt? If they have an eccentric you may have assembled them incorrectly or adjustment the wrong way.

They're not eccentric, just smaller 14mm instead of stock 16mm.

[wparsons]

Sounds like something went wonky during the install of the knuckle bolts... a slotted hole + smaller bolts top and bottom should get you a lot of negative camber if done right.

How sure are you that you tilted the knuckle the right way when tightening the bolts? To me it sounds like the bottom bolt slipped inwards as well.

To make your life easier, run the OEM bottom bolt and the smaller top bolt with the slotted strut and you should still get lots of camber.

[switchlanez]

Another forum seems to concede that a round shaped camber bolt should not go into a slotted hole due to potential slipping: http://m.fitfreak.net/forums/showthr...465&styleid=15

No clear explanation on why but some comments imply it could cause slippage.

[switchlanez]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Sounds like something went wonky during the install of the knuckle bolts... a slotted hole + smaller bolts top and bottom should get you a lot of negative camber if done right.

How sure are you that you tilted the knuckle the right way when tightening the bolts? To me it sounds like the bottom bolt slipped inwards as well.

To make your life easier, run the OEM bottom bolt and the smaller top bolt with the slotted strut and you should still get lots of camber.

The OEM bottom bolt is being used. From the factory, it's 16mm top and 14mm bottom. I ran 14mm top camber bolt and factory 14mm bolt on bottom. I'm certain the bottom hole had no play as it was a tight fit/struggle to slide it in and I saw the rotor tilt in the negative camber direction and had my brother hold it there as I bolted it down. This is my 3rd time installing OEM camber bolts for negative camber. The first 2 times were on stock struts and neg camber was visually apparent (my car then my friend's). It's highly unlikely for me to mess it up the 3rd time. I'm thinking the slots caused the camber bolts to slip.

[switchlanez]

And I torqued the bolts to the 114 ft-lbs spec in all 3 installations.

[Calum]

Did you install the top hats in the wrong orientation?

The sides of the hole aren't what prevent movement in this system, friction and clamping force do that. so, slotted struts with camber bolts shouldn't slip any more then normal struts and camber bolts.

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Sorry to de-thread but where is everyone is buying these from? Subby dealer?

[switchlanez]

^Yes, the part number is floating around on this forum.

Originally Posted by Calum

Did you install the top hats in the wrong orientation?


The sides of the hole aren't what prevent movement in this system, friction and clamping force do that. so, slotted struts with camber bolts shouldn't slip any more then normal struts and camber bolts.

Is there a specific orientation for top hats? I didn't notice any difference in clocking.

But the clamping pressure is less on slotted struts due to the decreased clamping area given the same torque spec.

[post_break]

Originally Posted by switchlanez

^Yes, the part number is floating around on this forum.
Is there a specific orientation for top hats? I didn't notice any difference in clocking.

But the clamping pressure is less on slotted struts due to the decreased clamping area given the same torque spec.

I've used the OEM bolts on the track and over a year, it's not going to slip.