GC camber plates: Review of failed install(s)

[Sleeper519]

...rinse and repeat.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like short of general recall on the product, these failures are going to keep showing up.

Call GC. They've shown themselves willing to make things right. For them it's only a $12 bracket on a $500 plate set, which is well worth it for them to maintain customer satisfaction.

So far mine are holding up on the street. First track test in 2 weeks at VIR.

Good luck!

[sleepless]

Disappointed to report that my "updated" plates had a bolt break after three track sessions today. However, in my case it sheared about one inch from the top

Guess I'll be in touch with GC on Monday...

[kaiv]

^Darn this sucks.

Got a bunch of track days on mine and have been fine *knock on wood*

I'm however planning a long track weekend far from home so I might have to hit them up to get a set of spares just for peace of mind

[sleepless]

IMO, GC has some serious quality control issues with these plates. As others have pointed out, the bolts are not welded straight, so, depending on how crooked they are, is likely a contributor to them failing. I'm guessing that if the plates hold up to a good hard flogging at the track, they'll not have issues. Mine broke during the first session

[radsmd]

Originally Posted by sleepless

IMO, GC has some serious quality control issues with these plates. As others have pointed out, the bolts are not welded straight, so, depending on how crooked they are, is likely a contributor to them failing. I'm guessing that if the plates hold up to a good hard flogging at the track, they'll not have issues. Mine broke during the first session

Can't believe I'm reading this. I had the pre updated plates initially installed and the bolt broke on the way home from the install. Had the updated plates installed last week (after paying to have the stock ones re-installed for a planned track day). So, paid 3 install fees and alignment fee during the first install which is no longer accurate after the 2 subsequent camber plate swaps.

I'm afraid of touching them to use the "adjustability" feature now. Let us know what GC says.

[sleepless]

Originally Posted by radsmd

I'm afraid of touching them to use the "adjustability" feature now. Let us know what GC says.

Regardless of what GC says, I'm having mine redone correctly by Cantrell Motorsports. Instead of welding the bolts, they are going to use pressed in high grade bolts. Thus, no heat stress from the welding, straight, and the highest grade bolts!

And yes, I will not be buying anything from GC in the future

[Bubbles]

Originally Posted by sleepless

Disappointed to report that my "updated" plates had a bolt break after three track sessions today. However, in my case it sheared about one inch from the top

Guess I'll be in touch with GC on Monday...

[kitw]

Originally Posted by sleepless

Regardless of what GC says, I'm having mine redone correctly by Cantrell Motorsports. Instead of welding the bolts, they are going to use pressed in high grade bolts. Thus, no heat stress from the welding, straight, and the highest grade bolts!

And yes, I will not be buying anything from GC in the future

Pressed in studs sound like the way to go, I just worry that there isn't enough material to press them into. Those crescents look pretty small.

[kaiv]

One more :X

http://m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=404078

[sleepless]

As predicted, GC blames over-torquing for the failure. There was no over-torquing... PERIOD

as hell!

Car is at Cantrell for properly built camber plates...

[kaiv]

Shoot this is bad business from GC. Did you mention that a whole bunch of people are having this issue? And that it's the same damn bolt?

[Sleeper519]

Originally Posted by sleepless

Disappointed to report that my "updated" plates had a bolt break after three track sessions today. However, in my case it sheared about one inch from the top

Guess I'll be in touch with GC on Monday...

This is BAD. So, the updated plates are apparently crap too.

I will be packing along my stock upper mounts to all of my future track events so I can possibly make a paddock repair and drive myself home after they break again. It sucks to have this in the back of your mind as your doing 150 down the back stretch. What a great confidence builder.

This is definitely not good...

[signes]

Anybody know if Vorshlag plates will fit OEM suspension? I seem to recall they won't but curious if anybody has tried.

[Bbenavitz]

Looks like the Dinan plates are one quarter inch thick to address this problem but it will raise the ride height the same amount which I don't like. Why can't we just ovalize the holes to get the increased camber?

[M3SQRD]

Originally Posted by signes

Anybody know if Vorshlag plates will fit OEM suspension? I seem to recall they won't but curious if anybody has tried.

No. They do not offer a camber plate that works with OEM-style front springs.

[signes]

Thanks dbarnes, not a lot of options for plates without going to sleeve or coil over other than Dinan and GC.

[kaiv]

Originally Posted by Bbenavitz

Why can't we just ovalize the holes to get the increased camber?

You can -seen it done on drift cars and what not. It's just kinda ghetto and once you enlarge the holes in the strut towers there's no turning back :X

[bigjae1976]

Just got the bolt plates back from Cantrell. This is about x1000 times better. Well worth the small amount that I paid. Although the plates should have come like this from the start. So, you ask, does something like this hurt ground control? YES! I didn't even consider their E46 suspension...so they lost a sale to TC Kline.

[4sevens.com]

I just competed in the one lap of america in car #47 and have a total of 5,000 miles in a single week and I have the GC plate and they are absolutely fine. I did a visual and I see nothing of the sort that is reported here. Note that my suspension is working extra hard as I have 50% more power than stock and I'm running at race pace at these events.

[SlamMan]

Do you have the regular or low profile version?

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by 4sevens.com

I just competed in the one lap of america in car #47 and have a total of 5,000 miles in a single week and I have the GC plate and they are absolutely fine. I did a visual and I see nothing of the sort that is reported here. Note that my suspension is working extra hard as I have 50% more power than stock and I'm running at race pace at these events.

Mine failed with 0 miles on them. In fact, they made it on the car...car was never lowered of the jack stands. The bolt that usually fails just started spinning. The otherside looked awful. Maybe this was a bad batch but ground control really screwed the pooch on this one. I looked at the bolt plate and it looked suspect before even installing it.

I had some vorshlag plates to look at and the design is so much more robust.

[sleepless]

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

Just got the bolt plates back from Cantrell. This is about x1000 times better. Well worth the small amount that I paid. Although the plates should have come like this from the start. So, you ask, does something like this hurt ground control? YES! I didn't even consider their E46 suspension...so they lost a sale to TC Kline.

I have the Cantrell bolt plate too. Nice and beefy instead of the crap GC part.