Camber help

[Ottoiian]

New to the site. In need of some advice regarding my 1996 Z3! Owner for about a year now. My camber is ridiculous and my local shop said I needed to purchase a adjustable camber kit. I went online and purchased K-Mac’s camber and tie kit for around 400 dollars or so. I have no idea how to install due to very vague instructions. Any help would be great!
Cheers

 

[t-tony]

Firstly welcome to the forum. Secondly I suspect you may have been given bad advice. The Z3 does have negative camber at the rear which is un adjustable, however with age it worsens due to the rear axle beam bushes sagging and not holding the suspension at the height it should. Send your camber kit back for refund. If you go ahead having the camber kit fitted it could double the costs so far.

Tony.

 

[Shelly]

Hi and welcome to ZroadSter

 

[Ottoiian]

Firstly welcome to the forum. Secondly I suspect you may have been given bad advice. The Z3 does have negative camber at the rear which is un adjustable, however with age it worsens due to the rear axle beam bushes sagging and not holding the suspension at the height it should. Send your camber kit back for refund. If you go ahead having the camber kit fitted it could double the costs so far.

Tony.

Thanks for the reply! I’m not certain that the kit is eligible for refund. I’ll double check. The kit is made specifically for Z3s and is the only one I could find. If I do return it what do you suggest I do? And if I were to keep it, would sending pictures of the kit help anyone here give some installment tips. I typically do the work myself to save money anyway

Thanks

 

[t-tony]

As far as I'm aware fitting these kits requires cutting and welding. Like I said the Z3 does have negative camber from new which is made worse by the rear beam bushes failing. Your car is likely running on 23 year old rubber bushes (if they've never been changed) so what happens is the bonding fails and then the car sits on the lower metal brackets which exaggerates the camber.
Search rear axle beam bush change on here and see what you can find. I'll see what I can find.

Tony.

 

[mwpe]

You say you have owned your car for about a year, how much do you know of it's history, has it been lowered. This can exagerate the camber and as Tony says, worn bushes will not help.
Welcome to the forum.

 

[t-tony]

@Ottoiian have a look at these from YuoTube produced by our own ZedShed guys.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_KWZk4TLJw

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEzvYuDbuuA


Is this the kit you got for your car (Z3 uses an E30 rear axle) ?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffLnpcBKVn0


Tony.

 

[t-tony]

Failed beam bushes actually lower the car without you realising it and that is what alters the camber.

Tony.

 

[Ottoiian]

https://www.vividracing.com/-p-1524...MIyMe8w76X5AIVdP_jBx2V6A0JEAQYAiABEgJQyfD_BwE This is the kit I purchased. I will look into returning policies if I purchased the wrong product or a less desirable one. To my knowledge the bushings have not been changed since factory. I’m almost certain the only work done to it is any work I’ve done myself the last year. The shop I took it to look at camber issue said that the car looked lowered but to my knowledge there wasn’t no lowering job done (perhaps the springs are shot??)
Thank you for everyone’s help so far, I was not expecting such prompt responses!

 

[t-tony]

As I said, IF, the beam bushes have failed (totally) it will appear that the car has been lowered when really, it hasn't. Watch the 1st video.

Tony.

 

[Ottoiian]

So what I’m understanding is that it IS in fact possible to install the kit I own? Would you recommend going through the steps that those videos did or do you think I should purchase polyurethane subframe bushings from somewhere like CondorSpeedShop?

 

[t-tony]

Personally, I would replace the subframe bushes with Poly type bushes.

Tony.

 

[Delk]

I just installed my rear sub frame back in the car with a camber adjustment kit welded on plus raised bushings. The car is lowered and the camber was ridiculousness to the point the outside edges of the rears were not even hardly touching the road.

The old bushings were in surprisingly good shape for an older car. My camber was caused by the lowered suspension.

I am not quite finished yet but the car is back on the ground and the rear is back to something reasonable now.

 

[Mint]

Hi @Ottoiian, to the forum from me too in Staffordshire, UK.

 

[FRANKIE]

New to the site. In need of some advice regarding my 1996 Z3! Owner for about a year now. My camber is ridiculous and my local shop said I needed to purchase a adjustable camber kit. I went online and purchased K-Mac’s camber and tie kit for around 400 dollars or so. I have no idea how to install due to very vague instructions. Any help would be great!
Cheers

Welcome to the forum..............Frankie

 

[Slam]

Hi and welcome from London