So I was at the shop today putting in a different header, 5 minutes after we had it on the lift both of the front coilovers/wheels fellout of the shock tower! I have the Ireland Engineering Adjustable Camber Plates, and upon inspection it looks like the bearing seperated from the bushings, these pieces came as one piece with the bearing pushed up inside the bushing. Has anyone seen this before. I will have pics posted soon. only got about 1000 miles on the car since installed, i take the train to work so the car doesnt get driven much. we were able to tuck the coil overs and bearing back into the bushing as we lowered it on the lift, and drove home with no issues. I promply placed an order for H sport camber plates as a replacement, the IR plates were only 275.

Charlie

 

I think some others have had the same issue. That piece is replaceable.

I have another issue with mine - the camber adjusting bolts are too long and dig into the aluminum block. No reply to emails to IE yet. Maybe they are on vacation.

 

Yep, well im gonna try for a refund. going with the H Sport plates, which is what i should have done first instead of looking for cheaper ones.

 

Had the same issue, IE was very good about replacing them for me.

 

IE did have a problem in one run of their plates, where the inside of the bearing housing wasn't roughed up enough before the urethane was poured in... The consequence was that the pieces separated.

We've seen it happen once, on Gnat's car - and IE promptly shipped the stuff to make it right. In every case where we've had any issue with their stuff, they have stood behind their products and made it right.

As one of their highest volume dealers, we've had our share of issues with IE - almost all have been with the shipping department - but they've always made things right.

I just took a set of IE street/race plates (1st Gen, no less!) off my car after 40K miles, 3 autocross seasons, countless track days, and daily driving. They still look and function fine. I replaced them with the same thing, except the newer version has the center slot to allow for top adjustable struts.

The old IE plates will be used to check stack height on a forthcoming camber plate that we're working on...

 

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Good luck. I think Ireland has deplorable customer service I will definitely not be doing business with them again.

 

so here is the outcome.... I installed the H-sport camber plates, much better fit, they look better, and the adjustability is better, with the H-sport, the adjustement is raised out of the stut tower hole, where the IE plate adjustment is sunk into the hole, you can only adjust so far before you cant fit the tool in. under the lip of the strut hole. I spoke with IE and they sent me the new parts.

 

no response still.

 

This happened to JS at the Dragon...

 

In the center picture, the one with the part still attached to the strut, It looks like the strut nut is in direct contact with the outer bearing race. Was it or is it just the camera angle making it look that way?

 

no the nut isnt touching, funny though it does look like that in the pic :-)

 

Yes I had the same problem of seperation. IE sent me a new replacement set. I sent the broken ones back. Gives them a change to inspect and correct.
You'll like the H Sports. Quieter. Once I went to coilovers it is even quieter still. Almost like having stock equipment with the advantages of; lowering, stiffer control.
JS

 

Yep, i like the h-sport ones so far, i also have H&R coilovers, endlinks and control arms, nice tight ride now, cant wait to get to Limerock Nov 3rd to put this suspension through its paces

 

I'm puzzled...the Megan and JIS kits come with incredibly bullet proof camber kits - pillow ball. If I were going to make a plate, I would use these for coilovers, and develop one that works with stock type struts.

My experience with these camber plates was spectacular given the commuting miles, the horrid roads, and, the track environment.

Killer plates...there is a market here for someone with time...The pillow ball is the only part that needs to be given consideration with the two or three different applications. The bearing must be bigger and posses more articulation for stock type units since these have a larger diameter pistion, and, will potentially posses more travel.

 

Hmm, where's that jerry can of petrol?

Chalk me up as one very unhappy customer of IE.
I had excessive wear on the outside edges of my front tires; they were lasting ~5k miles only. (my handle is not just for straight-line speed ) I figured a set of adjustable camber plates would be the perfect fix. Stopped by the local Mini shop and they demo'ed a Dinan stage 3 suspension system to me and made me drool. I don't have the talent to know a good coilover suspension setup if it bit me on the bum, so the Dinan makes a good compromise. The shop gave me a killer deal that I couldn't refuse, but opted to use the IE street adjustable camber plates instead of the simple Dinan ones so I could have more adjustability.

Within the first day, the IE camber plates were making tons of racket. A few days later and 100 miles from home (at the Monterey Historic Races), I checked under the hood to find that the Koni Yellow strut had come unbolted from the camber plate. I watched the shop install the strut to the camber plate and impact wrench them down with the split washer installed correctly. In the tear down to fix the aftermath, we found 2mm of play in one monoball and a .5mm? play in the other with metal shavings all over the place. I didn't have these camber plates installed for more than two weeks and I already destroyed them??? Imagine what someone who really knows how to drive a car could do to them.

That's $250 + tax that I'll always regret spending.

post update: Installed the Dinan camber plates to replace the POS IE ones and as I suspected, one side is at 1.3 degrees and the other at 1.7 degrees. Good thing is there is no longer any front suspension noise and the handling is outstanding.

Is there any difference with the Helix or Hotchkiss camber plates, especially in the monoballs where they are better constructed? Or am I at risk of having the same issue with theirs too. Maybe I got what I paid for, eh?

 

nah...I'll sell you metal shavings for far less than $250

 

I just took an original set of IE street/race plates off my car that were on for 3 years and 40,000 miles... They were run with a Bilstein SP/H&R setup and our Leda Softcore setup (with 325 lb/in springs). They were POUNDED daily driving and punished at the track and autocross (at least 1,200 track miles and many hundreds of AX runs). The bearing was still in great shape, they were quiet, and still worked well...

I just swapped in a new set of IE street/race plates with the AST/Swift setup because the new variant has a center slot to allow for top adjustable struts... These are temporary, however, until we finish our plates up.

While I understand why some people may like the pillowball, I just don't see them holding up to tons of track punishment. Of course, our focus isn't street performance... We're using a spherical bearing that's at least 2x as beefy as the normal Aurora (or knockoff) spherical bearing used in a lot of applications. If they're not quiet, so be it - at least they'll be hella strong!

 

Well hey, I love my monoballs , even if it is oxymoron...

 

i'm using meb's old ie adjustables. I've put about 7k miles on them and 4 autoX events and they are still holding up just fine. Suprisingly quiet as well. Meb was pretty awesome about the sale and sent me another set of bearings for the plates as well. I plan to swap them out in a few weeks just to check up on the parts and give me something to do with a saturday.

 

I had one side of my IE camber plates come apart too. They sent me a replacement, but I don't trust them. Whenever I drive the car I'm always wondering if they're going to come apart again. I think it's time to replace them.

 

I had a similar problem with my 1st gen Hsports but went to the IE Fixed plates and pound the living snot outta my car and no problems with a great smooth ride compared to adjustable plates anyway. Thats what's great about the fixed plates they make it give just enough camber to where you still get even tire wear and a stock ride.

 

This is funny...My IE camber plates' bushings fell out today while i was trying to put on some new brake pads, i was thrilled. This is the second time that this happened! Its a very expensive thing to have replaced, twice! I cannot believe that they are still selling these things! can you talk about liability!? What if that happened when i was on the freeway! I have some h sports on the way and i'm going to TRY and get my money back. If they don't do that, then ill just get a new set and sell them, even though know one should by them!

 

Glad I saw this thread before I bought!!

On a separate thread that is still "warm" I was asking a more general question about "c-plates and noise," and a bunch of good folks chimed in.

One question that came up was, why are the IE adjustable plates so much less than "others" (like, pretty much ALL others). No solid answers really came from the group that had tuned in. I guess some of you guys could have suggested some reasons had you even known that the question had been asked!!

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have shared (both the good and bad). I have to rethink my direction now. Timing is everything!!

 

Well, I threw my Cooper S up on the lift today and the Ireland camber plate came apart again! This is the second set of plates to come apart, so it's not just a bad batch. I put the OEM mounts back on it and the car feels better and is quieter.

DO NOT BUY THESE PLATES! The bearings separate from the epoxy. I have no idea how long they've been that way and I assume they "probably" stay together when the car's weight is on them, but THIS IS A DESIGN FLAW and a POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ONE.

Here's the photographic evidence: