Why do our camber plates have two bearings? Simple - your struts don't just move in one direction, do they?

The strut rotates when you turn the wheel - spherical bearings aren't designed to rotate. In fact, rotation significantly reduces the lifecycle of a spherical bearing. But, spherical bearings do allow the top of the strut to move freely in its arc as you turn the wheel.

As stated, the top of the strut moves in an arc when you turn the wheel - rotating bearings aren't designed to allow this motion, as they don't have the compliance to do so. OEM mounts do because they're encased in a huge rubber bushing, but if you sleeve this, you've lost a lot of the compliance. Also, as you go through the suspension travel on your car, the top of the strut doesn't stay static - it moves. These motions place additional side load on the top of the strut, usually at the weakest point where the threads are cut into the shaft... Unless, of course, you have a spherical bearing or a gooey rubber bushing.

Two bearings are better than one - the double-roller bearing in our camber plates allow the strut to freely rotate, while the spherical allows for freedom of motion on the other axiseseses (okay, axes, whatever). These aren't cheapie bearings, either - the spherical itself is 1.5X the size of others on the market, while the sealed double-roller bearing needs no service and is mega strong, too. We've also seen, firsthand, the results of running a single bearing design on the track - snapped strut shafts. We've rebuilt two front coilovers for customers because of this issue... Going into a corner and having your strut shear off is NOT a good thing - it's time to go change the Underoos.

If you want a MUCH better, more planted, more settled car in the corners, you have to have two bearings. Freedom of motion is a good thing if you want to optimize handling...

Ride height stays the same as OEM or actually drops (in the case of coilovers) due to optimized stack height.

You can have the best of both worlds - and, it makes a major difference.

 

Black Friday deal?!

 

Which plates are the ones you describe. R56. OEM springs and Bilsteins sports on order. Your WEB lists AST and Vor.. whatever.

Street aggressive use looking to run about -1.5 on both ends. I want parts that work as well or better than OEM forever. I learned on my RSX how important good bearings in the strut are. ( It uses a simple nylon thurst bearing in a rubber mount) Before my super-duper secret grease oozed out, the feedback was fantastic.