Here's my experience:

I got a set of Ireland Engineering Adj. Street Camber Plates for my R56. I didn't want to grind off my tires at the handful of track days and autocrosses I do each year.

The first problem is that these plates come without directions or even an assembly drawing. There are none even on Ireland's sight. This is pretty much inexcusable. Fortunately my mechanic is a road racer and realized that spacers were needed. If someone was doing this at home or had an inexperience mechanic they probably would have bolted everything up without the spacers and either ruined the bearing or had the car disable awaiting parts. Fortunately my mechanic has a machine shop and he fabricated some for me. I called the vendor, who I believe to be a good guy, Detroit Tuned and he confirmed that there should have been 3 spacers per side included and offered to send them to me. Since I already had some made up I didn't have them sent. He also confirmed that there are no directions included from Ireland.

I had them installed and am running them them at 2.4 degree negative which I hope will not be too aggressive for the street in regards to tire wear. This required some grinding on the sway bar mounts, but none at the top of the struts. With some grinding at the top I should have been able to get over 3 degrees negative.

I drove on them for a few days before I took them to a track event. The track is not rough, but I only got in two sessions before the passenger side bearing lost it's press and began to rattle like mad.

My mechanic found that the bearing had lost its press and fixed it with a Loctite product (forget the name) that only hardens up when pressed between metal and deprived of air. This took up the slack from the lost press fit. Unfortunately the bearing was binding a little and groaned as the wheels were turned. Perhaps the bearing was slightly worn by being hammered some after the press was lost during the trackday. Therefore we took it apart again and shot some lithium lube in it. This has fixed it for now. Hopefully everything will hang together now.

Unfortunately the major concern with these plates are that they are not a very robust design. The hardware is cheap. The hex heads on the bolts that join the two blocks that hold the bearing are just about shot already. We didn't loktite them for fear we'd strip the head when taking them apart again. The bearing is cheap. A snap ring is used to lock everything in place, but we changed both sides to a spiral lock with is much stronger and there is no danger of it coming out of the groove like a snap ring.

If I have problems again with these we are going to machine them about 1/8" and put in larger, stronger, bearing as well as change out all the hardware.

If I had to do it again I would have avoided these plates and waited until someone came up with a better design for the R56. Maybe Texas Speedworks will get theirs right.

 

I have from 1 year Ireland Engineering Adjustable camber plates (street/race) on my R56S (I was one of the first buyers). I have done lots of track days (Monza, Mugello, 'Ring, and other circuits) in "hard" configuration with semi-slick tires and they are still perfect!

 

A bit more expensive but the JIC/Cross coilovers come with very nice camber plates - plus you'll have coilovers!

 

-2.4 is a very aggressive setting. Why so much?

 

Are these issues also in the R53 adjustable plates? I just got mine in the mail and you just planted that "seed" in my head that will make me wonder about them now.

 

Andrea R56. I hope mine will hold up well now. Glad to hear that yours are doing well and have lots of track days on them. It give me some hope that I won't have to pull them apart right away and to be fair one side has worked fine so far. Still cheap hardware is cheap hardware. Mine are using the Com 10t bearing and it would be better if they would step up to the performance line that is made for automotive use. The have 50% greater side loan ability and larger flanges for side loads. I'm taking a near 3,000 mile road trip from Colorado to Oregon and back in the next week so I'll see how they do. Also I have a track event on the 19th of July so I'll see what happens there too.

Terry D. I want the 2.4 degree negative camber for autocross and track days so I don't quickly chew up the outside of the front tires. Even though the plates are adjustable the toe moves so much when the camber is reset that you can't just move the camber from a street friendly setting of say negative 1 degrees or so to a track setting without having to set the toe. Setting the toe with hand tools and measuring devices in uneven pit areas isn't something I want to fool with. I'm hoping I can live with negative 2.4 all the time.

Bang 110. Sorry I don't know if the R53 chamber plates are the same as the R56. I would suspect that they use the same materials. There are other adjustable ones for the R53. Helix is well regarded, but much more expensive that Ireland. However if Helix would have R56 I would have been ahead for using them with all the labor I have into the Ireland plates.

 

Iautox, I know our camber plates are not the best on the mrket but I think also that a perfect installation is required. I Run -2.5 degree with slick tires on track and the same degree on street with normal tires (Yokohama Parada) and after 3.000 km the internal side is not so bad....(Challenge cars run - 3.5 degree).

I suggest to buy Alta PSRS for stiffering the "suspension triangle" and set the right positive toe. This will help you to "save" you camber plates and to have more control of the car!

 

Andrea,

Thanks for the info. I've been on vacation and put over 3,000 miles on the Mini. No noise yet and tire wear at 2.4 negative appears to be fine. I have a track day on the 19th of July and an autocross on the 26th. Hopefully the camber plates will hold up and then I'll feel better about them. I do have just a little toe out on the front. I like the idea of the positive steering parts and was planning to add them at some point. Probably after the warranty is up and I have the stock ones worn out.

Mark