Thinking about refreshing my front suspension and weighing the option of going with OEM strut plates ($70) or IE Fixed plates ($180). Like the idea of dialing in a little more camber, but don't like the idea of having to replace/overhaul on a regular basis. I have about 110k on my original plates/bearings with no issues. Can I expect as much out of the IE units? I have heard of people having some major issues with them. Anyone out there with a lot of miles on the IEs? Real world data needed. Thanks!

 

2 years so far... maybe 20K miles. No issues... no abnormal tire wear. Mostly a short hwy commute with occassional back-roads romps. A few auto-x events as well. From what I've read, the actually rubber mount is a heavier duty version of the OE mount (from a 3 series?) welded to a custom plate.

I've installed these on 3 cars (mainly in an attempt to prevent mushrooming). The only one that ran into trouble was when the car owner didn't heed the warnings to have the car aligned immediately (as after initial installation, the tires will be toed out a bit). He wore out his front tires PDQ as a result. One of the other cars has closer to 50K on them.

 

Thanks Ian. Hoping to get more than 20k out of them, but that is a great data point. Good to know about the alignment.

 

They'll certainly last longer than the OEM top mounts IMO. The major issues with IE plates, if i recall, is for the adjustable race plates only.

The design of the IE fixed plates is quite good. I've worked with many different top mounts for a variety of cars (and helped design a few) and the IE plates are a nice simple solution that looks very sturdy to me.

- Andrew

 

33K on mine & they are holding up well. IMO these should last longer than the stock strut mounts, they are very beefy. You will love the benefits of the increased negative camber.

 

I think it's a standard BMW bearing on IE's mounting plate. I have 25K of hard driving on mine with a couple of track days mixed in there. Still working perfectly.

 

I've been running mine since 2006 and approx. 32,000 miles and no problems. The bearings are replaceable. They are supposedly a little bit more heavy duty than the stock BMW ones are. That's good, as my car had a burnt out bearing at 17,000 miles before I went with the IE plates. Not to mention, you get some great protection from tower damage. I love mine and highly recommend them.

 

Got about 10K miles on them with little over a year. No problems here. Have done multiple track days and couple autoX events.

 

About 30,000 miles on mine. I expect them to last "forever" the way they're built and the way they're holding up.

 

I have not heard of any failures with the fixed plates from I.E.. Any of the failures have been from the I.E. adjustables. The bearing used is from a BMW "Z" series which is a much heavier car. I do not believe that the bearings are replaceable in the fixed series. The plates are much beefier than stock and should have no problems out lasting the stock ones. As mentioned you will love the additional negative camber and the extra support from mushrooming.
Steve

 

Thanks everyone. I will probably pull the trigger on these.

 

I like mine.

 

I've been thinking about getting these as well. Do you align the car to normal specs?

 

Best setup with the IE plates is something like:

Front camber: whatever it is - not adjustable
Front toe: zero to 1/16" toe out

Rear camber: -1.2 to -1.5
Rear toe: zero to 1/16" toe in

If you have an adjustable rear bar, back off on it one hole for starters from whatever you were running previously (if you had it set on stiff).

Enjoy

 

isn't the oem price per unit? check out my gallery for side by side comparo pics of the oem mount and the fixed plate.

over 35k on the fixed plates here. and loving every bit of the increased negative camber! plus front tire wear is now even.

so +1 for the ie plates.

 

We had it aligned to std specs (1/16" toe-in, IIRC) with the understanding the camber would be out. We took the car to a shop that does track/auto-x alignments and corner balancing, so they did not have a problem doing what was asked. One friend took his car to a garage that wanted to align the car "to spec", which was obviously not possible with the IE plates, so do some research to find your shop before doing the work (if DIY) or find a shop to do the install & alignment that won't be phased with installing non-standard parts.

Another word of warning: if your car has some miles on it and you live in the 'salt belt' then the tie-rod ends may be seized and adjustment will be difficult. The first car I installed these on had over 100K miles on it and the tie-rods were so thoroughly frozen with rust, we had to replace both outer and inner rod ends.

 

That's a good word from IanF. Also note if the shop uses heat to break the tie rods free for adjustment, make sure they let them COOL on the alignment rack or the cooling down may pull the toe out of spec. I've seen it happen.

 

IE fixed plates come with the Z4 strut bearing...still a BMW part.

FYI...adding more neg camber will increase toe in, not toe out. If the steering rack were in front of the axle centerline more neg camber would increase toe out.

 

Yeah... I was wondering about that... the one friend who didn't get his car aligned right away experienced really bad inside wear... but wouldn't toe-in cause more outer wear?

 

toe influences how much wear you get, not where it occurs. for the most part.

camber decides where the wear occurs.

- andrew

 

But toe out and neg camber in sufficient amount will rip the inside of a tire apart ...I know you know that Andrew, just adding to the commentary.

 

correct.

- andrew

 

so how does excessive toe-in cause inside wear?

 

Because the tires are being pushed somewhat sideways. After I installed the IE plates I was amazed at how the front end pushed. The tires actually squealed at slow speed going around corners. Once the alignment was done all was well & everything became happy.

Don't try & skip the alignment part of the install.

 

im getting these IE fixed plates
excited, cannot wait!