Removed front strut bar - messed up alignment?

[danewilson77]

Yes. They aren't there.... However I am not entirely familiar with the setup has.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[MrMaico]

So, some news: when I took the strut bar off, I took off the little bolts + plates which held the camber plates in place (I had no idea what these were and thought they were part of the strut bar). Today I went down to put these plates back on, and noticed that the struts had moved quite a bit. Went to my mechanic (needed an oil change anyways), they raised the car and the wheels simply dropped down. Struts were completely loose. They didn't move around much when the car was on the ground, but could have easily fallen out altogether if the front wheels caught any air over railroad tracks or something. The guys were pretty amazed that I was still alive and car uncrashed. Anyways, put the plates back in, now I need to do an alignment and should be golden. Lack of knowledge on my part is what led to this, but no permanent issues, so all is well.

Glad to hear you got it figured out. That could have been nasty if you had hit big enough bump or pothole!

Barry

[MrMaico]

Yes. They aren't there.... However I am not entirely familiar with the setup has.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

Ya, same here. Once he mentioned that the struts weren't secured at the top that's when I got to wondering just where are the tops of the strut shafts and what are they mounted to? Good thing they caught it when they did.

[yura]

MrMaico is spot on - the little plates that are part of the installed camber adjustment kit are missing in my pics above; these were the ones I took off without realizing what they were.

[danewilson77]

MrMaico is spot on - the little plates that are part of the installed camber adjustment kit are missing in my pics above; these were the ones I took off without realizing what they were.

Oh Shiiiiiiii....................

[LivesNearCostco]

Last year I did a lot of thinking and reading about camber plates for the E46. Those looks like the UUC or SPC/Eibach camber plates.

UUC plates


SPC/Eibach plates

[yura]

The little plates I had taken off do have the SPC logo on them. They are the smallest, round plates with 4 holes. I think I have the bottom kit of the two you posted.