Dialing in the Tilt: Camber Plate Install on My 128i

With the 128i getting prepped for some track time, it’s time to dial in a bit of negative camber to save the front tires from premature destruction and help the car rotate better. Since I'm not running some hardcore, top-secret suspension setup—just a simple Bilstein B12 kit—I opted to skip the fancy adjustable camber plates and save a few bucks by going with a fixed set of Dinan camber plates. These add a modest 0.7 degrees of negative camber up front, and at just ~$135, I figured they were worth a shot.

From the factory, BMW’s engineers gave the not-so-sporty E82 128i a healthy dose of understeer. I suspect their lawyers were pleased with this decision, as it helped keep less experienced drivers out of the ditch. One of the ways they achieved this was by limiting front-end camber, ensuring the front tires give up before the rear—making it easier for most drivers to correct.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I previously installed OE E9x/E8x M3/1M control arms. These slightly longer arms push the lower portion of the wheel outward, adding a bit of negative camber. This time, we’re addressing the other end—pulling the top of the strut inward for even more negative camber. This is particularly beneficial on strut-based cars and has the added perk of improving tire clearance, which is much needed on the narrow-bodied E82.

Since I already had most of the front end disassembled for an OEM oil cooler install, I figured this was the perfect time to throw these camber plates in.

This isn’t a full step-by-step DIY (there are plenty of those out there), but I’ll walk through the basics and share what I learned along the way.

Installation Process & Tips

First, get the car off the ground and remove the front wheels.

Inside the fender well, there’s a junction box with sensor wires. I highly recommend disconnecting them to avoid accidentally yanking one loose. It’s also a good idea to free the wires from their mounting points so they don’t get snagged during the process.

Next, disconnect the front sway bar from the end link to allow the strut to pivot away from the inner fender.

Some installers recommend loosening or disconnecting the lower control arm (rear) and the front tension strut. Since I’m running the OE M3 lower control arm, which has a spherical joint, removing it wasn’t strictly necessary. However, I removed the bolt anyway because I was replacing it with new hardware after my front subframe removal fiasco.

I also disconnected the front tension strut arm to help the knuckle rotate a bit more.

Pro tip: Use painter’s tape around the fender to protect your paint. The clearance between the strut mount studs and the fender is tight, and it’s very easy to scratch the paint when removing the strut.

Now, remove the three nuts securing the top of the strut to the chassis. To access all of them, I had to loosen the semi-triangular OEM strut tower brace on both sides.

At this point, be careful—when you remove the last nut, the strut will drop. If you have an extra set of hands to catch it, even better.

Once the strut is free, you’ll need to push down on it to gain enough clearance for removal. The strut top studs love to grab onto the fender like a kid tearing into Christmas presents, so stand up and use some body weight to push it down. Rotating the strut slightly can also help the studs clear one at a time.

Ignore the fact that the strut top mount studs and alignment pin are already missing in that photo—because, well, we’re about to take care of that.

The OEM strut top mounts come with an alignment pin to lock in BMW’s factory-specified camber setting (since front-end camber isn’t adjustable from the factory). Supposedly, this pin can be removed with an Allen key. When I checked mine, I didn’t see any hex-shaped hole for an Allen key—though, to be fair, I might not have looked all that hard.

I briefly considered cutting it off, but since the assembly is made of relatively soft aluminum, I opted for a simpler approach: grab a set of vice grips, clamp down on the alignment pin, and twist. Voilà—no more alignment pin.

Next up, we need to get those strut top mount studs out of the way. The instructions suggest using a hammer, but since the mounts are aluminum, that felt like overkill. Instead, I grabbed a rubber mallet and went at it like a toddler mid-tantrum. A few satisfying whacks, and each stud popped right out—no longer part of the assembly.

With the face of the strut top mount now free of obstructions, it was time to install the Dinan camber plates.

Using the supplied hardware, attach the Dinan camber plates to the strut top mount by sliding the bolts through the holes where the original studs once lived. Secure them with the supplied nuts and torque them down to 18 ft-lbs.

Dinan makes the orientation of the camber plates foolproof—they’re clearly labeled L and R to indicate which side they belong on. Once installed, the letter (L or R) should face the inside/center of the car, while the arrow printed on the plate should point toward the front. As you can see, this setup pulls the top of the strut inward, delivering the desired negative camber.

Now, here’s a little bonus trick that isn’t mentioned in the instructions. With the alignment pin removed, you can squeeze out an extra 0.2 to 0.3 degrees of negative camber—for free. The holes where the strut top mount studs slide in aren’t perfectly circular; they’re slightly oblong. By pushing the top of the strut inward while tightening the strut top nuts, you can slide the assembly even further inward, gaining a touch more negative camber and a bit of extra tire clearance.

At this point, it’s time to reinstall everything we removed or disconnected earlier. Since the inner control arms contain bushings (technically, my rear lower control arm doesn’t, but we’ll assume it does for this explanation), you’ll want to torque them down while the suspension is loaded.

If I’m not mistaken, the inner control arm hardware is torque-to-yield, meaning it should technically be replaced with new hardware. To properly load the suspension before torquing everything to spec, you have a couple of options:

• Place the car on the ground or on ramps (with wheels/tires reinstalled, of course), or

• Use a jack under the knuckle on each side and raise it until that corner of the vehicle just starts to lift off the jack stands or lift pucks.

This ensures the bushings are tightened at the correct ride height, allowing the suspension to function properly and preventing premature bushing failure.

Once everything is back together, it’s a good idea to get an alignment, since altering suspension geometry affects your settings.

Which leads to the big question: How much negative camber did I actually gain with the Dinan plates?

If you read my previous post about installing the Bilstein B12 cup kit, you’d have seen my alignment numbers after pairing the Bilsteins with the M3 control arms. Let’s compare…

I took my 128i back to the same alignment shop, eager to see the results after installing the Dinan camber plates and using the removed alignment pin trick. Here’s what the numbers looked like:

For some reason, we ended up with about 1.5 degrees of negative camber on one side and roughly 0.8 degrees on the other. If I had sprung for adjustable camber plates, I could have dialed in a more precise alignment to balance both sides evenly. But as it stands, I’m happy with the results.

This time around, based on advice from folks more experienced with tracking the E82, I opted to reduce rear negative camber slightly, presumably to help with rotation.

The car is also running OEM toe settings front and rear, with slightly more toe-in than my previous alignment. I could have reduced toe—aiming for closer to zero or even adding a bit of toe-out—to sharpen turn-in response. But since the car still sees regular street duty, and I enjoy freeway stability, I decided against it to avoid any darty behavior.

So, did the extra camber make a difference?

In normal city driving? Not really. Around town, you’d be hard-pressed to notice a change. But when you start pushing it on a twisty road, despite the slightly increased toe-in, the car feels more responsive and eager to rotate. It’s not a night-and-day transformation, but the improvement is noticeable when turning into a sharper corner at speed.

On the street, you won’t feel a dramatic difference—but on track? I have a feeling it’s going to pay dividends.

Speaking of the track, we’re almost ready to hit High Plains Raceway. In my last blog post, I mentioned something about more grip and upgrading these stock brakes… looks like we’ve got just a bit more work to do before the fun begins.