Which top hats for Rokkor coilovers?

[planksta]

Soo im buying a set of Rokkor Coilovers for my ti cause i want to slam it real low and i need top hats for the front, but im not sure which ones i need or where to get them. ive been told that the m3 top hats will work and the 325i top hats will work. can anyone enlighten me on this and if they have any suggestions on which to get and where? thanks
-zach

[familytruckster]

I would suggest caster camber plates. The stock parts do not allow adjustment, and with a ridiculous drop, you will need adjustability to get he alignment anywhere near spec.

All non M E36 top hats are the same.

[planksta]

Yea thats what i was thinking since im going pretty low i would need to be able to adjust the camber for allignment, Do they have to be from an e36 m3? because i have seen adjustable camber plates for like the 318i and other 3 series are they all able compatible or do only certain ones fit the ti? and any suggestions on where to buy them? thanks
-zach

[familytruckster]

All the E36 front end parts are the same. 318i,318is, 325, 328.

Just get em for the E36 and you'll be fine.

A note about the ti rear suspension. It's not adjustable, so when you slam it the camber and toe go way out of whack. There are weld in adjustment kits, just a PITA.

[planksta]

awesome thanks, and also thank you for the bad start up thread i admire the help
-zach

[HellaFlushTI]

hey plank you should document the intillation and wats needed to see how i can do this later x)

[trikzta]

any E36 top hat will work, the installation is pretty straight forward im no mechanic and i did it myself took me a few hours and done. dont forget to buy new top hats and rear shock mounts. some ppl buy m3 top hats to help the camber. hella flush if you ever need help with something im just down the road :P LOL not literally but closer than many

[HellaFlushTI]

lol yea im jw wat ill need to install them

[planksta]

Yea I could do a right up if I ever get around to it, and I'm still not positive if you have to use camber plates or not, I was told you do since its soo much of a drop but any e36 top hat will fit they are all compatible

[HellaFlushTI]

Yea I could do a right up if I ever get around to it, and I'm still not positive if you have to use camber plates or not, I was told you do since its soo much of a drop but any e36 top hat will fit they are all compatible
idk if ill need them i put e39 rims on my car so the offset is there already

[planksta]

dope!! see im going with a set of bbs rz's and im going with about a 15mm spacer in the rear and a 8mm in the front, so the offset is gunna be pretty close to the fenders but im gunna run stretched tires like a 205/40/16 and then just drop the bitch as close as i can without rubbin hahah, brian(eurohb) did basically the same thing only his spacers are a bit thicker, his car has great stance, and he used camber plates off an m3 to deal with the tremendous drop i may just buy a cheaper set of camber plates cause there really pricy

[HellaFlushTI]

dope!! see im going with a set of bbs rz's and im going with about a 15mm spacer in the rear and a 8mm in the front, so the offset is gunna be pretty close to the fenders but im gunna run stretched tires like a 205/40/16 and then just drop the bitch as close as i can without rubbin hahah, brian(eurohb) did basically the same thing only his spacers are a bit thicker, his car has great stance, and he used camber plates off an m3 to deal with the tremendous drop i may just buy a cheaper set of camber plates cause there really pricy

u think ill need camber plates??

[planksta]

u think ill need camber plates??
See I have heard both ways, some ppl have told me that just the normal top hats will be fine and then others tell me that you need camber plates, I think its because some ppl have different offsets, the ppl with a normal offset get away with the normal top hats because it wont be that camber, but those like me who want to get a low offset and push the rims out need the camber plates or else the rims will be at to much of an angle and it will burn the tires to quickly on one side and cause alignment problems, anyway camber plates are recommended and its probably not a bad idea to have them so your alignment is not out of whack

[mohaughn]

Rim offset has a very minor, if any affect on the camber of the tire. What people are telling you is that if you have a low offset tire, it sticks out much farther, and if you have significant negative camber, it may cause the tire to rub as the outside edge of the wheel will be higher relative to the inside edge.

To fix this, you have to dial out some of that negative camber or open up the wheel wells. If you aren't concerned about running really high negative camber on the street, don't worry about camber plates. The only way to know if it will fit is to find somebody with the same setup, or test it yourself.

High amounts of negative camber on the street will cause the car to be darty at highway speeds driving in a straight line, could cause the front end to tramline, and will cause excessive tire wear on the inside of the tire. By darty and tramlining I mean that the tire will want to follow grooves in the road, and seem to want to pull from side to side, but not always to the same side as if the toe alignment was off.

[planksta]

What he said^^ haha very helpful tip, if that's the case they probably aren't that much of a necessity, which is good because I didn't really want to get them anyway

[trikzta]

like i said before you dont really need em. i have rokkors and i dont use camber plates and my negative camber is not noticeable i use 328 front top mounts i had my car slammed and the negative camber was still very little but the offset on my rims is around 42 if im not wrong, so your camber will be more noticeable just like eurohb car when he had the bbs rz rims on his with the rokkors

[planksta]

alright so i finally got this all figured out, I will prob just go without them unless i end up needing them, only the install will tell so whenever i get around to it i will do a write up and take pics:cool:

[MTRD3]

All the E36 front end parts are the same. 318i,318is, 325, 328.

Just get em for the E36 and you'll be fine.

A note about the ti rear suspension. It's not adjustable, so when you slam it the camber and toe go way out of whack. There are weld in adjustment kits, just a PITA.

Just a question in regards to ^, coilover install and post alignment. After a Ti coilover install, although I know this depends on how low you go, and what the car is used for, are factory alignment specs. generally ok considering the rear is not adjustable and the front, when not outrageously low, shouldn't be effected by camber? Or are there advisable post coilover alignment specs. (or a loose guidline) posted somewhere on the forum?

[mohaughn]

All they can adjust is front toe. So have them set the car as close to spec as possible for front toe.