[GunMetalGrey]

Originally Posted by zeroescence

Thanks, after reading this it pushed me to cancel my order. I have been waiting since April 19th for my BMR lockout kit to ship. I ordered it from Wildhammer. They said it’s a drop shipment and BMR keeps telling them a new ship date every time the original date BMR gave them passes. So F that. On to the next thing.

Sounds like the ZLE cradle upgrade has been discontinued. So what other option do I have?

Good to know I'm not the only one waiting... I'll keep waiting though

[GunMetalGrey]

Originally Posted by kwav8r

Guys,
This is ongoing but wanted to get it out there that if you have one of these kits that you plan on installing in a '17+ Camaro - do not re-use the factory OEM bolts for the cradle. The OEM bolts (all 4) are only about $40 total from the dealer.

Long story short, in installing mine I was torquing down the last of the four OEM cradle bolts to 120ft/lbs as per their instructions. In doing so, I felt the bolt stretch and stopped, I did not get 120 ft/lbs on it.

13 days later as I'm driving it (mine is not a daily driver), I felt and heard a "pop" in the rear end and felt that something with the rear end was off. Pulled over to a spot where I could get under the car and saw that the bolt in question was missing.

Realizing I had no idea what to do, I called the dealer and had the car towed to them. Sure enough they found the bolt had broken off in the bolt hole (consistent with shearing the bolt off). Dealer also let me know that the bolts on the '17+ Camaro are Torque-to-yield, one-time use only. Think they are going to try extracting it today but because of the frame will have to make an extra long extraction bit, or if all else fails, take out the rear cradle to get the bolt out.

Called BMR to let them know and figure out what we are gonna do. Owner, through one of his techs, let me know that yes, their instructions (BMR's) are wrong the cradle bolts are TTY, one-time use only and they are in the process of redoing the instructions. But, because they have installed this kit on 'hundreds' of cars without any issues they are not responsible for anything. They did, however, offer me a coupon code for a future purchase from BMR- so I got that going for me (heavy sarcasm).

Thanks man!
I had no idea about this and would have had the lock out kit installed without changing the bolts for sure.

[kwav8r]

Originally Posted by Stephen12ZL1

BMR's lockout kit is an amazing enhancement to the lackluster GM setup. The mere fact that one member here had an issue with retorquing a factory bolt should not shy people away from this kit. I wasn't there to witness this bolt being reused/retorqued, but the failure could be due to user error (no offense). GM's bolt quality could be to blame also. My suspicion is the bolt was potentially misthreaded or in a bind as these are "blind holes". Attempting 120 ft/lbs of torque on a misguided bolt will lead to the failure described. My bolts retorqued without fail just as BMR's test car 6th Gen. BMR's response to this issue was appropriate & timely. I have nothing to gain but I feel they will lose business from a single spurious post that says nothing of the quality of their suspension pieces. BMR has a proven quality setup, and I stand by their ability to engineer beyond GM's standard issue cradle bushings.

No offense taken right up to your "spurious" remark, that I take offense to. I'm not some shade tree whackadoo with a little experience in lefty losey, right tightie. I grew up in a machine shop and can tell when a bolt is being cross-threaded on its way in.

I followed the installation instructions to the letter- take out the front bolts, insert delrin bushing and washer, re-insert bolts to finger tight, do the rear cradle and then tighten everything from front to rear, yada, yada. All the bolts went right back into their holes (yes, I ensured that each bolt went back into the same hole it came out of) and were fingered tightened several turns before any tool was applied to them. The bolt that broke was the last one to get tightened down, progressively. All the other bolts tightened down without a hitch. And before you ask, yes, my torque wrench is calibrated as well. Having spent 20+ years in the aviation, I don't compromise.

It may be that the final bolt was compromised during its factory install, who knows. But, that's the PURPOSE of a TTY bolt- it gets stretched during install on purpose.

Where I take exception to BMR's "honesty" is in that 1. BMR didn't check to ensure the '17+ Camaro were the same (re-use bolts) as the '16 they used to design and 2. Because their kit has been installed on hundreds of cars, they bear no responsibility for the problem (although they openly recognize that the bolts are one-time use only).

Finally, I bought the kit because of the terrific accolades that many folks here have attested to. It's likely one of the most cost effective, and simple, mods that we can do to these cars and I'm still gonna use it. BUT, you don't put a product on the street with erroneous instructions and then tell a customer when they have a problem that it's not your fault because you have 'hundreds' of instances of anecdotal evidence where nothing went wrong. In this case my 'exceptional' experience proves the rule- you don't reuse one-time only bolts, especially when you're going to torque them to 120ft/lbs.

[kwav8r]

UPDATE - Luckily the dealer was able to extract the broken bolt from the frame and I was able to locate the broken bolt in the street (will post photos later). New bolts were installed with the kit and the car is getting a four wheel alignment. Should have picked it up yesterday but, apparently some of the alignment bolts are TTY (one-time use only) and those had to be overnighted.

Looking forward to driving the car with the kit installed to see how much of the fishtailing has been taken out!

[Artos]

Originally Posted by kwav8r

UPDATE - Luckily the dealer was able to extract the broken bolt from the frame and I was able to locate the broken bolt in the street (will post photos later). New bolts were installed with the kit and the car is getting a four wheel alignment. Should have picked it up yesterday but, apparently some of the alignment bolts are TTY (one-time use only) and those had to be overnighted.

Looking forward to driving the car with the kit installed to see how much of the fishtailing has been taken out!

Do the alignment bolts come off during the Lockout installation & do I need to order these as well, or is that something your dealer should have had in stock to replace for the alignment.

Brother, I'm sorry this happened to you but your unfortunate set of events saved me a ton of grief knowing all this on the front end.

[Rodan]

Glad to hear the broken bolt came out the easy way...

Does anyone have access to a manual with the proper torque procedures for these bolts?

[zeroescence]

Originally Posted by nicktechla

Is it even possible to order the 1LE aluminum cradle bushings anymore? I saw on some other posts everyone says sold out or discontinued.

No. They have been discontinued by GM. From what I understand, GM wants people to buy the entire cradle if they want that setup.

[kwav8r]

Originally Posted by Artos

Do the alignment bolts come off during the Lockout installation & do I need to order these as well, or is that something your dealer should have had in stock to replace for the alignment.

Brother, I'm sorry this happened to you but your unfortunate set of events saved me a ton of grief knowing all this on the front end.

Thanks brother, it's all good. I'm just trying to put some helpful information out there for everyone so we all don't learn things the hard way.

No, the alignment bolts do not come out during the Cradle Lockout kit install but, if I remember correctly you're also doing the rear arms as well - I can't speak to that.

The alignment bolt thing was also a surprise in that they're TTY (one time use only). So, if they loosen an alignment bolt to make an adjustment then they have to replace. Once I find out which bolts those are I will let the forum know.

[staples87]

Thanks for keeping us updated. How has the dealership been to deal with, since it technically was an "aftermarket" piece that was installed? Are they voiding your suspension warranty, yada yada?

[Jimabe]

Originally Posted by kwav8r

Thanks brother, it's all good. I'm just trying to put some helpful information out there for everyone so we all don't learn things the hard way.

No, the alignment bolts do not come out during the Cradle Lockout kit install but, if I remember correctly you're also doing the rear arms as well - I can't speak to that.

The alignment bolt thing was also a surprise in that they're TTY (one time use only). So, if they loosen an alignment bolt to make an adjustment then they have to replace. Once I find out which bolts those are I will let the forum know.

X2 THANKS!! to all posting this. I have the kit, but not installed yet. Certainly will get the new bolts for the install.

[Jimabe]

Just ordered the 4 bolts. $16.48 from ThatGMPartsGuy...
Would be extra $9 shipping but i live down street from them.
Either way, not expensive at all.

[Rodan]

Originally Posted by Jimabe

Just ordered the 4 bolts. $16.48 from ThatGMPartsGuy...
Would be extra $9 shipping but i live down street from them.
Either way, not expensive at all.

Yeah, for me the shipping was almost as much as the bolts... still not a lot of $$.

BMR should just include them with the kit and raise the price $15.

[BMR Tech]

The cradle bolts and all of the trailing and control arm bolts are torque to yield or a 1 time use fasteners per GM. We designed and released all of these parts before the service manual was available to the public, and we never went back and checked any of this info until now. We have sold hundreds of these kits as well as sets of arms and this is the first instance of a failure that we know of. Our own 2016 Camaro that we designed and tested all of these parts on has been taken apart and put back together multiple times and still uses the original bolts. We are changing our instructions to read that GM recommends that the bolts not be reused and will be including the GM part numbers(Listed below). We apologize for this inconvenience. Please contact me directly at frank@bmrsuspension.com or 813-986-9302 if you have any further questions

GM Part # 11547921 Front Cradle Bolt quantity of 2 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 100Nm(74 lbft)
Final Pass: Plus 90-105 Degrees

GM Part # 11611819 Rear Cradle Bolt quantity of 2 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 100Nm(74 lbft)
Final Pass: Plus 90-105 Degrees

GM Part # 11610908 Upper & Lower Trailing Arm Bolt quantity of 4 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 100Nm(74 lbft)
Final Pass: 105 Degrees

GM Part # 11610908 Outer Upper Control Arm Bolt quantity of 2 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 70Nm(52 lbft)
Final Pass: 105 Degrees

GM Part # 11610909 Inner Upper Control Arm Bolt quantity of 2 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 70Nm(52 lbft)
Final Pass: 105 Degrees

GM Part # 11516078 Nut for all the above control arm and trailing arm bolts quantity of 12 required

GM Part # 11609598 Outer Toe Rod Bolt quantity of 2 required
Torque Spec
First Pass: 100Nm(74 lbft)
Final Pass: 105 Degrees

[Matos1LE]

None of their explanation makes them free from liability. This is the danger with aftermarket manufacturers, there is no real risk management or engineering done, just fab work and seat of the pants testing. They get away with that because there isn't a regulating body that forces them to comply to any standard. However, if someone has an accident due to this, any lawyer will be able to clean the floor with BMR all up and down the court room. I would love to see an engineer in my industry try to feed an FDA auditor some bs like "it doesn't matter that we did wrong, we sold a ton of these and this is the first failure..." Cue business shut down and company executives in federal prison