[BMR Tech]

Many of our customers in both the GM and Ford segments of our operation, have ride height issues after lowering their vehicles.

Some very common complaints after lowering vehicles are:

-Car did not drop much in the rear

-Car is sitting lop sided

-Car is making noise now

-Car feels very unstable and floaty

-After lowering the car, some of the bushings have worn out


Many times, it is simply due to not loosening all of the suspension pivot point bolts, and re-torquing them to their specific TQ values when the car is sitting on all (4) wheels/tires - loaded.

The best way to perform this is get the car on a drive on lift, or blocks or drive on ramps. The car needs to be level and sitting on all 4.

Loosen all of the suspension pivot point bolts enough to where there is no load on the nuts.

After ALL of them are loose, go ahead and RE-torque them all to OEM specified values.

The pivot points that need to be "indexed" or "clocked" or "timed" are any of the suspension mounting points that have a rubber bushing, as pictured below.

FRONT (where there is rubber)

***TQ Values are 81ft/lbs for all of the trailing and upper control arm***

***TQ Value for the camber adjustment eccentric bolt on the LCA (bottom pic) is 111ftlbs***



REAR (where there is rubber)

















Hope this helps! Happy Modding!

[BradfordCamaro]

Knowing the proper way will help.
Thank you for taking the time to clarify.
I plan to re do in a day or so.

[Daves1SS]

Hey Kelly, do you have any of the torque specifications on the Gen 6 Camaro SS for the suspension parts? Thanks for this post. It has been helpful.

[SS 1LE]

This should be a sticky.

[wal-dog]

Do all these points get loosened during an alignment? Would an alignment alone get the job done?

[R3DLT1]

GREAT INFO BMR! Ive always been a UMI guy but man u guys take it to the next level!

[BMR Tech]

Originally Posted by Daves1SS

Hey Kelly, do you have any of the torque specifications on the Gen 6 Camaro SS for the suspension parts? Thanks for this post. It has been helpful.

All of the rubber mounts pictured should be torqued to 81ft/lbs after loosening.

The beauty is, they should also all use a simple 18mm wrench and socket set-up.

Originally Posted by SS 1LE

This should be a sticky.

I won't argue that!

Originally Posted by wal-dog

Do all these points get loosened during an alignment? Would an alignment alone get the job done?

The preferred way to do this is to perform it at the same time, or shortly after you install lowering springs. Of course, you could always do it when getting an alignment, but you want to perform the clocking of the bushings BEFORE setting the alignment.

Originally Posted by R3DLT1

GREAT INFO BMR! Ive always been a UMI guy but man u guys take it to the next level!

Well we definitely appreciate that! As you can see by the posts I make, we are extremely passionate about what we do here at BMR and want nothing but the best for the consumer.

Maybe with your 2016 you can swing on over to the BMR Team.

[Jmcalhoun22]

Is an alignment a must with your lowering springs?

Originally Posted by BMR Tech

All of the rubber mounts pictured should be torqued to 81ft/lbs after loosening.

The beauty is, they should also all use a simple 18mm wrench and socket set-up.



I won't argue that!



The preferred way to do this is to perform it at the same time, or shortly after you install lowering springs. Of course, you could always do it when getting an alignment, but you want to perform the clocking of the bushings BEFORE setting the alignment.



Well we definitely appreciate that! As you can see by the posts I make, we are extremely passionate about what we do here at BMR and want nothing but the best for the consumer.

Maybe with your 2016 you can swing on over to the BMR Team.

[diirk]

Thanks for the info and torque specs.

[BradfordCamaro]

Originally Posted by diirk

Thanks for the info and torque specs.

Thread posted about GM procedures for installing performance suspension.
All they do is drop the lower control arm.
Lower control arm bolts are 111 ft lbs.
You also have to take out lower shock bolt.

All 3 bolts are single use!
Discard them.
They are torque to yeild bolts

GM does not call out clocking bushings.

Now I have to order new bolts.

[R3DLT1]

Originally Posted by Jmcalhoun22

Is an alignment a must with your lowering springs?

yes

[BMR Tech]

OEMs have always recommended replacing suspension bolts after loosening. When you read the service manuals from GM, Ford or Chrysler they will always call for new hardware. There are several reasons for this, primarily liability.

However, in almost 20 years, we have YET to replace any bolts on any of our many many many cars. BMR as well as myself personally, have 1000+ HP cars that have made hundreds of passes and 1.2 sixty times, and we also torture test our cars on road courses with Hoosier race tires.

While I won't sit here and tell people that replacing bolts is a bad thing, I will state that I have never seen it necessary.

When you go get and alignment for example, on any car made, the alignment is performed on hundreds of thousands of cars on the road as I type...by loosening and re-torquing OEM suspension bolts, without replacing each time. (food for thought)

As for the torque to yield - I have not seen this to be true. When I think of a TTY bolt, I think of a cylinder head bolt, or of the like, that requires a multi step torque method. For example...TQ to 45ftlbs, loosen 1/4 turn, TQ to 55ftlbs, loosen half a turn then tighten one full final turn. Bolts with this type of TQ method are 100% single use.

The bolts on our 2016 Camaro have been removed atleast 15 times and re-torqued to their OEM values. They easily hit their torque value without excessive stretch or yielding.

My recommendation is, when re-torquing the bolts - feel for "give" in the bolt. If the bolt yields, the TQ wrench will keep turning right before the TQ value is met.



As for the LCA bolt - I completely missed over that! I gave all of the values for the Upper and Lower Trailing arms etc. Thanks for the input Bradford!

[diirk]

I would recommend editing the original post and adding the torque specs there, and updating the procedure as needed. So that keeps all the necessary info in one place.

[SS 1LE]

Originally Posted by diirk

I would recommend editing the original post and adding the torque specs there, and updating the procedure as needed. So that keeps all the necessary info in one place.

This ^

...and as I said, a mod (wherever they are lol) needs to sticky this.