Alignment tolerances
Discussion
Hey,
Had a disagreement with a pothole and noticed a slight pull on my car, a 2009 E92 330i with 183k miles (shocks and springs changed at 138k miles with alignment). Decided to take my car in for an alignment as I've not long since had new front tyres and didn't have time for an alignment at the time.
The local garage has done a best effort alignment but said the front nearside camber is way off and it might be worth a new shock absorber. I've Googled it and seen folks talk about camber plates as a way to avoid new components.
Car drives OK, it's gone from a noticable pull to being fine - obviously time will tell with tyre wear. Asking for advice here as there's a lot of red on the report, seems like everything is knackered despite an alignment. They're all tiny degree values which don't seem to translate to much on the road.
Thanks,
Nathan
Had a disagreement with a pothole and noticed a slight pull on my car, a 2009 E92 330i with 183k miles (shocks and springs changed at 138k miles with alignment). Decided to take my car in for an alignment as I've not long since had new front tyres and didn't have time for an alignment at the time.
The local garage has done a best effort alignment but said the front nearside camber is way off and it might be worth a new shock absorber. I've Googled it and seen folks talk about camber plates as a way to avoid new components.
Car drives OK, it's gone from a noticable pull to being fine - obviously time will tell with tyre wear. Asking for advice here as there's a lot of red on the report, seems like everything is knackered despite an alignment. They're all tiny degree values which don't seem to translate to much on the road.
Thanks,
Nathan
You've got a degree's worth of excess camber. Assuming they've used up any adjustment, this suggests something is bent. The camber itself isn't enough IMO to be a huge issue - there are plenty of cars running more than that - but the fact something has bent would worry me and I'd want to sort that out.
By the time you stick a voucher code in euro car parts it seems like you’re not looking at very much for a set of dampers. 50k miles doesn’t sound like a lot at a glance but I think there would be noticeable improvement with new dampers on the front axle. Seems a bit pointless buying camber plates and paying for fitting when new dampers will sort the issue and give you the advantage of...new dampers.
If it were me, and I didn’t have any particular need for extra camber, I’d just go with dampers, possibly the camber pin mod if that’s a thing on the e92’s and call it a day.
If it were me, and I didn’t have any particular need for extra camber, I’d just go with dampers, possibly the camber pin mod if that’s a thing on the e92’s and call it a day.
Not really my area of greatest expertise but I'd not assume it's the strut causing the problem. More likely a lower control arm bent. No point replacing random components until you know what is actually causing the problem. Even if the strut is bent it will still locate at the same places top and bottom and that's what sets the camber.
Edited by DeadCatWalking on Saturday 28th December 08:24
Going by what you said in your OP there is quite clearly something amiss but as 1 degree isn't much it could be quite hard to find what it actually is.
Top candidates for me (under the circumstances stated) would be:
Mushroomed strut top.
Bent suspension arm.
Broken spring tail.
I do not think that a bent damper rod would make that much difference as the top & bottom mounting points (which is what would affect camber) would still be in the same place, and the height of the car is set by the spring not the damper.
However having said that 1 degree of negative camber isn't a lot so if the culprit can't be found it isn't a major issue, it will simply improve turn-in on the side with more negative camber.
On top of the above, did you get them to rotate the offending wheel by 90 degrees to rule out it being slightly buckled?
Top candidates for me (under the circumstances stated) would be:
Mushroomed strut top.
Bent suspension arm.
Broken spring tail.
I do not think that a bent damper rod would make that much difference as the top & bottom mounting points (which is what would affect camber) would still be in the same place, and the height of the car is set by the spring not the damper.
However having said that 1 degree of negative camber isn't a lot so if the culprit can't be found it isn't a major issue, it will simply improve turn-in on the side with more negative camber.
On top of the above, did you get them to rotate the offending wheel by 90 degrees to rule out it being slightly buckled?
E-bmw said:
Going by what you said in your OP there is quite clearly something amiss but as 1 degree isn't much it could be quite hard to find what it actually is.
Top candidates for me (under the circumstances stated) would be:
Mushroomed strut top.
Bent suspension arm.
Broken spring tail.
I do not think that a bent damper rod would make that much difference as the top & bottom mounting points (which is what would affect camber) would still be in the same place, and the height of the car is set by the spring not the damper.
However having said that 1 degree of negative camber isn't a lot so if the culprit can't be found it isn't a major issue, it will simply improve turn-in on the side with more negative camber.
On top of the above, did you get them to rotate the offending wheel by 90 degrees to rule out it being slightly buckled?
Anything bent can make a difference, and the 1deg listed is basically negligible and not worth worrying about. So it would take an almost nothing bend for such a small difference.Top candidates for me (under the circumstances stated) would be:
Mushroomed strut top.
Bent suspension arm.
Broken spring tail.
I do not think that a bent damper rod would make that much difference as the top & bottom mounting points (which is what would affect camber) would still be in the same place, and the height of the car is set by the spring not the damper.
However having said that 1 degree of negative camber isn't a lot so if the culprit can't be found it isn't a major issue, it will simply improve turn-in on the side with more negative camber.
On top of the above, did you get them to rotate the offending wheel by 90 degrees to rule out it being slightly buckled?
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/partgrp?id=WB72-E...
stevieturbo said:
Anything bent can make a difference, and the 1deg listed is basically negligible and not worth worrying about. So it would take an almost nothing bend for such a small difference.
I would still say that it could be anything but a damper as the top & bottom mounting are not dependant on whether it is bent or not as the damper will not sit at full stretch at rest so won't be "shortened" by the bend.Aside of that, I agree it could be pretty much anything bent on that side of the suspension including the wheel if not checked.
I do agree that it is negligible & not to be worried about if it cannot be found/fixed easily/cheaply.
Roughly speaking road cars use between 0 and 1 degree and track cars 2 - 5 so a degree is quite a lot.
I would be checking the wheel carefully too, but then they should have done that before clamping the equipment on it....
If you've hit a pothole and caused damage then make a claim for it.
I would be checking the wheel carefully too, but then they should have done that before clamping the equipment on it....
If you've hit a pothole and caused damage then make a claim for it.
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