Camber adjustments

samZ4M

Active member
Oxford
All, my car has had a knock, it's in for some work soon and it's going to be aligned with Hunter equipment (on the hub apparently!). I had this done by a local garage recently, and the attached is how it came out. It was set to standard, but they recommended -1.5° on the caber.

When the garage align it, they'll do factory standards, but they've said if I provide preferences, they'll do that. So, whats the 'best' setup for fast road driving? Stick to my results on the attached?
IMG_61821.jpg
 
My rear Camber is certainly set at 1.5. Works well for me on fast road driving. Any more and the inside edge, wears any less and the car feels a bit lose pushing on. Just my thoughts. :)
 
I'd be inclined to agree with your guys and would suggest maxing out the front camber which I think 'stock' gives you about 1.5-ve. You might suffer a small amount on inner tyre wear if you're doing a bunch of motorway driving, but if that's not an issue then you will benefit from a keener turn in and greater front end grip. The rest looks fine, I've found the rear to be a bit unruly with any more camber than 1.5 so I'd leave that there myself. Of note on your 'after' settings, the rear toe settings are set to the edge of spec in either direction which really isn't great. I've found these cars to be particularly sensitive to rear toe adjustments so I tend to make sure these are as close as we can be to being the same.
It's quite a subjective subject though, what one person likes isn't necessarily for another.
 
buzyg said:
My rear Camber is certainly set at 1.5. Works well for me on fast road driving. Any more and the inside edge, wears any less and the car feels a bit lose pushing on. Just my thoughts. :)

I concur with that Jon... :thumbsup:
 
Another endorsement for max neg camber on the fronts.

Things to be aware of though/ask yourself first - Are you happy with how the car drives at the minute? If not what are the symptoms you want to dial out or reduce? In general are you confident in the car and are you comfortable with oversteer, or in general a more 'nervous' car.

If you are a less confident driver, and drive the car on the road mostly you may be fine with a more stable car that tends toward understeer at the limit as this is a safer setup, but it obviously be less nimble. If you're more confident and like a bit of throttle adjustability and rotation into cars, then the csl alignment is a good starting point for fast road. I ran it for ages on my si - nice and neutral with bags of adjustability, and great front end grip.

Summary is exactly as TomK said - horses for courses - there is no such thing as the perfect geometry setup for the car - only the perfect geometry set up for the driver :lol:
 
Max neg for sure at the front. 1.5 is fine for the rear.

running -3.2 at front atm, -2.3 at the rear. :thumbsup: but then mine isn't a daily by any means.
 
thanks for the feedback guys. I understand there is no 'right' way, but suggestions help!

The car drives nicely at the minute, so I'll keep it at -1.5 I think.
 
The car is in the garage and I've just had a call.

Previously the hunter alignment was done from the wheels, whereas BMW are doing it off the hub. Apparently this causes the readings to be different (as in, if you done both back to back, they'd be a different read out). The camber on there currently is -2.0 (BMW hub measurement), but it matches side to side, so we can assume there has been no damage or change since the last one.

-2.0 sounds aggressive, but I'd say it'd work out to be -1.5 if measured from the wheel not hub.

I was told however, that on the print out, it'll show in the red. My concern for all of this is mainly tyre wear. Previous to the original alignment on my first post, I had a 3mm tread difference from side to side of a tyre, after alignment it's been flat for 1.5 sets of tyres.

The mechanic is leaving the rear 'as is', there is 0.02 difference between the 2.
 
samZ4M said:
The car is in the garage and I've just had a call.

Previously the hunter alignment was done from the wheels, whereas BMW are doing it off the hub. Apparently this causes the readings to be different (as in, if you done both back to back, they'd be a different read out). The camber on there currently is -2.0 (BMW hub measurement), but it matches side to side, so we can assume there has been no damage or change since the last one.

-2.0 sounds aggressive, but I'd say it'd work out to be -1.5 if measured from the wheel not hub.

I was told however, that on the print out, it'll show in the red. My concern for all of this is mainly tyre wear. Previous to the original alignment on my first post, I had a 3mm tread difference from side to side of a tyre, after alignment it's been flat for 1.5 sets of tyres.

The mechanic is leaving the rear 'as is', there is 0.02 difference between the 2.

I was chatting to a BMW race team when having my set up done last and apparently they said it isn't camber that causes uneven wear but it's the toe.

Anyone confirm or deny?
 
Interesting. It's much more even now, and the toe doesn't look that different on the before/after.

Anyway, I'm happy with the 'current' setup on the rear. The fronts were out a little, but probably just a knock. Everything is OEM spec (to hub) bar the rear camber.
 
Back
Top Bottom