Camber woes, options?

[chriswoodward]

Hi all needing some advice, my camber is way off after someone hit my O/S rear wheel.

Camber N/S is -1°50'--------------------O/S is -2°06' (Meant to be -2°50')

Track N/S is 0°13' (fine)-------------O/S is -0°09' (Meant to be 0°11')

No further adjustment is available so trying to decide whether to get an Eibach Camber adjustment kit or replace the standard arms as well as the upper control arms which is obviously the considerably cheaper option.

This is on standard springs but I am looking at putting Eibachs on it shortly.

What would you do?

 

[Zikim]

Chris,

On your post dated 03 Feb http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=73685&start=15

showed your rear camber to be 2°07'-----O/S is -1°51 and Track N/S is 0°13' (fine)----O/S is -0°12'

which is nearly exactly the same as the measurements that you have now, except that the rear camber seems to be reversed? Have the garage read this wrong as it seems to be too much of a coincidence? Looking if this is the case then nothing has changed from 3rd Feb!

 

[chriswoodward]

That is one hell of a coincidence but since the 3rd when it was setup wrong I have a printout with everything in the green, Ill dig it out tomorrow.

Here is todays before and after (I had it to hand)

 

[chriswoodward]

Would a camber adjustment kit fix this or would I be better off looking at other issues for the cause?

Also would I be right in thinking it would have been better to have kept the camber at the initial (wrong) setting because at least they were even where as now they are totally different on each side?

 

[Zikim]

Chris, it looks like you have taken it to 2 different garages from the readout on the 3rd Feb shown in http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=73685&start=15 and the one shown above on the 5th Feb, is the the case?

Which garage have you taken it to today for the alignment check?

 

[Zikim]

Your alignment the 1st time on 3rd Feb looks like it was done on a Hunter machine, whilst the 2nd one on 5th Feb looks like it is some back street cowboy and certainly isn't a Hunter machine

 

[chriswoodward]

The second one was a John Bean Snap On machine and it was done on that because it was free, after someone hit my rear wheel I wanted to see what had happened to the alignment.

 

[Zikim]

Chris, I would take it back to the where the original alignment was done on the Hunter machine, otherwise you may be trying to fix a problem that is not there, possibly wasting time, money and screwing the handling up in the process.

I would not trust the readings from the John Bean Snap On machine - like I said it looks like a back street outfit

If they have made any adjustments your alignment could now be way off

 

[chriswoodward]

Ok I have now found my second reading (from the hunter machine) and actually the camber was out then too, I now remember them saying that they were struggling with the rear camber.

I don't really know why you seem to dislike the snap on machines so much, they were common place before hunter machines and the readings for the fronts are exactly the same as those from the hunter machine, as said this was a quick check due to the accident.

So I guess back to my original question, would it be better to fit adjustable camber control arms as I am going to be lowering or stick some new OEM ones on as mine seem to be shot?

 

[Zikim]

I don't really know why you seem to dislike the snap on machines so much, they were common place before hunter machines

Chris, I would have no confidence in an alignment that showed me (as your snap on does) that the rear N/S is green at 0°13' which means that it has "toe-out" not toe-in on the N/S and that the rear O/S is showing - 0°09' which is in spec but showing as Red!

I guess that they did not use weights in the car of 68kg on driver and passenger seat and 14kg in boot and full tank of fuel. This is BMW's spec when carrying out an alignment and will add approximately 0°30' to 0°40' to each side of the rear camber. This would mean that your rear O/S would be within spec and the rear N/S would be in spec or just under. It would also be in spec for the difference between the 2 sides which is 0°30'

If you add Eibachs you will lower the suspension by an extra 15mm and this will also add 0°30' to 0°40' to each side of the rear camber!

 

[chriswoodward]

That's really interesting, thanks for that.

I actually don't think that Station View Garage where I had the hunter done weighted the car either.