Correct wheel alignment?

R

RickZ4

Member
 West Dorset
Black Circles are giving £40 off when you buy 4 Michelins at the mo, so I bought PS4s all round for £468 fitted. The old rears had 1.5 mm left but with all these puddles I thought safety first... They were fitted at my local ATS who I always use because it is the same guys who have been working there for years and they are really good and helpful. It was pointed out that both fronts had worn heavily on the insides and an alignment check was in order.

I had a 4 wheel alignment done by a recommended specialist in Bristol about 3 years ago, but this is a long trek in the wrong direction for me to do again so decided to let ATS get on with it. I picked up the car yesterday complete with the (4 wheel) alignment report and it seemed to handle fine driving home. Looking at report though, my vehicle is listed as a standard E85, not a Sport and wondered if I have the correct settings. Also the top right setting in red (front right wheel?) appears to be outside of tolerance and different from the opposite wheel.

I think they use something called Supertracker - small numbers are the old measurements. Could someone who understands these things tell me if they have used the correct settings for sport suspension and if there should be that setting in red? I haven’t paid them for it yet because I didn’t have my card with me.

Thanks

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Good deal on the tyres. :thumbsup:

Assuming those toe measurements are in mm, by this chart you are at +15' total toe front and +25’ rear, which is close to spec (+14'±4' and +22'±4').

-2°15'±5' is the rear camber spec for non-Sport suspension, so it looks like they are using that as a guide (-2°50' is Sport). Front spec for Sport should be -57'±25'.

If you want to bring everything within tolerance for Sport spec before you pay, both rears need more -ve camber and the front right needs less.

Alternatively, if they can adjust the front left to match the front right you'd be left with a setup that's more neutral and arguably a small improvement over stock.
 
MrPT said:
Good deal on the tyres. :thumbsup:

Assuming those toe measurements are in mm, by this chart you are at +15' total toe front and +25’ rear, which is close to spec (+14'±4' and +22'±4').

-2°15'±5' is the rear camber spec for non-Sport suspension, so it looks like they are using that as a guide (-2°50' is Sport). Front spec for Sport should be -57'±25'.

If you want to bring everything within tolerance for Sport spec before you pay, both rears need more -ve camber and the front right needs less.

Alternatively, if they can adjust the front left to match the front right you'd be left with a setup that's more neutral and arguably a small improvement over stock.
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Thanks for the quick response :) I suppose I’m most concerned about wear and an optimum set up for a long daily commute. What would be the difference of going for the Sport settings?
 
It’s hard to say because the two sets of settings apply to different ride heights. I’m not sure if Sport is actually intended to be more aggressive or whether it’s just the natural resting place of the car with shorter springs.

Either way, Sport will feel a little sharper than non-Sport but we’re talking almost imperceptible differences. It’s also tricky to say what the right thing to do is in terms of wear - best just monitor tread depth across each tyre and make a correction the next time you get an alignment (or earlier if you discover it’s extremely uneven). Funnily enough, excessive inner tyre wear is often an issue with sports cars due to under-driving!

If it were me, I guess I’d insist they do a proper job for the exact model of car, so Sport suspension spec at no additional cost.
 
I had some discussions about suspension and setup when I took my E86 in for its MOT. I asked about inner tyre wear and was told (and I'm paraphrasing a bit), "they all do that, the camber setup forces more rubber onto the tarmac but the downside is the wear." One suggestion to mitigate it is slightly over inflating the tyres (e.g. +0.2 bar) but you'd have to keep on top of it to make much difference. I'm not sure if I'll bother, or if that would detract from the handling, but mine does eat the inside of the rears pretty quickly.
 
To compound the problem, each time I drove off, the steering sensor warning lights would come on after 30 seconds. Oh, noooo.... what have I got myself into?

Anyhow, I took it back to ATS and putting my reg into their database showed it as an E85 STD. Their alignment guy refused to believe I had sport suspension until he rang BMW who explained it was a standard E85 with M Sport upgrades. So it was really the ATS database that was wrong. I wonder what tyres it would have suggested...

I now have the Sport alignment settings, the dash lights have gone out and the PS4’s give a nicer ride than the Bridgestone Eagle F1’s.

All is well... Thanks for the input :thumbsup:
 
These cars are surprisingly sensitive to alignment - amplified by the electric steering.

If you are still not happy, suggest u find someone local who races BMW’s as the guy who used to service my old 3.0 used to apply the odd tweak after my suspension refresh based on my feedback - when they’re running well, they can be a real dream... when they’re not u can sometimes fear for your life 🤗
 
Jembo said:
These cars are surprisingly sensitive to alignment - amplified by the electric steering.

If you are still not happy, suggest u find someone local who races BMW’s as the guy who used to service my old 3.0 used to apply the odd tweak after my suspension refresh based on my feedback - when they’re running well, they can be a real dream... when they’re not u can sometimes fear for your life 🤗
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Agreed, and it doesn't feel as planted as before. I don't know anyone reputable in Dorset so will probably have to trek back to Bristol. Where I had it done before.
 
I'm not surprised your tyres worn on the inner edge, I don't see the need for so much toe-in which is the cause of inner edge tyre wear. I have reduced mine significantly and find that my assy 5's aren't wearing on the inner edge. You could also reduce the rear camber, it's way too much, BMW dialled that in so that the front end would break away first.....safer for drivers with little skill. The excessive camber won't wear your tyres just the toe-in. If you search on the forum someone some time ago went to zero toe-in and reported excellent handling but this can lead to toe-out under braking and make it unstable.
 
Take it to Nick at the Alignment Centre in Southampton Docks. He knows a few things about setting up a BMW. Going back for adjustments on Saturday week , if I can get a booking :driving:
 
Just out of interest RickZ4, do you have the details of the specialist in Bristol? I’m going to get the tracking done on mine soon and it’s not too far away.
 
Thrustyjust said:
Take it to Nick at the Alignment Centre in Southampton Docks. He knows a few things about setting up a BMW. Going back for adjustments on Saturday week , if I can get a booking :driving:
Click to expand...
Good shout. Thank you.
 
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