Full Alignment

I still have the rfts on. I was reffered to a very expetherienced guy that he is doing the setup for his own racing cars. He saw the car and told me that it makes the most out of the tyres the way it is now adjusted. We discussed for an hour and he recomended that I change the front camber. (As far as the rear camber is concerned it was already set to -1.5 degrees from a previous alignment). I had all these things ,discussed here, on my mind but I waited to hear his recommendations. I was glad to hear the same things. And sth irrelevant the car now looks much more cooler with the new set up, an extra advantage I wasn't expecting. :D
 
Just by way of update I finally got to the appointment at a Hunter equiped shop and they started on the Zed. After near 3 hours they had changed almost every single setting that can be adjusted. Seems the whole thing was out at front and rear. They hit a big problem that the NS track rod end could not be undone despite all the usual persuasion so we called it a day and new bits are on order. (Nice that I was allowed to see the car on the ramps and the technician showed me the stiings real time and the track rod end. :thumbsup:

I return Friday to have the bits swapped out and the set up finished. They know they need to take the engagement pin out of 1 strut tower to get it right, but will wait until the track rod is done.

Given so far I've not paid they won't release the settings sheet to me, but if felt a hundred times better on a blast home.

Shops a fully accredited BMW and Mini repair centre, so nice to be with guys that work on BMW and Hunter, but waht peeves me a little is clearly nobody who has looked at it int he last few years has ever touched the OS track rod end so have done all settings aound it as a fixed point :thumbsdown:

The story continues:
 
cj10jeeper said:
Just by way of update I finally got to the appointment at a Hunter equiped shop and they started on the Zed. After near 3 hours they had changed almost every single setting that can be adjusted. Seems the whole thing was out at front and rear. They hit a big problem that the NS track rod end could not be undone despite all the usual persuasion so we called it a day and new bits are on order. (Nice that I was allowed to see the car on the ramps and the technician showed me the stiings real time and the track rod end. :thumbsup:

I return Friday to have the bits swapped out and the set up finished. They know they need to take the engagement pin out of 1 strut tower to get it right, but will wait until the track rod is done.

Given so far I've not paid they won't release the settings sheet to me, but if felt a hundred times better on a blast home.

Shops a fully accredited BMW and Mini repair centre, so nice to be with guys that work on BMW and Hunter, but waht peeves me a little is clearly nobody who has looked at it int he last few years has ever touched the OS track rod end so have done all settings aound it as a fixed point :thumbsdown:

The story continues:
Click to expand...

Glad it's almost sorted. If you don't mind me asking, any ideas of how much they are going to charge you?

Also, did you end up going for the setting the Hunter machine suggested or the one from BMW?
 
Not come to the bill yet, but around the £100 mark for the set up and £150 for the supply and fit of the track rod end (ouch!!)

Yes it's Hunter as per the first line of the post :poke:

Place I'm using is Bodywork Midlands Ltd. In Norton Canes. I'll be able to give a clearer recommendation at the endo of the week once finished
 
I'll do a proper update of mine once I've actually driven it - I had poly bushes and a full alignment set up on Thursday but I've only driven the car the 6 miles or so home. Readings from my settings sheets:

Before:
Left front = -1°54 camber, 5°14 castor, -0°10 toe
Right front = -1°18 camber, 5°24 castor, 0°00 toe
Left rear = -2°48 camber, 0°40 toe
Right rear = -2°35 camber, 0°04 toe

After:
Left front = -1°22 camber, 5°14 castor, 0°09 toe
Right front = -1°20 camber, 5°24 castor, 0°09 toe
Left rear = -2°52 camber, 0°12 toe
Right rear = -2°50 camber, 0°12 toe

Basically, after discussion with the technician about toe-out on the front we agreed it wasn't a good idea for road use in a BMW: it would amplify the tramlining I already get (despite non-RFTs) and generally make it a handful. So, I've got very slight toe-in at the front and the rear. Although, look at the "before" toe settings - they were all over the place! Castor obviously isn't adjustable with the standard setup.

This was using a Hunter machine at a place called ProGrip in Bonnybridge (around 15 miles from Glasgow city centre in the Stirling direction). John charged me £170 all-in for fitting the bushes (he says it took him ~5hrs lol) plus the geometry set up (usually around £65 alone). I'm happy enough with that :)
 
Job finished this morning so I've posted the before and after for information. To follow you'd really need to look a the before in the first image and after in the 2nd (marked '*') as there was an interim step, while the track rod end was fitted. There were 12 settings out to start, pretty much all over the place and all within at the end.

I questionned why the target data had changed and it's normal due to different fuel level, weighting, ride height, etc.

Car feels like a dream now after just 20 miles of mixed roads. The weaving that I've moaned about a few times has gone and the steering feels lighter and more precise. Even Mrs CJ noticed it on the interim set up mid week, so it must be better and not placebo :)

Before and initial set up
Before.jpg


After (Final set up)
After.jpg
 
Hi cj10jeeper!
Do you know if a non-sport suspension has the same spec's as yours?(I supose they are not...) if not, could you or somebody tell wich are,please?
Thank you very much for your help!!
 
Good to hear the car feels improved. I've still not had mine back out of the garage much since having my above setup completed...

Slight query - I could be reading this completely wrong (probably am!) - but your camber appears to differ from one side of the car to the other? I rear the "after" data in the second image as:
rear camber left -2°22'
rear camber right -1°55'
front camber left -1°10'
front camber right -0°35'
Your settings do all fall within the range of the "target data", but it just seems strange to me to have a difference in camber like that across the car. But as I say, I'm not an expert in this and could be reading it wrong!
 
a11y - I queried this and it's all OK. Suffice it caused me to have a 10 minute talk to the technician, upon which he started by saying 'bet it's camber?'
Seems what he did was set up everything with the car full ballasted on Monday (which I saw in both seats, and the boot and I'd a brim full fuel tank). That got all the ride heigths into tolerence from which he checked and set camber (front only I think) He then set the entire car up aside the front toe in and stearing wheel centring. Yesterday he did not need to ballast the car again (and it was on 3/4 tank) as the machine had memorised everything from before, so he just fixed the last setting. Guess the result is that the rear camber appears out when in fact if you look at the first image it's spot on.

TH£CROW - yes the suspension is different from springs and the resultant ride height, to the actual geometry settings. If needed I could get your cars figures from the TIS manual if you get me a chassis number.
 
Ah, I've got you now.

I see the intermediate settings (from your Monday setup) for camber are spot on (-2°55' and -2°48' rear, and -1°42' and -1°18' front). Just wondered as I guessed you'd have noticed in the same why I have!
 
cj10jeeper said:
TH£CROW - yes the suspension is different from springs and the resultant ride height, to the actual geometry settings. If needed I could get your cars figures from the TIS manual if you get me a chassis number.
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Hi again cj10jeeper!!!
Sorry for writting so many days later, bussy Christmas days....
I would appreciate it very much if you could post those specs for me!
My chassis number is:

WBABT31010LS00428

Thank you very much indeed.

Merry Christmas to everyone!
 
Here we go:
Delayed with turkey and presents :)


The chassis is coming back as a 2003 roadster, M54 engined, 2.5, auto.
I assume standard suspension as the ///M woudl have been an optional extra.

Prepararation is 2x68kg in front seats, 1 x 14kg in boot and full fuel tank. Ride height must be in tolerence by +/- 2mm

Align_25.jpg
 
Hey! Thanks a lot!
And yes it is, it's standard suspension. What if I align the car without ballast? Would I feel much difference in the driving? I suppose camber would be the alignmet setting most affected, isn't?
Thanks again!
 
TH3CROW said:
Hey! Thanks a lot!
And yes it is, it's standard suspension. What if I align the car without ballast? Would I feel much difference in the driving? I suppose camber would be the alignmet setting most affected, isn't?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. 30 seconds to get them then 3 days to get around to copying, converting to JPEG, hosting and posting.

AFAIK the ballast is to get the ride height correct and as you say will predominantly affect the camber setting. Can you do it without - well I guess so but I'm sure it's not without good reason that most places can set up a Z4, have the setting or ballast.

Mine was fully set up with ballast then on a return trip that was just to fix toe in, no ballast was needed as the other settings were already done and accurate. The eagle eyed will be able to look over the 2 pages of settings I posted and see just how different some are without the ballast on the 2nd set.
 
Hi again cj10jeeper!
I asked you about the weight cos apparently here in Spain there are no "professional" places to align Z's in a professional way...I took my car to THREE different places and they did it wrong every time!!! The driving still feels very odd after all. That's why I asked you about the right figures of my car...but I'm thingking to take my car directly to a BMW dealer so I do not get more pissed off, but also, after all I've been suffering with the alignment I don't even trust a dealer....
Thank once again!
PS: I'll tell you how everything finishes...
 
I guess if you really can't find a specialist to do it then at least BMW will be able to. I don't trust them totlly on it either as alignment is as much the skill of the operator as it is the equipment.

Might be worth a try here first : This is listed on Hunters site as the Spanish distributor so they may well link to a local specialist

SPAIN
RIVOLTA IBERICA AUTO MOTO Y CICLO S. A. U.
C/TINTORERS S/N EDIF. RIVOLTA-POL. CAN SINGLA
08640 OLESA DE MONTSERRAT
BARCELONA
SPAIN
Tel: +34-93-778-7810
Fax: +34-93-778-4686
[email protected]
www.rivoltagroup.com
 
Uuuuooouu! Thats amazing men! thank you very much. I'll give them a call if I don't get the car fixed between today and tomorrow in my last try with my local mecanic...
"See" you tomorrow around!
 
Morning cj10jeeper,
Yesterday I took the car to the garage and the mecanic told me camber in a Z4 is not adjustable. They said its fixed. They told me you can adjust it but not in a "normal" way as you can adjust the toe because apparently they have to dismantle the whole suspension and bla,bla,bla... I thought camber was "easily" modifiable removing a pin on the top with an special tool, am I right cj?
Thank you once again.
 
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