[Polo08816]

Does anyone have access to the BMW factory recommended alignment settings for all variants of the F30?

Ie. 328/335, suspension, RWD/AWD

That would probably be very useful in this forum.

[jwilly]

In the General Forums there is a sticky for Technical training guides. Specs are found in number 3.

Joel

[johnofcross]

Hate to post from other forum, but this has been revealed there. Not sure about stock alignment numbers, but someone posted the paperwork.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=12

[Polo08816]

Car: 2014 BMW F30 335i RWD M Sport (Sport Suspension) - No modifications.

I had my alignment done at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Auto Skills Center. They have a Hunter alignment machine and the price of an alignment is $60. (My guess is a BMW dealer would charge between $200-300 for an alignment). I will say that maintaining BMWs is incredibly expensive IF you don't have access to facilities with the right tools and equipment.

Notes:
If your car has "AFS", you will need an OEM scan tool (Autologic?). If you don't have "AFS", you're good to go.



Not entirely sure about the "DSC" part of this. I think you can disregard it for a standard alignment.


Prep work:

You'll need to properly weigh down the car. I ended up going to my unit's gym and having the full time guys hand receipt me a bunch of plates and dumbells. It's a LOT of weight and you will need this to get the rear camber correct. (You'll see the effect of an unloaded car later).


And now to the official specs:


My front right toe and rear left toe were off. Here is my final alignment spec with the car loaded correctly and full tank of gas:


Here is my final alignment spec with the car UNloaded correctly and full tank of gas. Notice the significant change in rear camber. I ended up taking the readings unweighted because this will be more convenient in the future given the exact same suspension setup.



Here are some other photos...

This is the front tie rod adjustment. You basically need to rotate the tie rod until you get the correct toe. The torq bolt is to secure the tie rod in place.


Here's how to adjust the rear toe. There seem to be two eccentric bolts. One for each arm (upper and lower). Notice in the diagram that the braket has a hole around in it. This implies you are adjusting the upper arm. On the rear side of the bolt, it's a standard 6 side bolt. On the other side (towards front of car), the bolt is actually a "star" similar to a torx but you'll need a socket not a torx bit.

[Polo08816]

Updated picture links.