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BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST > Technical Forums > Suspension | Chassis | Brakes > PSA: Make sure your alignment shop's rack is calibrated.
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      07-19-2018, 11:04 PM   #1
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PSA: Make sure your alignment shop's rack is calibrated.

Around the middle of May I had a forum sponsor shop install some camber bushings for me and align my vehicle. This was also two days after I had installed some stiffer/slightly lower springs on the car too (Eibach).

Here's the alignment spec sheet I was given for my car after they were done with it:

Immediately after getting the car back the steering felt heavier than before. It's almost as if the sport mode steering weight was now in comfort mode, and the new sport mode was heavier than the previous one. As I drove it more over that week I noticed that my turn in response was much poorer than before, and the car understeered more too. In general the car didn't feel as nimble as it used to and taking corners wasn't as linear/smooth.

This weekend I have a HPDE coming up, so I decided to take the car to another well-known BMW shop in my area (Edge Motorworks in Mountain View) where I had an alignment done late last year. I was really happy with the previous alignment they had done on my car, and it definitely improved the handling from the stock/factory settings. They told me their alignment rack had just been calibrated the week before too.

When Edge took the initial measurements of my alignment from the other shop, their tech and I were both very surprised how the numbers came out versus what the numbers were claimed to be by the other shop. In particular the front toe was very different. You can see the "before" alignment below, which is how the previous shop left it, and the "after" which is how Edge re-aligned the car.


As soon as I pulled away from the shop and made the first couple of lane changes I could feel a significant change for the better. The responsiveness was there again, and the car felt lighter on it's feet. Additionally the steering effort lightened up and returned to what it was before the previous shop. It really is a dramatic difference.

TL;DR: Find out when the alignment shop's rack was last calibrated and don't bother with one that hasn't been calibrated in a while.

Last edited by FaRKle!; 07-19-2018 at 11:35 PM..
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      07-19-2018, 11:13 PM   #2
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Which shop did the bad alignment?
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      07-20-2018, 10:00 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cngo View Post
Which shop did the bad alignment?
I'm curious to know as well! Looking to get an alignment done soon, would like to know who to avoid.
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      07-20-2018, 10:14 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cngo View Post
Which shop did the bad alignment?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh_f30 View Post
I'm curious to know as well! Looking to get an alignment done soon, would like to know who to avoid.
I'm going to wait and see how the shop responds to my findings before putting them on blast.

That said, I can highly recommend Edge Motorworks. They're top notch. One thing I noticed, is that they gave my vehicle a complete inspection despite me only booking an alignment. They even used test paper to measure the moisture level of my brake fluid. I haven't seen anybody else do that before (I always watch what was done on my car from my dashcam footage).
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      07-20-2018, 10:16 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Around the middle of May I had a forum sponsor shop install some camber bushings for me and align my vehicle. This was also two days after I had installed some stiffer/slightly lower springs on the car too (Eibach).

Here's the alignment spec sheet I was given for my car after they were done with it:

Immediately after getting the car back the steering felt heavier than before. It's almost as if the sport mode steering weight was now in comfort mode, and the new sport mode was heavier than the previous one. As I drove it more over that week I noticed that my turn in response was much poorer than before, and the car understeered more too. In general the car didn't feel as nimble as it used to and taking corners wasn't as linear/smooth.

This weekend I have a HPDE coming up, so I decided to take the car to another well-known BMW shop in my area (Edge Motorworks in Mountain View) where I had an alignment done late last year. I was really happy with the previous alignment they had done on my car, and it definitely improved the handling from the stock/factory settings. They told me their alignment rack had just been calibrated the week before too.

When Edge took the initial measurements of my alignment from the other shop, their tech and I were both very surprised how the numbers came out versus what the numbers were claimed to be by the other shop. In particular the front toe was very different. You can see the "before" alignment below, which is how the previous shop left it, and the "after" which is how Edge re-aligned the car.


As soon as I pulled away from the shop and made the first couple of lane changes I could feel a significant change for the better. The responsiveness was there again, and the car felt lighter on it's feet. Additionally the steering effort lightened up and returned to what it was before the previous shop. It really is a dramatic difference.

TL;DR: Find out when the alignment shop's rack was last calibrated and don't bother with one that hasn't been calibrated in a while.
I’ve had a major chain and a Dealership give me totally different readings within 2 days of each other on same model equipment.

I have since decided that I will do all alignments at the Dealership even though it costs more.

Your post cemented that decision.

Last edited by IK6SPEED; 07-20-2018 at 10:23 PM..
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      07-21-2018, 11:17 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by cngo View Post
Which shop did the bad alignment?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh_f30 View Post
I'm curious to know as well! Looking to get an alignment done soon, would like to know who to avoid.
I'm going to wait and see how the shop responds to my findings before putting them on blast.
So the shop that performed the work for me was Performance Technic in Fremont. They thanked me for letting them know of the issue, and said they just had their alignment rack recently recalibrated. There was nothing beyond that though, which was disappointing. I likely won't return since they didn't stand by their work and I effectively had to pay twice what I should've for the alignment I wanted.

They also said that it could've been due to the springs settling. I completely reject that idea. Eibach has very good documentation with the TUV testing on their springs that show for the models I have, the settling is less than 0.5mm over 500,000 cycles for both front and rear springs.
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      07-22-2018, 08:01 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
So the shop that performed the work for me was Performance Technic in Fremont. They thanked me for letting them know of the issue, and said they just had their alignment rack recently recalibrated. There was nothing beyond that though, which was disappointing. I likely won't return since they didn't stand by their work and I effectively had to pay twice what I should've for the alignment I wanted.

They also said that it could've been due to the springs settling. I completely reject that idea. Eibach has very good documentation with the TUV testing on their springs that show for the models I have, the settling is less than 0.5mm over 500,000 cycles for both front and rear springs.
I would think that just as you get a before and after, a shop should get something similar to show how far their alignment equipment was out considering they claim it was recently aligned.

I’d ask for a copy of that and see how they respond.
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      07-29-2018, 10:02 AM   #8
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Who aligns the alignment machine? Who aligns that machine!?!?!
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      09-07-2018, 08:23 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by cngo View Post
Which shop did the bad alignment?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh_f30 View Post
I'm curious to know as well! Looking to get an alignment done soon, would like to know who to avoid.
I'm going to wait and see how the shop responds to my findings before putting them on blast.
So the shop that performed the work for me was Performance Technic in Fremont. They thanked me for letting them know of the issue, and said they just had their alignment rack recently recalibrated. There was nothing beyond that though, which was disappointing. I likely won't return since they didn't stand by their work and I effectively had to pay twice what I should've for the alignment I wanted.

They also said that it could've been due to the springs settling. I completely reject that idea. Eibach has very good documentation with the TUV testing on their springs that show for the models I have, the settling is less than 0.5mm over 500,000 cycles for both front and rear springs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaRKle! View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by cngo View Post
Which shop did the bad alignment?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh_f30 View Post
I'm curious to know as well! Looking to get an alignment done soon, would like to know who to avoid.
I'm going to wait and see how the shop responds to my findings before putting them on blast.
So the shop that performed the work for me was Performance Technic in Fremont. They thanked me for letting them know of the issue, and said they just had their alignment rack recently recalibrated. There was nothing beyond that though, which was disappointing. I likely won't return since they didn't stand by their work and I effectively had to pay twice what I should've for the alignment I wanted.

They also said that it could've been due to the springs settling. I completely reject that idea. Eibach has very good documentation with the TUV testing on their springs that show for the models I have, the settling is less than 0.5mm over 500,000 cycles for both front and rear springs.
Interesting that a shop that is reknown for performing an S65 1M (135i with a widebody) conversion; cant get a basic wheel alignment sorted.
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      09-09-2018, 10:34 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EvenKeel View Post
Interesting that a shop that is reknown for performing an S65 1M (135i with a widebody) conversion; cant get a basic wheel alignment sorted.
Probably one of those things where they feel they can screw a customer over every once in a while because overall their rep is decent and they're not hurting for business. If you don't screw up too often, then negative experiences like mine just get discounted as "bad luck." That said, they've lost my customer trust after how they dealt with the mistake once informed.

Last edited by FaRKle!; 09-09-2018 at 10:42 PM..
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      09-10-2018, 11:10 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zinner View Post
Who aligns the alignment machine? Who aligns that machine!?!?!
Usually the manufacturers of the machines have technicians who come out with tools and recalibrate the system.
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