Help with Alignment adjustment after drop

Dannyboy · 03-26-2014, 12:33 PM

I posted this in the wheels and tires forums. I think it should really go here.

So I lowered my 06 Pre lci E90 this past saturday with an H&R touring cup, and am just waiting for it to settle to go back and get it aligned.

The tires and wheels I have are Conti DW 235/40/18 and 265/35/18 with VB3 9.5 et33 front and 9.5et22 rear.

When I was driving home I noticed I was rubbing on some big dips and bumps on the highway. After 3 days I don't notice rubbing on similar dips and bumps.
Could this have something to do with the settling? I was thinking maybe the natural camber is adjusting? Any ideas?

Just to be on the safe side I was debating either rolling the fenders or adjusting the neg camber. After researching a bit I noticed the max rear neg camber is -2.2.

I don't want too much camber in the back, as I'm, not a fan of too much camber. How bad would -2.2 look? And if I max out the back would I need to adjust the fronts to a specific setting to reduce any problems?

Or am I better off just doing a slight roll and running "normal camber for both front and back?

Lots of questions I know!

AceOnShake · 03-26-2014, 12:38 PM

Negative camber will ruin your tires fast. Get a fender roll and put spacers on. I fit a 285 on 20x10 et 25 in the rear.

Dannyboy · 03-26-2014, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MentegoE90

Negative camber will ruin your tires fast. Get a fender roll and put spacers on. I fit a 285 on 20x10 et 25 in the rear.

See I'm reading different things on tire wear. Is it toe or camber that affect tire wear?

AceOnShake · 03-26-2014, 01:02 PM

Both will. toe is outter war and camber is inner wear.

Dannyboy · 03-26-2014, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MentegoE90

Both will. toe is outter war and camber is inner wear.

Ok, so fender roll and keep it in spec for camber.

Does the front camber setting affect the rear or vice versa? Like for understeer?

lonestar22 · 03-26-2014, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MentegoE90

Both will. toe is outter war and camber is inner wear.

wrong, toe can be inner or outer depending on if its positive or negative toe.

Dannyboy · 03-26-2014, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonestar22

wrong, toe can be inner or outer depending on if its positive or negative toe.

Yeah thats what I read too. I asked the guy at the place that installed the suspension, he said the same thing.

So what would be a good reccomended camber adjustment front and rear for the setup I have?

lonestar22 · 03-26-2014, 04:17 PM

my tried and true setup that i never had any issues with was -2.5 camber in the rear with 0.16 - 0.17 toe. the positive toe offsets the negative camber and decreases uneven tire wear.

Dannyboy · 03-27-2014, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonestar22

my tried and true setup that i never had any issues with was -2.5 camber in the rear with 0.16 - 0.17 toe. the positive toe offsets the negative camber and decreases uneven tire wear.

Just curious, is -2.7 camber visibly noticeable? And if you were running that much neg camber in the back, what were you running in the front to compensate? Or does it matter?

shadow191 · 03-27-2014, 09:08 AM

-2.7 is noticeable, but not that bad. My 335 is at -2 in back right now and you can barely tell. My Infiniti FX is at -2.9 and it's a little more obvious. FWIW, toe has a much bigger impact on tire wear than camber. I've driven lowered cars for a very long time and most of them have had camber well out of spec, but toe was always aligned to spec. No real issues with tire wear; sometimes would have to flip a tire, but that would be at like 12K mi. so I'd average 20K per set of tires which to me is pretty good since they were all high performance tires. One time I had toe out of spec because of a big pothole and a tire was destroyed in about 3K miles.

The HACK · 03-27-2014, 03:31 PM

Positive toe and negative camber will EXACERBATE inside tire wear.

Dannyboy · 03-28-2014, 07:54 AM

So my alignment appointment is tomorrow. I figure since its not rubbing now I'm going to have them check my current settings and have them leave the rear camber as is (if anything a little more negative, depending on the current setting). And then just have them set the car up using factory specs. Since the car was non sport and is now on an H&R touring cup, I figured I'd use the sport suspension specs.

We'll see.

HouseN54 · 03-28-2014, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dannyboy

So my alignment appointment is tomorrow. I figure since its not rubbing now I'm going to have them check my current settings and have them leave the rear camber as is (if anything a little more negative, depending on the current setting). And then just have them set the car up using factory specs. Since the car was non sport and is now on an H&R touring cup, I figured I'd use the sport suspension specs.

We'll see.

according to my hunter rack factory rear camber is -2.0 for e92 335i

Dannyboy · 03-31-2014, 08:40 AM

I got it aligned over the weekend. They used the specs for 2006 sport w/ 18in tires.
They got the rear camber at -2.0 front at -.09. Toe rear was .12 and front was .15. They did say the front passenger tie rod was seized and they hard time even getting it at .15. So thats something I have to change, The driver side is fine, do I need to change both?

Anyway she rides nice no rubbing at the rear.

HouseN54 · 03-31-2014, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dannyboy

I got it aligned over the weekend. They used the specs for 2006 sport w/ 18in tires.
They got the rear camber at -2.0 front at -.09. Toe rear was .12 and front was .15. They did say the front passenger tie rod was seized and they hard time even getting it at .15. So thats something I have to change, The driver side is fine, do I need to change both?

Anyway she rides nice no rubbing at the rear.

change both, its better to know both are new rather than waiting for the second set to go. why you think they sell brake pads in sets of 2 lol

Dannyboy · 03-31-2014, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HouseN54

change both, its better to know both are new rather than waiting for the second set to go. why you think they sell brake pads in sets of 2 lol

Yeah thats what I figured. Since it's seized I guess I could wait until I need another alignment to swap them both out to Meyle HDs. Its not like they're bent, and the shop was able to get the toe in spec. My wallet could use a break!

HouseN54 · 03-31-2014, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dannyboy

Yeah thats what I figured. Since it's seized I guess I could wait until I need another alignment to swap them both out to Meyle HDs. Its not like they're bent, and the shop was able to get the toe in spec. My wallet could use a break!

In for wallet R&R

03-26-2014, 12:33 PM	#1
Dannyboy Lieutenant 37 Rep 401 Posts Drives: 2006 E90 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New Jersey iTrader: (0)	Help with Alignment adjustment after drop I posted this in the wheels and tires forums. I think it should really go here. So I lowered my 06 Pre lci E90 this past saturday with an H&R touring cup, and am just waiting for it to settle to go back and get it aligned. The tires and wheels I have are Conti DW 235/40/18 and 265/35/18 with VB3 9.5 et33 front and 9.5et22 rear. When I was driving home I noticed I was rubbing on some big dips and bumps on the highway. After 3 days I don't notice rubbing on similar dips and bumps. Could this have something to do with the settling? I was thinking maybe the natural camber is adjusting? Any ideas? Just to be on the safe side I was debating either rolling the fenders or adjusting the neg camber. After researching a bit I noticed the max rear neg camber is -2.2. I don't want too much camber in the back, as I'm, not a fan of too much camber. How bad would -2.2 look? And if I max out the back would I need to adjust the fronts to a specific setting to reduce any problems? Or am I better off just doing a slight roll and running "normal camber for both front and back? Lots of questions I know!
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03-26-2014, 12:38 PM	#2
AceOnShake Lieutenant 39 Rep 592 Posts Drives: E90 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Windy City iTrader: (0)	Negative camber will ruin your tires fast. Get a fender roll and put spacers on. I fit a 285 on 20x10 et 25 in the rear.
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03-26-2014, 01:02 PM	#4
AceOnShake Lieutenant 39 Rep 592 Posts Drives: E90 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Windy City iTrader: (0)	Both will. toe is outter war and camber is inner wear.
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03-26-2014, 04:17 PM	#8
lonestar22 Ground Clearance? 234 Rep 1,654 Posts Drives: 540i & X5 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: DFW iTrader: (-1)	my tried and true setup that i never had any issues with was -2.5 camber in the rear with 0.16 - 0.17 toe. the positive toe offsets the negative camber and decreases uneven tire wear. __________________ E90 330i - E90 335i - E92 335i
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03-27-2014, 09:08 AM	#10
shadow191 Lieutenant Colonel 181 Rep 1,681 Posts Drives: 2017 Volvo XC90 R-Design Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: GA iTrader: (3)	-2.7 is noticeable, but not that bad. My 335 is at -2 in back right now and you can barely tell. My Infiniti FX is at -2.9 and it's a little more obvious. FWIW, toe has a much bigger impact on tire wear than camber. I've driven lowered cars for a very long time and most of them have had camber well out of spec, but toe was always aligned to spec. No real issues with tire wear; sometimes would have to flip a tire, but that would be at like 12K mi. so I'd average 20K per set of tires which to me is pretty good since they were all high performance tires. One time I had toe out of spec because of a big pothole and a tire was destroyed in about 3K miles.
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03-27-2014, 03:31 PM	#11
The HACK Midlife Crises Racing Silent but Deadly Class 1821 Rep 5,337 Posts Drives: 2006 MZ4C, 2021 Tesla Model 3 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Welcome to Jamaica have a nice day iTrader: (1)	Positive toe and negative camber will EXACERBATE inside tire wear. __________________ Sitting on a beat-up office chair in front of a 5 year old computer in a basement floor, sipping on stale coffee watching a bunch of meaningless numbers scrolling aimlessly on a dimly lit 19” monitor.
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03-28-2014, 07:54 AM	#12
Dannyboy Lieutenant 37 Rep 401 Posts Drives: 2006 E90 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New Jersey iTrader: (0)	So my alignment appointment is tomorrow. I figure since its not rubbing now I'm going to have them check my current settings and have them leave the rear camber as is (if anything a little more negative, depending on the current setting). And then just have them set the car up using factory specs. Since the car was non sport and is now on an H&R touring cup, I figured I'd use the sport suspension specs. We'll see.
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03-31-2014, 08:40 AM	#14
Dannyboy Lieutenant 37 Rep 401 Posts Drives: 2006 E90 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: New Jersey iTrader: (0)	I got it aligned over the weekend. They used the specs for 2006 sport w/ 18in tires. They got the rear camber at -2.0 front at -.09. Toe rear was .12 and front was .15. They did say the front passenger tie rod was seized and they hard time even getting it at .15. So thats something I have to change, The driver side is fine, do I need to change both? Anyway she rides nice no rubbing at the rear.
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