Topic: The continuing adventures

[airbalancer]

get someone else to drive the car, maybe it all in your head :-

[mmret]

Does anyone else find the alignment hole position on the strut tower suspicious? Especially compared to where the bolts are now vs. the old "dirt marks" from when the car drove straight...looks like the struts are both offset to the same side of the car.

I wonder if their stuff is just so screwed up that I ended up with neg camber on one side and positive on the other.

[blur911]

I once took a car in an alignment as it was my first (and only) new car and I was following the recommended maintenance which said get it aligned at 40k.
They said it must have been in a collision as everything was so screwed up all they could adjust into spec was the toe.
I took the car and drove away with a crooked steering wheel.  I went to another alignment shop from the same chain and they said everything was fine, except the toe.  (I showed them the printout from the other shop and they didn't charge me, saying they'd take care of it)

Another shop admitted to me their machine didn't really work, was bent, and could only measure toe (I gave them specs for camber)

 So yeah, you should suspect the measurements from that shop.


Just park it on a level spot and take a level to the wheels, you should easily see if the camber is off dramatically.

[mmret]

Thanks. I was tooling about in the garage just now but its not a flat area and all I had was a very short L bracket. Will try something better later on.

I am also scheduled to take it to a BMW dealer on Wednesday.

[ktm525]

Going to need a level shorter than the rim diameter otherwise the level will be affected by the tire sidewall bulge..

[rrocket]

Thanks. I was tooling about in the garage just now but its not a flat area and all I had was a very short L bracket. Will try something better later on.

I am also scheduled to take it to a BMW dealer on Wednesday.

Why a BMW dealer?  You need a competent alignment shop...

[mmret]

I'm at Open Road BMW right now. They just got it on the rack and measured (with a Hunter Hawkeye) and the alignment is way, way off.

Front left camber -1 deg 18'             
Front right camber -0 deg 12'

Rear left camber -2 deg 34'
Rear right camber -1 deg 54'

FL, RL, RR are far out of spec. This compares to the other shop who measured both sides roughly equal and in spec.

Left caster 5 deg 11'
Right caster 5 deg 39' (this is good, so about 0.5 deg extra right caster so should resist crowning a little...possibly by design)

Toe looks mostly ok. Doubt the car has a bent frame or anything like that.

Getting adjusted now. Phew.

[dr_spock]

How is it handling after the adjustments?

[rrocket]

I'm at Open Road BMW right now. They just got it on the rack and measured (with a Hunter Hawkeye) and the alignment is way, way off.

Front left camber -1 deg 18'             
Front right camber -0 deg 12'

Rear left camber -2 deg 34'
Rear right camber -1 deg 54'

FL, RL, RR are far out of spec. This compares to the other shop who measured both sides roughly equal and in spec.

Left caster 5 deg 11'
Right caster 5 deg 39' (this is good, so about 0.5 deg extra right caster so should resist crowning a little...possibly by design)

Toe looks mostly ok. Doubt the car has a bent frame or anything like that.

Getting adjusted now. Phew.

Hunter Hawkeye is pretty spiffy, eh??

[mmret]

How is it handling after the adjustments?

Excellent. Braking is straight as an arrow. Very little consistently discernible pull when hands off, and the direction of any pull is non consistent (hence its probably just a rut in the road). I say consistently discernible because it was really really windy today.

[mmret]

I'm at Open Road BMW right now. They just got it on the rack and measured (with a Hunter Hawkeye) and the alignment is way, way off.

Front left camber -1 deg 18'             
Front right camber -0 deg 12'

Rear left camber -2 deg 34'
Rear right camber -1 deg 54'

FL, RL, RR are far out of spec. This compares to the other shop who measured both sides roughly equal and in spec.

Left caster 5 deg 11'
Right caster 5 deg 39' (this is good, so about 0.5 deg extra right caster so should resist crowning a little...possibly by design)

Toe looks mostly ok. Doubt the car has a bent frame or anything like that.

Getting adjusted now. Phew.

Hunter Hawkeye is pretty spiffy, eh??

Indeed.

That said Steve's 996 C2S Cab idea was pretty good.