is this a good alignment?

[master garion 1]

Hey chaps, I've just had an alignment done because I had the tie rods replaced. The car seems to be tracking pretty straight although I'm not too happy about the steering wheel being off-centre. Also, the measurements don't seem right per the printout.

I'm no expert so I dunno if this is a "reasonable" result. Shouldn't all the figures in the "final measurement" column be within target and hence in green, rather than red?

[Eagle 1662]

Final measurement of rear camber seems a bit odd considering how it started. Rest seem ok to me but not used to see measurements in degrees

[master garion 1]

Rear Looks totally screwed:

Rear camber is more different than before adjusted , should be within .15,

one is over 2 and the other is less than 1.

Rear toe is better but not perfect - rear toe is really important on an E 36

Front looks reasonable:

Front caster is TOO low something is WRONG here it must be 3.54 or more

Increased camber is better in NZ - fewer straight roads

i'm taking it back

[CamB 48]

How low is it? Would explain the rear camber.

I'm with 3pedals - the lack of front castor on one side suggests something needs replacing (its not adjustable).

[master garion 1]

height is standard as far as I know. so from what u guys are saying:

front castor is not adjustable, which points to something wrong with the car?

rear camber and toe is adjustable, which I'll get the shop to adjust?

cheers for your input

[polley 916]

Somthing wrong with the car, or the technician was a monkey.

[CamB 48]

Rear camber is less than std on one side and about right on the other - suggests it is std height?

Oops - quite right. I shouldn't post while multitasking (I focused on the 2*25').

[hybrid 1043]

Around the centering of the steering, Theyre suppose to use a steering lock or someone in the car holding it while thet adjust the tie rod ends out. This insures a centered wheels and centered rack. Its wheel alignment 101.

After youve got your money back, go see justine at Tyretech in archers road. Talk to justine the manager. They know there stuff and do all of JC BMWs alignments.

[Jacko 2156]

Where was the alignment done? out of curiosity

[kiwi535 538]

all i know is that every place i have ever taken the 535 to ALWAYS has the steering wheel centred at straight ahead AND the specs are within the target data.If the havent done that they would never ever get my car again,as someone has already pointed out thats wheel alignment 101.If they cant get to the data surely they would explain why(oe at least why they THOUGHT why

[Apex Effects 3]

from what ive learnt from our wheel alignment techy(im a tyre fitter) that toe in front an rear should be even not on the piss. my 2c would be take it back ask for a redo if not better ask for refund. if i saw all that red on a standard car i would be asking some questions. 1st question is why is there over a degree of difference in the camber on rear? and why is there not more of a difference on the front? we dont got flat roads in new zealand?

Edited December 23, 2010 by GASTKR

[master garion 1]

I ended up taking it back to the shop and the final alignment figures are now near perfect. My front caster is still out but that's not adjustable and not the shop's fault. The manager's a great guy to deal with.

What happened was I took the car in on a weekend when the part-time tech was on duty. He was new and inexperienced hence didn't know how to adjust the rear properly.

The tech who works during the week obviously knows his stuff and everything's now sorted. Car tracks straight and steering wheel is dead centre.

[master garion 1]

What is the most likely cause of the left caster being out of spec? Worn strut mount?

[master garion 1]

sorry to dig this thread up but i just wanted to post the alignment specs after my second visit. As you can see, the alignment is now mostly sweet.

3pedals - thanks for your comments. I take it that the most likely cause of the castor being out is a bent left control arm?

[E30-323ti 66]

Reduced castor on the LHS is common, as this is the wheel that gets banged into the kerb each time you go into an angle park or hit the wheel stop, also pulling into driveways etc... from the LHS has a similar effect (as opposed to from the RHS crossing the centreline where you are squarer onto the kerb).

The other thing to remember is to ask the alignment tech to center the steering rack.

This involves removing the rack-end boots and measuring when the rack is centered, then aligning the steering wheel + a lot of toe adjustment will prob. be needed.

They never usually do this as most cars are 'assumed' to be near centered, but even a little bit out x15yrs of alignments it can get quite far out.

Edited May 2, 2011 by E30-323ti