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liyi_92

Wheel Alignment for low cars?

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I took my car into Autotech in Christchurch for service a week ago and i also asked them to do an alignment for my wheels. They said they couldn't do it because my car was too low? My wheels look slightly cambered (front only) and are lowerd on Bilstein suspension. Anyone else had this problem before? I'm wearing the inside of my front tyres MUCH faster than the other ones

Edited by andy_e39

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I think it depends on the places gear. your car might be too low to get up onto their ramps or lift.

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you'll need to get some camber adjustable strut tops or some eccentric bushings to correct the camber.

Or raise it up.

There are new laws coming in (as seen in Westies build thread) about the max camber you can have.

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So what is the max camber you can have??? I hope it is not uder 2 degrees of negative camber....

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I dont even know if my car is cambered...

According to this site, my car is sitting a bit lower on the LF (The same and only wheel that didn't pass WOF as inside is too worn out)

http://www.bmwdiy.info/suspension-survey/index.html

Car was owned by a dealer as his private car and he said lowering with Bilsteins gives it a bit of camber? (or something along those lines)

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For most cars, the suspension geometry is designed to induce negative camber as the suspension is compressed. So a lowered car will appear to have negative camber as it's suspension is compressed from it's factory intended ride height.

Your problem could be a 'mushroomed' strut tower. Where the strut tower has been bent upwards from forces on the stiffened and lowered front suspension. See this link for more details :

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=592819

The threads and nuts which connect the top of the front struts (guide supports) to the strut tower are bent outwards. This is what I bet will be the cause of your tire failing it's wof on inner tire wear. I have the same issue in my e39.

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Before you guess what could or couldn't be the problem, find somewhere who WILL do a wheel alignment on it, so you know what your dealing with.

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So what is the max camber you can have??? I hope it is not uder 2 degrees of negative camber....

Well under. You'll be allowed 1.6 max unless you have an authority card.

OP, do what huff3r suggests.

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the problem is I can't find any atm... firestone just recommended doing tyre rotations regularly (switching rear tyres to front, etc)

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Try High Tech wheel alignment specialists. 14 Maldon Street Sydenham.

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Try High Tech wheel alignment specialists. 14 Maldon Street Sydenham.

cheers, will give them a go.

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Well under. You'll be allowed 1.6 max unless you have an authority card.

OP, do what huff3r suggests.

According to my last alignment, the max figure for an E36 rear camber is +2°15". how can an arbitrary figure of 1.6 (what?) be set by NZTA?

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Should have been a bit more clearerer...

The new rule is max factory allowable camber +/- .5 degrees.

The 1.6 is the max allowable under the rule for the front of E36/46. Factory allowance is 1.1 degrees, +.5 = 1.6 degrees.

Yeah, it's a shithouse rule. Blame the wankers who try to fit wheels under their guards with shitloads of camber. As usual the few ruin it for the many.

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Thats not right either.

E36 front. Optimum .5 + tolerance .5 = 1 + .5 allowance = 1.5 (1.30') max.

E46 front. Piss all (as in, cant be arsed looking for specs, but might be 43' +/- 20' + 30'. M3 lots more).

Stupid f**king rule mumble f**k.

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I took my car into Autotech in Christchurch for service a week ago and i also asked them to do an alignment for my wheels. They said they couldn't do it because my car was too low? My wheels look slightly cambered (front only) and are lowerd on Bilstein suspension. Anyone else had this problem before? I'm wearing the inside of my front tyres MUCH faster than the other ones

mine was lowered too and doing the same too tyres,especially one rear,John Bates did alignment no problems and it was excessive toe in that was causing the inside wear

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Excessive toe in usually causes scrubbing on the outside

Toe out usually cause inside shoulder wear.

Excessive negative camber is only needed if you need to run high static to get some dynamic camber , increasing caster means you can get good dynamic negative camber with a lot less static .

High static belongs in the 80's with manual steering and low caster .

Later RWD cars run more caster

And in layman's terms..............

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get an alignment

thanks for your post but it is pretty irrelevant.

I was trying to get Ron to explain his post in less technical terms. I can understand the first two sentences but the 3rd and main one loses me. It wasn't a smart ass comment, I really do want to understand what he is saying :)

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Excessive toe in usually causes scrubbing on the outside

Toe out usually cause inside shoulder wear.

Excessive negative camber is only needed if you need to run high static to get some dynamic camber , increasing caster means you can get good dynamic negative camber with a lot less static .

High static belongs in the 80's with manual steering and low caster .

Later RWD cars run more caster

For e38king's sake:

Static = Static Camber, i.e camber as the car sits still at it's current ride height.

Dynamic Camber = Camber as the suspension comes under load, generally is designed to increase.

Caster = Measurement of the angle the suspension moves through an a back - forth sense, controls camber during cornering. More caster = more camber under cornering and suspension loads.

Caster also makes the car tend to stay straight, making it difficult to steer, but power-steering generally overcomes this pretty easy.

Thats as far as I know it, I could be wrong but hoopefully not by much!!

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thanks for your post but it is pretty irrelevant.

I was trying to get Ron to explain his post in less technical terms. I can understand the first two sentences but the 3rd and main one loses me. It wasn't a smart ass comment, I really do want to understand what he is saying :)

i know...i am sorry my attempt at a little humour did not hit the spot

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Awesome post!!! Thank you very much for explaining this! :)

exactly what he said :)

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