Alignment specs for Lowered E36?

[Blue94IS]

I have a 1995 M3 that is lowered on PSS9 coilovers and will be getting an alignment done soon. What are the specs for a lowered car? Also on these cars where do you measure the ride height from?

Thanks !!

[Level8drummer]

are you going to take it on the track? Just drive on the street? I wouldn't recommend much toe, and negative camber isn't a bad thing if you flip the tires on the wheels half-way through their lives.

Level8Drummer

[Mtatlow]

are you going to take it on the track? Just drive on the street? I wouldn't recommend much toe, and negative camber isn't a bad thing if you flip the tires on the wheels half-way through their lives.

Level8Drummer

yeah agree with you! minimal or 0 toe in/out n flip tires once a year

[Blue94IS]

Hi thanks for the replies. This is for street use. I am looking for the actual specs in order to be sure I get the best alignment. Am I correct in thinking the stock specs wont work for a lowered car?

[Level8drummer]

well the specs that are adjustable on your car (depending on what else you've added on for adjustability) can be adjusted to stock. But I would recommend zero toe up front, and very little toe in in the rear...not only for performance, but to decrease your tire wear with the extra negative camber you're going to get.

BTW, for performance negative camber is a good thing!

Level8Drummer

[LivesNearCostco]

If you lower it a lot, you often end up with more negative camber than stock, but as Level8 said, that's usually a good thing, especially in front. The harder you drive the car, the more negative camber you want, unless you drag race. Stock front camber on the E36 and E46 is somewhere between -0.8 and -1.2 degrees, but track and AutoX folks like to run anywhere from -2.0 to -3.5 up front. If you end up with too much neg camber in back from lowering, you can buy adjustable lower control arms to bring your camber back to stock range.

Most good alignment shops can tell you what stock camber settings are for your car. They plug the make, year and model into the alignment machine and it tells them stock settings. Not sure I agree with Level8 that zero toe up front is best for street use, but he is correct that it will give you faster turn-in and reduce tire wear, and that stock alignment settings probably have a little too much toe-in (good for straight line stability, bad for tire wear).

[jasonf860]

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=995556

/end thread

[godfathern823]

Just from experience doing the alignment on my own e36, the alignment rack at my shop gives the technician an option for a lowered e36 with complete vehicle specs to follow. They arent too far off from oem. The rear camber and toe is typically adjusted back to the stock alignment, and the front camber will usually be in spec depending on how far you lower it. I would agree with level8 on the toe set. My opinion is that zero toe and slight negative camber is perfect. The spec for camber is about -1.8 degrees on the right and -1.6 on the left to compensate for road crown, but I'd set them even if youre trying to make it a nice streetable car.

[pDubs]

I aim for -2 to -2.5 camber in the front. -1.5 to -2 camber in the rear. For front toe aim for about .05 toe in each side. For rear toe aim for about .10 toe in on each side.

If you run 0 toe all around it will be very difficult to drive on the street. You will tramline and if it's raining forget about driving safely.

[GGray]

Street car... No track...

STOCK TOE front and rear. No need whatsoever to deviate for a 100% street car.

Camber.. If you run it really low it will end up more negative than stock because of the camber curve on the McPherson strut design. Without camber plates your stuck with whatever it is in front... See what the front ends up then run about half to one degree less in back.

[Eric98Sedan]

Street car... No track...

STOCK TOE front and rear. No need whatsoever to deviate for a 100% street car.

End thread. Peeople need to stop recommending track settings for street car.

Street car = stock toe settings for the best experience. Ride height is irrelevant.

[bostonaudi]

No one answered your other question, ride height is measured from fender edge to lower edge of the rim, with specs for height in Bentley. The car is also supposed to be loaded with specific weight.

The tuners and forums talk folks into buying things they already don't need and now the OP is being talked out of a minor alignment tweak? Hmm. I'd tweak the toe slightly to the as posted .05 front (.10 total) and .20 total rear.

If the goal for the OP is a bit more aggressive street handling, consider a set of Koni's with OEM sport springs and sell the PSS9's to someone hitting the track.

[GGray]

End thread. Peeople need to stop recommending track settings for street car.

Street car = stock toe settings for the best experience. Ride height is irrelevant.

I think this is this answer...

Farting with toe on a street car is just a plain bad idea. Not many street guys want a semi darty car..

PSS9 is fine for street use. We categorize a PSS/PSS9 as a street suspension not track. It works so/so on track..

Koni will ride better with OEM or slightly lower springs. Eibach springs are not as high a rate as the H&R springs.

[kettcar]

Good thread. Thanks all

[HBalzanya]

One more VERY important piece of information that was missed. You people talking about "stock" toe, the stock toe setting for an E36 M3 requires about 300 lbs worth of ballast weight, and a full tank of gas, which causes the car to sit with more toe-in than it actually has with one person in the car (hardly any independent shops do this btw). If you are having your car aligned to "stock" specifications you have to make sure the shop is using the ballast weight, if they don't your car will be running around with an excessive amount of toe-in for no reason.

That being said, front suspension goes toe-in during suspension compression and toe-out on rebound. That means that once the ballast weight is removed the front suspension loses some of that toe-in and, although though it's still toed-in, its not as much as it was with the ballast in it. If the shop isn't using ballast then having a nominal amount of toe-in is a good idea, if you run zero toe or toe-out the car gets pretty darty.

Rear suspension doesn't change toe during suspension movement, except toe-in caused by deflection of the rear trailing arm bushing, so the ballast weight doesn't affect the toe condition, just the camber. For performance street driving I max out rear negative camber, which usually puts it in the negative 1.7-2.2 range.

That's my .02c

[Pavlo]

That being said, front suspension goes toe-in during suspension compression and toe-out on rebound. That means that once the ballast weight is removed the front suspension loses some of that toe-in and, although though it's still toed-in, its not as much as it was with the ballast in it. If the shop isn't using ballast then having a nominal amount of toe-in is a good idea, if you run zero toe or toe-out the car gets pretty darty.

It works the opposite, toe out under compression. There are reasons for this.

Unless you drive your car around with 300lb in ballasts just hanging around, please follow GGray's recommendation.