Need help With An Alignment

[ZoomZoom951]

I just did Bilstein sports with H and R sports this summer and now the rear of the car has some issues. I brought it to an alignment shop and they said the car cannot be aligned... WTF? So now i am faced with terrible tirewear on the inside treads of the rear tires. Whoever is running this setup can you give your alignment specs that try to prevent the rears from wearing so fast. (I know the rears wear out fast buy my last set of tires only lasted 5k! so something is wrong)

[328 Power 04]

you need camber adjustment for the back .. its easy, you just have to replace the stock arms with the adjustable ones. . then they can ease up your bad camber

[ZoomZoom951]

I thought u didnt need camber plates with the suspension setup im running.

[M III Pilot]

Camber plates are for the front, not the rear.
And normally you get them because you want more camber not less, although they certainly do give you the adjusment capability to lessen the camber.

Secondly, are they trying to align the car to a factory spec.
With the car lowered it probably won't do it, and you really don't want that alignement anyway.

The rear does have some adjustablity for camber through the eccentric bolt, and toe adjustments through moving the trailing arm.
I'm guessing you have a lot of negative camber with lots of toe in, both of which negativly affect tire wear.

So my suggestion is to get the rear as postitive as it will go through the factory adjustment and run no more than a total of 1/8" toe in.

The other option is to get adjustable control arms, but that's around $300ish for a pair.
However that will give you all the adjustment you will ever need.

My alignement specs are:
Front
1.8* Neg camber
0 Toe
? Caster (Don't remember off hand)

Rear
1.3* Neg camber
1/8" Total Toe in, (IE 1/16 toe in on either side)

Although I do have camber plates (they're maxed out and I don't have the $$$ to get better ones at the moment) and adjustable control arms.

[///RBR]

Here is my specs, and don't have rear/ front camber plates...

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=836796

Hope that helps!

[ZoomZoom951]

yea it did help a lil bit, im just looking the best setup for even tire wear if possible on the rears.

[M III Pilot]

It would help in giving suggestions on how to fix your problem if you told us what your current specs are.

[ZoomZoom951]

I wish i knew my current specs i messed up and just have not had it aligned... but the rear tires are def facing inwards almost at a 20 degree angle i would say by eyeballing.

[M III Pilot]

Well, as you've found out good alignments help in keeping tire wear in check.

Now, to clarify when your talking about facing inwards which specifically are you talking about.

1. If you stand behind the car and look towards the front, and the tires look like this / \ , that's a whole lot of negative camber.

2. If you imagine looking at the tires from a top view, like your standing on top of the car and looking down, and the tires look like this / \ , that's a whole lot of toe in.

Both of those will tend to wear the inside edges of your tires, however toe in contributes much more to this than camber, so that's why people recommend just a little toe in to help in straight line stability without wearing the tires at an inredible rate.

So, if either of those or both of those is your problem, get the alignment shop to get the camber as positive as it will go (that is as close to straight up and down).
You do want some negative camber for handling, I think factory spec is like 2* or something and that's a bit much for everyday
driving, 1* is fine.
Also, you only want a little toe in, I like a total of 1/8 inch toe in, and there again I know factory specs call for more but toe in wears tires like you wouldn't believe. It would be like you always dragging the side of your shoe along the pavement as your walking.