e34 Alignment

[4500 RPM]

damn, you've been spending a pretty penny on your car lately haven't you

Yes, don't remind me. I was going to get a new car but that fell through so this one needs to last me two more years.

Yep, it's those, which I can see being labor intensive, but DAMN! I guess that's what you get when you have to get someone else to do it; time is just not there. I was really hoping to get some 17" wheels first, but that clunk will drive me nuts and therefore trumps the wheels.
Good luck with your suspension upgrades.

They are labor-intensive but I'm blessed with a cheap mechanic. He'll do subframe bushings for $200.

I wouldn't do it myself anyways.

[screwbiedoo15]

Yes, don't remind me. I was going to get a new car but that fell through so this one needs to last me two more years.

With a 5 speed swap, fresh paint, and new suspension goodies i'm sure it'll last you two more years and more

[4500 RPM]

With a 5 speed swap, fresh paint, and new suspension goodies i'm sure it'll last you two more years and more

British racing green paint is a pipe dream, not a reality. Slap me when I put much more money into it.

[screwbiedoo15]

British racing green paint is a pipe dream, not a reality. Slap me when I put much more money into it.

Oh I thought you had just gotten a respray of alpine? Or was that only for the mtech body parts that you put on?

[4500 RPM]

Oh I thought you had just gotten a respray of alpine? Or was that only for the mtech body parts that you put on?

Just the M Technic bumpers. My paint is in good shape, just needs a good buff.

But fixing A/C, suspension. and manual transmission swap is not cheap!

[attack eagle]

Technically yes, but honestly I can't see it affecting things that much even if you don't.

IT is a degree of difference in the rear.

[CruzinAl]

Just to update, I adjusted the toe myself. Very easy. I used a string tied tight around all 4 wheels at the centerline. I was able to make the slightest adjustments on the order of millimeters. The car tracks much better (toe was way off) and I have 70 more bucks and some good knowledge. Took 30 minutes.

[RVAE34]

From what I understand it is impossible to get proper alignment from a lowered E34 without the M5 rear subframe or the K-MAC adjustable trailing arm bushings. I have the latter and it took the best alignment shop in town 5 hours to align my car properly. They are the best of the best.

[deprato07]

when you talk about weighing it down, all itll affect is camber right? and from my sheet from my alignment machine and my car, spec for front toe is 0.11-0.19... thats on the 535 i dont no how it differs for the 540

[ringle]

The only E34's with any kind of rear adjustment are M5's

What about the M540i?

[RVAE34]

I believe they use the M5 rear subframe as well so most likely yes. 90% certainty

[abakos]

God if I had a nickel for every time a shop tried to charge me for a 4-wheel aligment in the E34...

Find someone in the local BMWCCA Chapter and ask them where to go if you're not sure. Even if you're not a member most CCA folk are more than happy to help someone in need-

[E34 Lives]

I had my alignment (Bilstein B6 Struts with Eibach Sport Springs) done at Wheel Works. Bought their lifetime warranty. Around 11k miles later bought new tires and decided to have them mounted / balance and use my lifetime alignment warranty. Wheel Works CS and Tech told me my whole suspension was loose and flopping around and they could not do my alignment because my retaining nut was missing, and that they would be happy to show me and quote me replacement struts. WTF those threaded strut retainers just don’t come off, very suspicious ….. I told them no thanks and stare at the CS and he was a bit nervous and the Tech that drove my car out was piss he couldn’t do a song and pony on me. Anyone ever have their Bilstein strut treaded locking retainer ring come off? Both of them at the same time? Let me know if this is common occurance.

I reattached the treaded locking ring to secure the struts which I found tucked all the way up in boot and now my suspension works perfectly.

What I notice was the old alignment was still true. Frankly speaking if your alignment on your e34 is good, there is no additional adjustments needed. It is a very straight forward simple alignment design that doesn’t really requires constant fine tuning to work great, once aligned it pretty much is good until the next time you change the tie rods.

[OrientblauACS]

I have seen the strut retainer nuts rusted off, causing the struts to be loose and flop around. Maybe yours was not torqued to spec and came loose ? There is a special tool for this.

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[OrientblauACS]

Frankly speaking if your alignment on your e34 is good, there is no additional adjustments needed. It is a very straight forward simple alignment design that doesn’t really requires constant fine tuning to work great, once aligned it pretty much is good until the next time you change the tie rods.


--That is correct

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[E34 Lives]

This is a B6 Bilstein strut with less that 2yrs use, so rust was not a factor on this treaded locking ring. The provided locking ring was not as deep as original that screw all the way down to cover all the exposed threads on the strut housing. I counted the treads on housing, with the high point of the tread to number 12-13 treads, I tighten until it bottom out and gave it a good tight turn, with remaining exposed treads on housing to number 3 - 4 treads. So I am confident it is physically impossible to go any further and tighten at or more than specification required (around 86ftlb). I will keep any eye on this locking ring to see if it back out under use over the next 10K miles …. and if it decides to come loose, I will retighten with blue Loctite to address …. but my gut feeling is that these locking rings do not usually come loose when tighten to bottoming out.

[KitTheRam]

After replacing a lot of my front end suspension my alignment was way off, and I’m someone who likes a straight steering wheel when going straight, no idea how people (mostly taxi drivers it seems) can stand driving along with the steering wheel bent one way or the other.

I have a good local place with laser-alignment, and a bloke who knows his stuff when it comes to getting it right.

This is the before and after on my 1995 Touring, as good as he could get it…

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[E34 Lives]

I did the same for my front suspension rebuild, the new tie rods was what cause my steering wheel to become off center, most of the time if you change out sway links, control arms, even struts the alignment can still be very straight and true if your initial balance was maintained. The adjustment is very limited on e34 and as so not much can affect alignment.

[circuit.heart]

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If your front end bushings and ball joints are all tight, you can use significantly less front toe-in (something like 0.02-0.04deg instead of 0.13deg as you have) for better fuel economy and less tire wear.

I did the same for my front suspension rebuild, the new tie rods was what cause my steering wheel to become off center, most of the time if you change out sway links, control arms, even struts the alignment can still be very straight and true if your initial balance was maintained. The adjustment is very limited on e34 and as so not much can affect alignment.

Control arms will definitely mess with the alignment as these things are just cast metal. Different brands don't even use the same tooling, IIRC I've seen a Mevotech arm literally a few mm longer than a Lemforder. Struts will mess with your alignment if they change the ride height - the E34's front geometry has quite a lot of dynamic toe and this comes into play if you're swapping from, say, Sachs to Bilstein (popping the front end up).

[tortexal]

Control arms will definitely mess with the alignment as these things are just cast metal. Different brands don't even use the same tooling, IIRC I've seen a Mevotech arm literally a few mm longer than a Lemforder. Struts will mess with your alignment if they change the ride height - the E34's front geometry has quite a lot of dynamic toe and this comes into play if you're swapping from, say, Sachs to Bilstein (popping the front end up).

This. Anything changed on the front end of our cars can/will throw off the geometry. It's possible that the only exception to that rule is the sway bar and end links.

[circuit.heart]

This. Anything changed on the front end of our cars can/will throw off the geometry. It's possible that the only exception to that rule is the sway bar and end links.

Sway bar endlinks would only change alignment if the bar is *significantly* preloaded when the car is sitting on the ground (aka removing or changing anything with the bar would actually affect ride height). That shouldn't happen so long as the car is straight.

[E34 Lives]

Yes, I agree …. moving to different setup will definitely need alignment … I had my done after upgrade …. so far after upgradeI have kept most of my components the same …. I did change out the sway bar links a while back and did not see any difference in misalignment ….. they are the fixed stock type.

The upgrade set up was B6 Eibach Pro-Kit Springs on 15” (225 60R15) Stock Basket Weave is firmer than stock but still relatively comfortable ride, especially with new Othsu FP7000. It is lowered approximately 1” and I don’t experience any bump steer nor require adjustable sway bar links. It is excellent upgrade with minimal impact to ride comfort.