rough at home alignment prior to driving to shop?

[DSTX17]

I am doing a complete suspension overhaul on my m3...all bushings, new lower rear control arms, coil overs, etc. and all the specs are going to be way off when I'm done. How should I go about getting it so its ok to just drive 15 miles to a shop? Do I need to get my coil overs set to the height I want them prior to an alignment or can I do that later without affecting the alignment?

[marvinstockman]

Height should be set before alignment, and unless you added something, the only thing you can set is toe, which you can do with a carpenter's ruler. See youtube.

[ThreeD]

I can usually eyeball it surprisingly well. But the better answer is to use a set of toe plates to roughly set the toe before you get going.

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[JitteryJoe]

Can you trailer it in? Are you setting the preload?
I had mine brought in to the suspension shop on a flatbed tow truck.
I left the preload bushings bolts loose and had the suspension shop torque everything under load (much easier on a lift).

[NoLastName]

I've driven cars a couple miles to the shop with totally whacked-out settings after doing suspension work. Think >1" toe out up front

Some peoples' daily drivers are probably far worse than you can eyeball yours. The thing that will really make the car handle wonky is rear toe/thrust angle. Just make 100% sure you're not toed out in the rear. That should be easy enough to see visually. Having said that, the ideal (and safest) way is to trailer it there.

And yes, you need to set ride heights before you align. If you're using stock rubber bushings you also need to torque all the suspension bolts at ride height like JitteryJoe says.

[BimmerBreaker]

I've eyeballed mine and driven ~5-15 miles to an alignment shop every time I've done suspension work

Just go slow, and get the alignment as good as you can up front

[earthwormjim]

I've eye balled toe a few times, usually feels wonky but is OK for a few miles. One time I was seriously off, despite measuring multiple times, and just said it, and used my free towing to get the car to the alignment shop.

[TostitoBandito]

Eyeball is fine. When I did my whole bushing refresh plus steering rack last year I did an especially quick and dirty front toe adjustment which turned out to be pretty comically off on one side (I think it was like 5mm toe out or something). Had to keep the wheel slightly turned to go straight. Still drove just fine the 15 miles or so to the alignment shop. So yeah, try to do better than that but it doesn't have to be remotely close to perfect to still drive ok.