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Thread: Alignment woes on my 530i - caster slightly out?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    244
    My Cars
    '03 530i/5 Sport

    Alignment woes on my 530i - caster slightly out?

    Hi all,

    I recently noticed that my 530i Sport was slightly out of alignment. I would have to turn the steering wheel a tiny bit to the left to keep the car tracking straight. It was only very slightly off, but it was consistent and bothered me enough to have it investigated. A local, well reputed BMW specialist inspected the car and recommended replacement of the thrust arm bushings.

    When I picked the car up, the tech said the alignment went fine except they couldn't get the caster exactly within specs. He said it was likely the result of the sport suspension aging and nothing to worry about. The car has 80k miles and I believe the suspension to be all original.

    As you can see from the report, the caster is off by 0.1 degrees on the left and 0.3 degrees on the right. Now that I've driven the car, the alignment issue still presents itself. I still have to turn the wheel a little to go straight. Keeping the steering wheel dead straight sends me off to the right, as before.

    Should I go back and ask for another alignment? Another inspection of the steering/suspension?

    IMG-5585.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    1,913
    My Cars
    1999 540i M-sport
    Do another alignment, with specs that bmw gives, 80kg in front seats both, 80kg in the rear seat at center and 1/2 full tank
    Also some play in steering box can make that steering have few degrees of slack, (only if u have steering box) which will make wrong position

    Lähetetty minun ONEPLUS A5010 laitteesta Tapatalkilla
    -E34 M60B40 + Tremec TKO 600 (sold)
    and sadly no old BMW anymore, only high powered Seat Leon Cupra 4Drive as a daily driver.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    244
    My Cars
    '03 530i/5 Sport
    Yeah I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a poor alignment (better than there being some undiagnosed problem with the car).

    Funnily enough, I had the same problem a few years ago on my e34 with a different shop. The tech came highly recommended for BMW suspension work in the area, since he raced them. He aligned the car twice and it was still off (doing the same thing my e39 is doing now). I took it somewhere else, and boom, aligned perfect first time they tried.

    Thanks for your advice

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Giddings, TX
    Posts
    65
    My Cars
    2003 525/5 Touring
    Cross caster less than .5° is normally considered not to cause a pull. Your print out shows that as well.

    Think of a bicycle. A BMX bike has forks that go down almost straight. They turn super quick but have very little stability. Meanwhile, one of the old Banana Bikes had the forks just about parallel to the ground. A rider could go hands free basically from the first pedal push. But, turning quickly wasn’t an option.

    Basically, less caster means quicker response, less steering effort and less stable at high speeds. Non power steering cars normally had negative caster. Imagine turning the handle bars around backwards on a bike. Easy to turn, but less than zero stability.

    Sorry I went alignment geek with the theory. I wanted to get caster into easy terms. Camber is easier. Using the bike example, the more you lean into a turn, normally the better you turn. Negative camber has the top of the tire leaning towards the middle of the car while positive has the top leaning out.

    A car on a flat road with no cross wind will normally pull to the side with the most positive camber. Yours is most positive on the left. Yet, you have a pull to the right and basically no cross caster. You should be dead straight hands off. But, since your caster is right at or a little below the minimum. It could be a bit less stable than intended by design.

    All of the above is neat to know but useless on a stock car because neither caster or camber can be adjusted on the front. There is no caster on the rear. (Historical trivia: the only car I have ever heard of with a rear caster measurement and adjustment was the Pontiac/Saturn convertible).

    That leaves your rear camber, toe and thrust angle to play with. All are in spec. All are really easy to adjust too. My suggestion is to talk with the shop you like best and see if they will play along with you getting it exactly driving like you want.

    If they don’t want play. Look for a tech school, junior college or Hunter Engineering company training facility.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    244
    My Cars
    '03 530i/5 Sport
    Thank you Barrman, that is a very thoughtful and helpful reply! Now that you mention it, google tells me that there is a Hunter Engineering training facility not too far away ...

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Milton, WV
    Posts
    1,286
    My Cars
    2002 BMW 530i Sport
    Definitely go back. Your alignment should have had a warranty (6 months, 12 months etc.). Use that warranty to see if the shop can get it right. If you look at your printout, the only thing out of spec to start with was the caster. Also, the shop didn't really change much. The largest change was on the rear, right camber. But even that was in spec before.

    If you can get them to take a test drive with you go for it. That may help. Also, ask them to take another look at specifically why the caster is out. Saying it's a result of the sport suspension wearing out is a cop-out. Something has to be bent or broken.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Giddings, TX
    Posts
    65
    My Cars
    2003 525/5 Touring
    The Hunter Engineering center holds training for everyone that buys their alignment machine. All Goodyear and Firestone store alignment people have to go through the basic course. When I took it, the instructor had to call the boss of those employees after every quiz with their scores. One poor guy got fired the first day because he couldn’t pass the exams.

    I attended the training in the DFW area. Most of day 2 and all of day 3 of the basic course was doing alignment work on any car we could find. Same with the intermediate and advanced course. The local Charger SRT8 club had found out about the “free alignment “ and was in the habit of emailing the instructor almost daily. When we ran out of our own cars to align, the instructor sent an email and within minutes a Dodge with bad lower control arms was pulling in. The owner put on new ones and then we aligned it. Every one was happy.

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