Wheel Alignment-layman terms

[tohallan]

Hi All,

Just got my wheel alignment done, right after I changed my tires. The old set of tires were wearing badly on the inner sides especially on the fronts. Was told to do a wheel alignment to be safe. Here is the printout. Looks strange to me, especially left front. Can someone tell be if they look alright? E46 with Eibach springs and Blisteins B8 shocks.

Thanks

 

[Meek]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Really not balance. One side camber too much....

 

[Vansoh]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

iirc,
camber is the angle in which your tyre is tilted horizontally.
negative camber is when the top of your tyre is closer to your engine compared to the bottom.
from your print out, it seems that your front left is out of manufacturer default spec with Negative camber @1.59deg, with the top of your tyre tilted more towards the engine, more force or contact is on the inner side of your front left tyre thus more wear.
my previous ride have this issue also, a local tyre shop wanna to charge me $80bucks to install one camber bolt so that it can be adjusted! As I was driving up to KL the next day, ended up changing TWO camber bolt there for only MYR$100!

toe is the angle in which your tyre is tilted vertically. or where its pointed towards. positive angle is the angle it tiltes toward the center of the car.
both your front tyre is pointed your BMW logo @ 0.04deg now.

 

[kenntona]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Who did the alignment?

 

[Vansoh]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

this is what your wheel look like.

the picture shows a positive angle, your's is negative

View attachment 49353

Hi All,

Just got my wheel alignment done, right after I changed my tires. The old set of tires were wearing badly on the inner sides especially on the fronts. Was told to do a wheel alignment to be safe. Here is the printout. Looks strange to me, especially left front. Can someone tell be if they look alright? E46 with Eibach springs and Blisteins B8 shocks.

Thanks

 

[kenntona]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

(1) Basic knowledge asides, your front camber numbers are very neutral/conservative. Perhaps you wanted it that way to preserve threadwear on tyres. Else, with your suspension setup, your ride could go -2 degrees front and -1 degree rear for nice handling, especially around the bends. Hence I asked for the workshop name.

(2) The difference in front camber numbers are normal, perhaps due to variations in suspension settings, control arms or mounting points. No need to be alarmed.

(3) Toe should be neutral in front, but rear toe numbers are a tad too neutral. Can request for more toe-in if you focus on handling. Else, it is very individual.

 

[Red_Bean_Bun]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Is your car height higher on one side ?

 

[Jetpilot]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

(1) Basic knowledge asides, your front camber numbers are very neutral/conservative. Perhaps you wanted it that way to preserve threadwear on tyres. Else, with your suspension setup, your ride could go -2 degrees front and -1 degree rear for nice handling, especially around the bends. Hence I asked for the workshop name.

(2) The difference in front camber numbers are normal, perhaps due to variations in suspension settings, control arms or mounting points. No need to be alarmed.

(3) Toe should be neutral in front, but rear toe numbers are a tad too neutral. Can request for more toe-in if you focus on handling. Else, it is very individual.

shouldn't we negative camber more for our rear than the front? is it because our setup is staggered and therefore we do not need so much camber to do contact with the ground as the rear tyres are wider while the front are narrower so more negative camber gives more contact to the ground and also balances the contact of the ground with the rear?

do you have any good place to recommend to do alignment? I used to do it at Kenny at Autopoint but it is for JDM cars. Wonder if he can handle conti cars well.

 

[McdReaMy]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Kenny is able to do Conti as well, all my past cars are aligned by him. In fact, I was there for my alignment earlier.

 

[Red_Bean_Bun]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

cambers affect under/over steering. front more neg camber is safer in a straight line as it has a tendency for under steering.

rear more camber you get more oversteer. bmw likes it safer but you can of course change this based on your driving style.

ride height affects camber as well .....

shouldn't we negative camber more for our rear than the front? is it because our setup is staggered and therefore we do not need so much camber to do contact with the ground as the rear tyres are wider while the front are narrower so more negative camber gives more contact to the ground and also balances the contact of the ground with the rear?

do you have any good place to recommend to do alignment? I used to do it at Kenny at Autopoint but it is for JDM cars. Wonder if he can handle conti cars well.

 

[tohallan]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Thanks for all the replies and insight.

Wheel alignment was done a few days ago at Wing Seng Motors & ENGG 01-97 at Sin Ming, used to be a couple shops away from BVO.

I understand most BMW E46 tilts more to the driver side just ever so slightly, and that is normal. As mentioned, my previous front tires were badly grained on the inner sides but the rears were alright, just slightly more wear on inner than outer side. It could very well be how the suspension was setup and to compensate, the wheel alignment was done as such???

I do not know how the wheel alignment machine sees things/works, could it be that it sees it as a whole "car" and try to setup the individual wheel adjustments to present the whole car as neutral stance? Just guessing here.

But thanks Kenntona for the reassuring comments that no need to be alarmed. Anyway to monitor the situation for uneven wear?

thanks again.

 

[kenntona]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

shouldn't we negative camber more for our rear than the front? is it because our setup is staggered and therefore we do not need so much camber to do contact with the ground as the rear tyres are wider while the front are narrower so more negative camber gives more contact to the ground and also balances the contact of the ground with the rear?

do you have any good place to recommend to do alignment? I used to do it at Kenny at Autopoint but it is for JDM cars. Wonder if he can handle conti cars well.

Reason - the non-steering rears have a constant camber angle compare to the front.

Front wheel caster also increases the load on the outside rear tire in a turn, requiring additional negative camber to balance it.

There's no optimal number to these - it depends on driving habits and routes. If the driver drives slow and concerns about tyre wear, He can have a more neutral settings. But if he wants to extract more handling, the numbers will change to more aggro settings with the front receiving more negative camber.

Kenny is good. But very packed.

Else, try Kian Teong (Mike).

 

[kenntona]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

But thanks Kenntona for the reassuring comments that no need to be alarmed. Anyway to monitor the situation for uneven wear?

If non-staggered, solution = rotation.

 

[Jetpilot]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

Reason - the non-steering rears have a constant camber angle compare to the front.

Front wheel caster also increases the load on the outside rear tire in a turn, requiring additional negative camber to balance it.

There's no optimal number to these - it depends on driving habits and routes. If the driver drives slow and concerns about tyre wear, He can have a more neutral settings. But if he wants to extract more handling, the numbers will change to more aggro settings with the front receiving more negative camber.

Kenny is good. But very packed.

Else, try Kian Teong (Mike).

thanks pal! it gives me a better insight with this explanation. I guess I will go and do alignment before I head down the track. By the way, if I add spacer, can I still keep the same negative numbers as mentioned by you? I understand your numbers are not magic number but I need to start from somewhere. According to my installer of my coils, they told me no need to do cambering as the setup has a preset camber. *scratch head*

 

[Jetpilot]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

cambers affect under/over steering. front more neg camber is safer in a straight line as it has a tendency for under steering.

rear more camber you get more oversteer. bmw likes it safer but you can of course change this based on your driving style.

ride height affects camber as well .....

what would you recommend if I want to increase handling? More negative camber?

 

[Meek]

Re: Wheel Alignment-layman terms

what would you recommend if I want to increase handling? More negative camber?

If you want max handling on track, recommend you reach kl earlier. Pump up the tyres (for track) and do the alignment in kl. Track and realign.... if you still have flowers left. Can pm you a great place to do this in kl.