Alignment

[dnsfly]

A recent alignment revealed an out of spec measurement of toe out at the rear of my 88 325is.
Normal according to my shop is +0.37 deg total. That is toe in. Mine measured -1.63 deg (toe out).
That is 2 deg off spec. All rear bushings(rubber OEM), shocks (Bilstein Sport) and springs (H&R Sport) are new. No obvious damage was noted when the work was done. Any one have experience with correcting this. I have seen offset trailing arm bushings for sale in polyurethane, but not rubber, which I would prefer for the sake of ride comfort. Do I replace all 4 trailing arm bushings with offset ones or is one on each side sufficient? Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

[BMWJNKY]

Was it a total of 1.63* out or was it that much per side? If it was a total of 1.63 I wouldn't worrie about it, but if it was off that much per side I'd look into getting it fixed. I would call up some perfromance shops that have delt with lowered BMW's and see what they sugest you do. Having a lowered car will change all of the suspension angles front and rear.

[dnsfly]

That figure is total toe, it was roughly half on each side.

[BMWJNKY]

That isn't too bad for a lowered car. Keep an eye on how the rear tires are wearing, if they don't wear out abnormaly I wouldn't worrie about it.

[detour54]

Anyone feel like explaining the differences between toe and camber?

[alanh]

ummm i think camber is the angle they are like pointing toward the ground and toe is angle towards the front of the car

[BMWJNKY]

Toe is the angle the front of the tires are pointed inward or outward from the centerline of the lower outter ball joint, camber is how much the top of the tire is pointed inward or outward. Zero degrees of camber meens the tire is perfectly vertical, negative camber meens the top of the tire is pointed in towars the vehicle, and positive camber meens the top of the tire is pointed away from the vehicle.