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Alignment

2K views 15 replies 5 participants last post by  Kowalski 
#1 · (Edited)
My 88' e30 has been slammed to the ground by the previous owner. My problem is I could not get it aligned because the rear drivers wheel is off.......if this helps and makes sense; the camber is negative on the rear left wheel. The owner before me was on the heavy side.....and looking at the current set up on the car....there is no adjustable control arm in the rear....everything is stock.

I figure...

A. The control arm is bent ever so slightly only on the rear drivers side.

B. The spring got weakened.

C. The shock is week.

Anybody has experience in this problem? I can sure use it now!

Thanks folks!
 
#2 ·
If the car has been lowered you will get negative camber front and rear. The only way to fix this is to get camber correction plates. So since you say the car has been lowered I doubt anything is bent. Even at stock height the car has noticeable negative camber on the rear. I lowered my car with the Bilstein BTS kit and have about 2.5* negative camber on the rear and almost 2* negative camber on the front.
 
#4 ·
sounds like he weak-end the spring. only way to correct is to get another spring. however, how did he lower it? generally speaking aftermarket springs do not affect the camber, however cut stockers do. i would be curious what kind of springs she gots
 
#5 ·
DJProfessor said:
sounds like he weak-end the spring. only way to correct is to get another spring. however, how did he lower it? generally speaking aftermarket springs do not affect the camber, however cut stockers do. i would be curious what kind of springs she gots
Um, not true. No matter how you lower a BMW you are going to increase negative camber. I lowered my car with a Bilstein BTS kit and I increased my rear camber by about 1.2*.
 
#6 ·
hold up.......it depends on the amount of drop, springs, etc.........also it depends on if the springs are cut or not. cut springs will drastically effect the camber. whereas a inch drop really isn't going to do anything. that's why i said "generally speaking"
 
#7 ·
If you lower a car by an inch cutting some off the stock springs or get 1 inch lowering springs the ammount the camber is going to change is going to be exactly the same. The spring rates will be drasticaly different but physically the car is still 1 inch lower no matter how you lowered it. Cut springs, heated springs, lowering springs or full coil overs it doesn't matter when you lower the car they will all change camber the same if you lower it the same ammount.
 
#8 ·
wrong wrong wrong........go look at a lowered honda, an extremely lowered honda. if he has a bunch of negitive camber his springs are cut, not so much, correct lowering springs.

my cut springs on my jetta gave me over a 2in drop and gave me mad negative camber. however my friend rocked the jamex kit and had no where near the same amount of camber with the exact same amount of drop. lowered springs/coilovers are set up to help compensate for this. true you will get some negitive camber with lowering springs but no where near the same amount that you will get by cutting. this is one of the bad side effects of cutting your springs and why most chose to spend the money to get the lowered springs and do it correctly.
 
#9 ·
I guess the 2 years of working in a tire and alignmet shop tough me nothing on how lowering a car changes suspension geometry and another 3 years working with BMW's at a BMW only shop doing multipul suspension modifiations and seeing first hand what happens to the suspension geometry was all a dream. Some coil-over kits have camber correction built into the upper mout, this is probably why you got more camber than your friend. But on my E21 I cut the springs and lowered my car about an inch and a half and have seen E21's with eibach lowering springs that lower the car about 1.6" and I had just as much camber as they did. Its all in the suspension geometry of the car and upper strut mounts or control arms which determine the ammount of negative or positive camber.
 
#11 ·
:lol:LMAO i just laughed soo hard i almost peed myself....alex is RIGHT ON THE MONEY on this one seriously...but damn i think i need to ga change my diaper that was the funniest thread i ever read in the E30 section...

Cut Springs = Camber hahahahahaha :lol: hahaha

camber is affected by height, not spring rate :)
 
#12 ·
DJProfessor said:
hold up.......it depends on the amount of drop, springs, etc.........also it depends on if the springs are cut or not. cut springs will drastically effect the camber. whereas a inch drop really isn't going to do anything. that's why i said "generally speaking"

umm, id like to hear your reasons for this.... think about it a spring doesn't effect camber, its the mounting point of the control arms and the springs that make the camber, as the car lowers the wheel tilts it doesn't matter what kind of springs one usues because it will still be mounted in the same spot and have the same pivot point. if one were to instal adjustable camer plates then they would be able to adjust the the angle of the wheel.

people who cut springs are doing it to cut costs, so thats why they have camber because they didn't get camber plates. people who spend money on a kit, will spend the extra 100$ for the camber plates... usualy.
 
#15 ·
sue me, i left out the part about the camber plates. hypoglycemic and my brain shuts down when i don't eat.

yes you pitch more negitive camber into the mix and yes the car handles better and you get uneven tire wear as a trade off.
 
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