E36 Camber Bolts and Wheel Alignments

[JKEROUAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

re: E36 Camber Bolts and Alignment:
     Mine have not shifted after 50k+ miles.  In my 
original posting I suggested using a torque wrench and 
red loctite when installing them.  Less astute 
mechanics fail to use a torque wrench on critical 
assembly areas, thus suffer long term loosening and or 
failures on high stress connections.
     The bolts allow at least 2mm of inward movement 
at the top of the hub assembly.  This radius is longer 
than the radius from the axle centerline to the lower 
two mounting bolts.  Thus the effective camber 
deflection increase is greater than by shimming the 
lower bolts.
     Also is the matter of changing the scrub radius, 
another angle in front end geometry.  Its not just 
getting the camber, its how you get it.  That's why 
BMW specifies the horizontal upper bolt rather than 
washers on the lower bolts.
     Algignments are needed after any front end work.  
Whether you use some $$ adjustable upper mount or a 1$ 
bolt, you still need to get on an alignment rack to 
see what you're doing and get final adjustments.
     The most expensive alignment rack use I had was 
$210. at a ritzy Porsche/BMW/exotic place by the 
Jersey shore.  For my money I got exact toe and camber 
settings on both sides on the rear, and indexes marked 
on the front tie rods for several different toe in 
settings.  Typical high end specialty shops might 
charge for actual time, not book, and do whatever you 
want.
     Remember when choosing an alignment shop, its not 
just the alignment rack they have, its the alignment 
operator who has to know how to use it right.
     Otherwise you can get an alignment printout for 
your car that looks great on paper but has no basis in 
reality to the real alignment they put on your car, 
simply because of improperly setting your car car up 
on the rack, before they adjusted anything.

     Factory specs have a _w_ide range so that any car 
off the assembly line will be in spec, and also 
sufficiently toed in at both front and rear to avoid 
any driveability issue.  This is like out of the box 
jettings on Weber carbs.  Box stock jetting will 
definitely run in a range of engine setups, but run 
extremely well in few.
     Still, even from the factory you never know what 
you get.  One BMW I bought felt like it plowed like a 
pig in the front end.  Decidely far from what the 
suspension I paid for should behave like.  Of course 
the dealer swore it was to spec, but declared the 
mechanic threw out the printout.  Toed all the way to 
the inner side of spec itself will force bad 
unpleasurable understeer.  This car was much worse.  
It also seemed the front of the car was too high.
     I got the factory to send down someone, and guess 
what?  The front toe was .17 in on both sides, though 
the spec was .17 toe in total.  So the factory's 
intent for toe in was to set it to the maximum toe in 
(with worst handling) that their specs allow.  How 
many others have bought a BMW and thought the handling 
was too tight and rough in the front end, where it was 
really just a bad alignment at the factory?
     Also, the BMW guy measured front suspension 
height and agreed it was an inch higher than spec, 
just as I had measured on others of the same model at 
other dealers.
     The caster and camber were both well under what 
the suspension should have had.  There was 1.5 degree 
variation in cross caster, too.  Can you spell wheel 
shimmy at speed?  Yep.
     BMW and I agreed on sufficient remedies.  No this 
was not my current //M3.  But I'm posting this to 
describe how far off factory stock alignments 
themselves can be from their specs, which are already 
a wide range of tolerance so that almost any car off 
the line can be considered "within specs" while 
being "within specs" means very little as to whether 
the suspension is really dialed in or not.
     How many of you know exactly what numbers you get 
when you have your car aligned?  How many look at the 
alignment printout to see if those numbers make sense 
for the type of driving you do or road feel and 
steering response you prefer.
     Next time specify the exact numbers you want the 
alignment set to.  If the shop hesitates, that's not 
the kind of shop to align your BMW anyway.

      What alignment numbers do some of you set your 
cars to, for what types of driving?
Off to check my thrust angle, (b:'

'jk

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