[Drivaar]

Hi everyone,

For the last 4 alignments with my car, toe and camber at all four wheels are jumping around all over the place... particularly in the rears. Sometimes the toe even ends up negative, like going from +0.15 to -0.07.

No one seems to have any idea how to fix this, and I know it's not just due to the roads (which are certainly not great around here)... some of these changes are just after 1 month!

It's just a little depressing that the car just feels jittery and floaty on the road -- so far from the BMW experience that I get when I get a loaner. All the dealers who drive it say it's perfect, which I find flabbergasting given how many cars they drive. It's really a significant difference...

This problem has been around for almost 50,000 miles... and it came after a suspension repair was done at one corner. But I still don't see why alignment would change at all 4 corners all the time, so easily, and by so much in both camber and toe.

I wouldn't care if the car still felt good -- but the car always feels good for a few weeks after alignment, and then it regresses. And this observation is backed up by the alignment numbers.

So I'm completely at a loss for how to proceed. The car is now at 65K+ miles, so is there something I can replace to make it hold alignment better?

Please help! If there's ONE thing that you buy a BMW for, it's the suspension. And mine has been f'd up for so long now... it's just so lame and frustrating when I think about it. (Mostly I don't, but from time to time I do, particularly when the car gets so jittery that I feel like I have to give my full attention to avoid crashing into the highway wall.)

Thanks!

[Soliditude]

You need to go back to the root of the problem, man. That one corner that you had repair on, you need to fix that repair. I'm sure it's exactly what caused it. Basically, when one of your suspension corners is out, it will slowly ruin the other three, as they are all made to work in harmony. So with time being, it's gotten to ruin to the point of your problem now. I'm sure it's not your alignment at fault. Whatever damage you had there with that corner, you need to go there and see what happened and how it affected your entire suspension/alignment setup.

[Kuch335]

Where are you located.. maybe narrow it down a bit in your profile from 'earth' Find a good alignment shop that specializes in alignments.. ask the local track junkies where they get their track cars alligned and go there.. If you're anywhere near cincinnati, goto http://www.performance-alignment.com/

[Drivaar]

Soliditude & kuch123: thanks for the comments.

The main issue is that many shops (including BMW dealers and also recommended specialist shops with great Yelp reviews) have looked at the suspension. They all say everything is fine and that the car drives fine. But it definitely does not and I cannot believe that they can't feel the difference.

There are a lot of idiots out there, unfortunately... After the initial repair, the dealer had stupidly put in a non-sport shock in one corner -- I could feel the problem, but I took it to numerous dealers and shops and everyone said it was fine. Finally one shop looked up the part number for the shock and found that it was a non-sport shock.

So basically a bunch of shop foremen and suspension experts drove a car with 3 sport shocks and 1 non-sport shock, and they all said it felt perfectly fine, and that I was imagining things.

This is the problem... I'm hoping people on this board are more knowledgeable, because none of the shops has been able to help.

(BTW I'm located in the SF Bay Area, in case anyone knows of a really sharp shop that can help with this. Sonic Motorsport was recommended before, and they also said all suspension components look fine [this was after that non-sport shock was fixed, so they didn't miss that].)

[cwarren]

have kind of the same problem, seems like slowly the car doesnt handle well anymore new tires , alinement ,ect still the same just dont get that planted feeling like i have to hold on and pay attention sucks!!! wish i could figure it out .

[Soliditude]

I remember when a stupid SA at my local Infiniti dealer said, when my aftermarket exhaust was horribly shaking, that "it's 'perfectly fine,'" and that, "'he's worked for Porsche'" and said it was all normal for tips to shake like that. I swear, I was the only one who knew there was a problem. All in all, after I finally put it into the right hands and they diagnosed the problem within seconds, I went back to that dealer and politely showed them what their dumb turds forgot to screw on, causing my entire problem. Basically, from my experience, if a bunch of people tell you it's fine--especially dealer retards--but you still know there's something wrong, chances are there's actually something wrong indeed.

Your best bet is to find someone good and experienced outside of dealers. Aftermarket tuners or performance shop; people who work with wheels and suspensions, basically--they will know much more about it. Just like Kuch said. I wish you luck, man.

[Kuch335]

is this a 335i? any mods? springs? when is the last time you changed tires ? any difference then?

if you plan on keeping it for a while, id look for a set of coil overs.. can usually find some great deals here..

[Drivaar]

The only mod is Koni FSD shocks, and that was looooong after these problems came. My hope was that the new shocks would help. Truth is, they do what they are supposed to do, but do not mask the alignment problems.

Here are the last 4 alignments, with before/after data for toe and camber.

As you can see, alignments 1 and 2 were done 5 days apart (by 2 different shops), and alignments 3 and 4 were done 1 month apart (by the same shop).

Either way, the numbers are jumping all over the place, and I think most enthusiasts or skilled drivers will notice the different feel easily.



Thank you so much for your advice!