[blueflash13]

I recently bought a 2011 335XI and like many others decided to replace the oem springs and shocks. I purchased H&R Sport Springs and Koni Yellows, and installed the rear according to this video http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YkVs_jm9R4 as well as many other guides. While it was somewhat more difficult than I expected I finished both rear sides.

After looking at the car the right rear wheel was toed in at an extreme amount, it might not be apparent in the pictures but it sure is in person. I expected that I will need to have an alignment done, but not to this extent. I'm afraid to even drive the car. Does anyone have an idea of what may have gone wrong and what needs to be fixed?

I did take apart the toed in side and reinstalled everything in the proper order, ensuring the suspension had full load tension as I removed/ loosened the bolts on the lower control arm and retorqued to 122 ft/lbs. I did try driving the car around my driveway and didn't notice any issues, but it's obviously not normal. Any ideas? Thanks!

[blueflash13]

[David1]

That is not even close to being installed right. Do not drive it. Check your work.

You probably messed with the eccentric bolt that connects the toe link.

Check this thread for proper reference then either align the car yourself, or adjust it/eyeball it close enough to get it to an alignment shop:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=679163

[David1]

Seeing the pipe lying there does not instill confidence. You don't even need to touch the eccentric bolt on the toe link to install springs and shocks. I can't open the link but there are way to many vids out there that have you do proceedures that are not needed on this chassis.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by David1

Seeing the pipe lying there does not instill confidence. You don't even need to touch the eccentric bolt on the toe link to install springs and shocks. I can't open the link but there are way to many vids out there that have you do proceedures that are not needed on this chassis.

That pipe looks like my floor jack handle.....

Originally Posted by techwhiz

That pipe looks like my floor jack handle.....

Word...David may only be familiar with a few styles of jacks I guess lol

[oregondonor]

The drop looks sweet!

[Casca]

Don't drive it. That is not just an alignment problem if it looks even worse in person.

If the left side looks fine, I'd jack up the car, remove both tires and compare one side to the other to figure out what was done differently.

You shouldn't have had to remove any arm except the lower camber arm holding the shocks and springs. I don't think there is any other way to put the non-M3 arm back on except the one. If you still need help, I'd suggest you take an overall picture of the wheel showing all the arms and the work you did.

[David1]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

Word...David may only be familiar with a few styles of jacks I guess lol

I have many jacks, I should have said I hope it was not being used as an extension on the end of ratchet. Suspension parts on the rear of our cars should not be that tight.

[blueflash13]

Thanks for the support! Fcobra was right, not understanding how eccentric bolts work I failed to back up the bolt when loosening the control arm and screwed up the toe. After I finally figured it out I just adjusted it "close enough" to drive it to an alignment shop. After all was said and done the suspension job isn't all that difficult but I still spend way too much time figuring out exactly how everything worked.

Btw, the pipe was just a jack handle lol, I had jackstands but used to jack to compress the suspension before tightening the lower control arms. Car handles much better now with this combo compared to stock! I'd recommend it to any XI owner as long as you can tolerate a harsher ride, the stock height and spring/ shock combo handled quite a bit worse than my 3G Acura TL did, not at all what I expected from a 335xi.

[Hierlevelz]

Commone mistake to mess with the eccentric bolts. I normally would match mark the bolts before taking them apart so at re-assmebly I have a pretty acurate idea as to where the bolt needs to be. But an alignment is always a must after any suspension work.

[blueflash13]

Only problem now is that the rear camber is negative a small about beyond spec. I kinda expected this but the guy who aligned the car said it's basically as good as it's going to get with the suspension geometry change and I'd better rotate my tires quite often if I want to keep them. Took the car to a local tire shop Les Schwab instead of the dealership but it was half the price for what I was told would be pretty much the same job and my tires would have been toast by the time I drove to the dealership anyway. Is this the truth?

Ill have to post some before/ after pictures in the XI section.

[shadow191]

What is the measurement? A tiny bit beyond spec is fine as long as toe is ok.

[blueflash13]

Toe is fine but I believe it was -2 - -2.2 or so, didn't get a readout probably because it wasn't in spec lol. You can definitely tell it's cambered but the toe is normal

[shadow191]

Then I wouldn't worry about it, my camber is set at -2.1 in back and maybe -1.8 in front and no abnormal tire wear since toe is in spec. My other car is at -3 and that's my daily driver. Some camber wear, but it takes a lot miles to do it. Again, toe is within spec on that car.

There will be some increased wear obviously, but it's not as bad as some people think. I just flip my tires once in a while. If you really want to fix it, you can buy camber plates for the front and camber arms for rear. But honestly you're not horribly out of spec, I think limit is -1.5?