Camber adjustment (with photos)

[themoth]

I think i may need to have an alignment done as well. Tires are not straight looking from the rear. I had the wheels balanced but not aligned. Can this effect the ride quality, i am getting some wheel noise after the balancing now? I have also noticed that the passenger seat shakes when hight speeds, noise increases with speed and can be heard even at low traffic speads. All the wheels balanced fine, no bents rims? Suggestions seeing i do not know much about adjusting the tow and so for. any advice is welcome. thanks to all.

[teknic]

I looked at every single brand new E70 and used E53 at a local dealership and 99% of them had negative camber on the rear.
There's gotta be a reason for it.

[themoth]

Originally Posted by teknic

I looked at every single brand new E70 and used E53 at a local dealership and 99% of them had negative camber on the rear.
There's gotta be a reason for it.

so should i take it to the dealer or run to Just tires and have them align everything?

[teknic]

No. I was making a point that I think that the reason our cars come with negative camber(specially on the rear) has to do with improvement of handling. Regardless of tire wear.
One should, on the other hand, get an alignment if the handling of the car requires so. The decision to take it to an Indy, Just Tires, or to your local BMW shop is yours. Me personally, would rather have somebody at a BMW center work on my car. But that's just me.

[ZsX5o3]

the point of having so much negative camber on just the rear is for safety. it increases body roll and keeps you from sliding. dealership is not going to change that. I would value any performance oriented shop that deals with german cars for an alignment over the dealership

[themoth]

huh two conflicting posts..

[ZsX5o3]

Originally Posted by themoth

huh two conflicting posts..

welcome to the internet

[panzercommander]

aaaahh, the age old x5 issue that bmw will not address. find a happy medium. as for me i may slot the wells where the strut towers come thru, force the struts out and attempt to find zero negative camber. it worked on my e30. more than likely i'll sell it out of continued frustration. good luck what ever you do

[panzercommander]

Originally Posted by ZsX5o3

the point of having so much negative camber on just the rear is for safety. it increases body roll and keeps you from sliding. dealership is not going to change that. I would value any performance oriented shop that deals with german cars for an alignment over the dealership

the fact is the that those who know what is best for you were whinnig about suv rollovers some years ago. instead of designing a better system with a lower center of gravity etc... most manufactures took the easy way out and gave you negative camber and called it roll over safety. body roll is affected much more by suspension and weight than by -camber. sliding is affected by dozens of factors. and all of these things are most affected by THE DRIVER.

[themoth]

i ened up having the dealer complete a road force balance and alignment on all four wheels and there is some road noise but nothing like before the work was done. Plus it handles better to and the tires appear to be wearing evenly now as well.