Wheel alignment question

[thebluedog]

It seems that there is a bit of complexity involved with wheel alignment for X5's.
Can a place such as Firestone properly align the tires or do I need to take it to my Indy BMW repair shop?
Firestone said that they can do it but I thought my Indy said he had some special equipment for BMW's...maybe I misheard, though.

Thanks for your input!

bd

[X5SND]

Take it to anyone who is familiar with how to align an "E53".... if they're eyes glaze over at that term, move on. Fountain tire, Firestone, kal-tire are just a few of the "tire shops" I'd stay away from.

[EH6TunerDaniel]

I'm not sure and I haven't done my e53 yet, but I did my e70 and there wasn't anything super special or that made it difficult to do. I don't imagine they would be terribly different. I could be wrong though.

[4.8isX5]

I got mine done at sears on a hunter hawkeye machine. I think what it mostly revolves around room to do the toe adjustment. I knew the tech there and we tried it. He said he tried to do a e53 previously but couldnt do the toe, i believe a 3.0 or 4.4.

We ended up being able to do mine fine, Without the speciality bmw toe tool. Reason being i have a 4.8is and the wheel has a very deep dish from behind and also sits farther out + my 30 mm spacers, and that gave him enough room to get in there with a normal wrench and do it.

He said he couldnt do it on that other one because there wasnt enough room and we both agreed its cause the other one had smaller wheels and they sat in