my m3: alignment out AGAIN?!?!
 

so if you remember, several weeks ago i had noticed my alignment seemed a bit off: in order to drive perfectly straight, i had to keep the steering wheel a few degrees right of center.

well 2 weeks ago, i had the alignment checked by BMW of San Diego and sure enough, there was a problem with the rear wheels.

Anyway, now, 2 weeks later, the alignemnt is out AGAIN!! and same as before: the wheel must be a few degrees right of center in order to go perfectly straight.

How can this be?!?!?! I'm concerned that the prior owner may have wrecked the car and that this information was not revealed to me when I inquired. Could this be?

On a more practical matter, my concern right now is that on Friday I just installed a brand new set of Michellins all around and I don't want them to start wearing incorrectly, and 1,000 fresh miles have already been put on them.

Thank you,

--Marc

Damage to the suspension could definitely be the problem. I assume you ran a Carfax on this car and talked with the dealer about it. Go looking under the car and see if you see any noticeable problems.

yeah, definitely ran a carfax and it came back A-ok ........... also talked extensively with the dealer and they said that to their knowledge it had never been in a wreck, and that they concurred that carfax revealed no problems with the car whatever.

Well if the previous owner had the item replaced at a "friends" shop CARFAX wouldn't know about it. I say grab a flashlight and do some inspecting.

Also, CARFAX won't know about anything unless it's reported to police. Police reports go to carfax, not insurance reports.

Grab a flashlight, look at how the shocks are sitting, see if the springs are worn, check to see if there is play in the toe, check for torn bushings, strut mounts, sub-frame mounts, etc.

No reason this should keep happening, and to be completely honest, I would take it back up with the dealer where you bought it and see if they'd at least be willing to look at it cause obviously something was missed.

you're trippin dude.. simply doing an alignment at dealer ain't going to get you nowhere. Bring it to a place where they will do a true 4 wheel alignment and corner balance. Also check to be sure that you are on a FLAT road. Is it pulling to one side or another?? If not, you're fine. These are all things you check BEFORE you buy a car though...

so you think i shouldn't bother taking it back to the dealer?? and yes, it pulls to the left if on a flat road. seriously, if the wheel is at a perfect 12 o'clock position, it will pull left at a slightly faster rate than a nice slow lane change.

I've noticed that all so cali roads are NOT perfectly straight, so my guess is your just thinking is out of alignment, I did that with my Exploder when I first got it

yeah i thought that too ..... but then, the car NEVER pulls to the RIGHT ...... only to the left.

I remember watching a car show discussion one day about alignment and one of the mechanics said "some vehicles, for whatever reason, pull in a certain direction. No matter of alignment will help that". Maybe this is true in your case and if it is, I would assume the only possible solution would be dealing with it or changing out some suspension components.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ that's RIDICULOUS. i cannot accept that. not on a $60K+ vehicle.

It is what it is brother. If you have had everything professionally checked and it still pulls...there isn't much left you can do.

sounds like the need to corner balance the car with you in it.. time to lose some weight.. LOL.. just kidding.. :nanana:

LOLOLOL if anything, i need to GAIN weight lol ....... law school makes it very hard to find workout time :(

ok so i just got a call from the dealer:

he said that the alignment settings WERE within tolerances, but that they changed the settings to be more "centered" within the tolerance ranges. he then said that the car still tended a LITTLE bit left, so they tried swithching front tires. this essentially solved the problem, in fact caused the car to then drift a little to the right. but, since the tires are directional, they have to switch them back the correct way, and so that's the best the car's gonna get: a slight drift to the left. conclusion: apparently there's a fault with the tires.

and oh, btw, the car won't be ready until tomorrow morning since they have to switch the wheels back around.

So get new tires. How long does it take these people to switch a couple wheels? :confused:

they are BRAND NEW tires!!!!!!!! just got em on friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tires can be defective..

why'd you bump both your threads with the exact same post? :confused:

sorry, i first posted in one thread by accident and meant to put it in the other.

yeah, they said the tires were defective. but that is logically impossible: the problem started to present itself PRIOR to the new tire installation.