Rear tire lean at the top
 

I just finished out updating the front suspension and rear shocks on my son's 2001 3.0. The alignment specialist pointed out to me that the rear tires were leaning in. He suggested possible weak springs in the back. He thought that the bushings looked good.

The truck has about 134K on it. Are the springs sagging or is likely that it's some other part of the suspension?

Interestingly enough, we passed another e53 on the way home and the tires on it had the same lean going on.

did the alignment specialist reference the alignment specs for the E53? they are designed to have significant rear camber.

that said, at 134k, all original bushings and balljoints are trash.

Springs will not wear and cause excess camber.

Spec on e53 is up to 2.1 or 2.2° negative camber. It looks broken but is normal.

The ball joints wear out and will cause more than normal camber but more importantly, toe-out condition that will chew up tires very quickly.

You can't tell when under spring tension but you can usually detect some motion in the joint directly behind the hub with a prybar. If it moves any amount it's shot.

Rear Left is -2.5*
Rear Right is -2.4*

Based on the comments, probably not springs. Likely ball joints, bushings and upper control arms?

It's almost always the outer ball joint of the "wishbone". Then the "Rose" joint or lower ball joint.

I did the replacement on my e53 last year was not terribly difficult job but requires a proper ball joint tool.

+1^

How to make a big heavy SAV (SUV in common terms) handle.
Lots of geometry engineering in the suspension parts front and rear
Lots of moveable end joints on the control arms
Big fat lower ball joint to control acceleration and deexcelleration in the rear with anti squat characteristics
Add in rubber bits to control NVH coming into the cabin space

All of these wear parts have a life to them. DEpending on the driver(s), road conditions and weight of the right foot, all the suspension arms, joints, and links are TOAST at 100 to 150k on the six bangers. On the V8 models a whole lot less.
Take at look at any of the BMW suppliers (FCPeuro, ECStuning, etc) see their complete suspension kits and plan on a long weekend of wrenching.
There are eccentric adjustments on the rear suspension lower arms and the control arms to pull in most issues after replacement.

If you want to get great tire life with all kinds of impact on handling have any idiot with an alignment rack to set the camber as close to zero as possible

On the rear toe, getting on the low side of the toe in is a best practice as that is where most of the rear tire wear occurs.
There are literally hundreds of posts in the DIY section at the top of the form on proper alignment techniques and suspension rebuilds.

It is just a bunch of bolts. The results will amaze you.

Tip of the week: hose down the parts with your choice of WD-40 product 2 days before you start.

For clarification. Had he aligned it or was this a visual observation?

Sounds like front was aligned and the shop pointed out the back needs a looking at.


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It was measured on an alignment rack. The truck is from Michigan and has some rust on the hardware. Guy was hesitant to mess with it and I didn't want it turning into a bigger mess. The tires aren't wearing unevenly, so I agreed to having him align the front and leave the rear alone.

About 2 years ago I replaced the front subframe with a used part. Over the last couple of weeks, I changed out the entire front suspension - new struts, strut mounts, control arms (upper and lower), stabilizer bar end links and the inner and outer tie rods. The back just got new shocks and stabilzer bar end links.

I did a rough alignment using the string method and took it in to have it checked. The parts are now on order for the bac

Good move