Looking for update- any fix yet for rear camber issue?
 

Is there any fix yet for the excessive negative rear camber issue on the X5s? I am probably going to sell mine in the next few months because of this....I won't even get into specs, let alone reduce some of the negative camber. 7000 miles on a set of rear tires just isn't going to cut it.

I just finished the repair for my 2001 on Friday. I purchased Bilstein shocks from bavauto, and the rear suspension kit from deutschepartsusa on e bay. I normally do my own work, but decided to take it to a shop that only does suspension work in Camden NJ. The shocks worked out fine, many of the parts from the e bay kit didnt fit correctly and had to be modified. It added to the labor. In the end $1150 labor, $150 shocks, $361 for kit. It does however ride and handle like new. 125K miles.

you have to check your rear upper control arm to see if the rubber joints are torn. have an alignment guy other than BMW adjust the lower control arm bolts for the camber to the smallest degree and then get a total toe that will keep the x straight. dont bring to bmw because they will give you camber degree to spec and most people dont want that

All bushings look fine. Last summer I had both a good independent shop, as well as the dealer, check the alignment. Both couldn't find anything wrong, and couldn't even get it into spec....so much for buying a CPO vehicle!

It could be as simple as one bushings cracked. Keep us posted.

What didn't fit correctly on the rear suspension kit? I ordered the same kit and swapped "like for like" this weekend and everything went in smooth and easy. 2002 X5 3.0l-120,000 miles.

We'll have to run a mileage test to see how long these India "re-pack" items last. I liked the price for the whole kit but lets see if I do not spend the same amount replacing them for Lemforder parts.

I had the same issue as the OP with his rear tires running down in tread after only so many miles. Especially my rear right tire. I had the alignment done twice "within spec" and even then I ran through a new tire. Replaced all of the suspension components to bring it back to a "base line" and we'll see if this is the culprit.

the right rear always takes a beating since all we do is right handed exit and onramps. front left falls apart just as fast

I think I may go ahead and install new upper control arms and see where the alignment ends up. Either way, my time with BMW is probably limited, especially now that I got my C5 Vette :)

thats so wierd, I had my x5 get an alignment today and the rear right wheel camber was maxed out at 2.3 degrees. The alignment guy said he couldnt move it any more. It was 1 degree out of spec.

I hear ya dude, Mine is at -2.25* and I cant bring it closer to -2 or even -1.5* I also bought a new upper control arm so Ill see what happens.

Yeah please let me know if that fixes it.

So a rear camber kit can't fix this problem???

yeah i'm heading to a shop this week to see if i can get rid of that negative camber...i can see the inner tire wearing down really fast!!! wouldn't be so bad if we had tire options like tirerack...we get hosed in canada for tires......

Hey, where are you located? also what size are your wheels? give us an update plz.

If you cant get the car aligned properly with the factory components, bushings or arms need to be replaced in the rear suspension. A rear camber kit is not used to bring the car back into factory alignment spec. Your car drove off the dealer lot in spec without a camber kit, so it shouldn't need one to re align it.

Hey dpgx5, i'm from the Kitchener, Waterloo area.
Just picked up a set of Replica wheels the 4.8is ones? 275/40/20 up front, and 315/35/20 in the rears...
i always noticed the negative camber even with the factory 18" rims...just more noticeable now with the larger wheels....
i planned on gettting an alignment done in the next day or two and asking them to try to correct the camber?
thanks guys!

if you live that close to the border than go to buffalo and change the tires there its much cheaper than in toronto

Yeah, next set i'm going over there or michigan. Just get someone to order them from tirerack for me....
But still worried about this set i don't want them to wear prematurely....that would be a waste!

In US/CAN we don't have high speed like over EURO so we don't need that crazy negative camber.
To prolong the tires life. You need the rear cambers kit from BMW Parts and BMW Accessories | Bavarian Autosport ( small/minor moddification need)to get the custom cambers kit to work correctly.
After all the installation is done you need to get an alignment done and set the rear cambers to 0.05* .

Hey mrbmwx5,

So how well did that rear camber kit work? What modifications are you talking about? What were your before and after rear camber?

Thanks.

Sounds like you may need a good tech to check your toe

we'll see how it goes...just got it alignment and the toe corrected...he said the toe was out on 2 wheels.....

Finally got around to replacing rear upper control arms on both sides. I'll take it to get an alignment next week and see where things are at.

please update! :) you will ease some of our minds if you corrected it. thanks

The X5 was designed to have significant negative camber built in to improve handling. Even when correctly aligned it is visually noticeable from the rear of the vehicle. However, 7,000 miles on a set of rears is not normal unless you are driving the absolute hell out of the vehicle or it is not properly aligned. I would take it to a dealer and have them check the alignment and bushings one more time. I got over 40,000 miles out of my rear Toyo Proxes S/T's in size 285/45/19. I have an 02 4.4i sport package.

I don't think that it's the negative camber we are worried about. It's that when we as X owners go to get an alignment done and it is out of spec. we don't know what the issue is cause the value is way off the specified range. Example my rear pass side and go from -2.5 to -1.2 but the Drivers side cant go past -2.5 to a lower value. so I have a issue on that side... I think X5newbee is in the same boat as me and possibly some other owners. IMO.

If that is the case, then something is wrong. There shouldn't be any reason the dealer can't align the car to manufacturer specs. If they can't something is wrong/broken and they should be able to tell you what is wrong. If they can't I would go to a different dealer.

Got it aligned...better, but still out. Left rear comes just to the max, at -2.2, while the right rear still can't get all the way in, only to -2.9.

Not sure if I'm going to keep her or not. Either way, this will probably be my first and last BMW.

Did you go to a dealer or a tire shop? Was this one of the places that couldn't get it right the first time?

Pretty silly reason not to buy another BMW, but to each his own.

My camber was last set to -1.6 on both sides, fwiw.

i guess the general consensus here is to fix the toe and then get a good set of tyres that can last much longer than the oem mich dia when the present set wears out.

I just had an alignment this past weekend and he dialed out the negitive camber to -1.6 on the rear's.......it was -2.51 (L) and -2.28 (R)......target is 1.83(Spec)

I ran a new set of 20" Diamaris for 4+ years with what I would call normal driving and put about 20k on the tires.

:iagree: I don't think the solution is to go get rid of camber. The E53 came stock with negative camber. If the dealer fixes camber, toe, and suspension settings to exact factory specs (which they should be able to do), then tire life will not be an issue. FSETH got 40,000 miles out of his Proxes. I got 50,000+ out of Michelin Latitude Tour HPs, same size...285/45/19. If the dealer "fixes" it and the tires are still getting shot after 7,000 miles....then obviously the dealer did NOT fix it and....it's time to go to a different dealer.

Going to zero camber (or less than BMW spec) will reduce your handling and turn-in performance.

This issue may be one of those rare instances where it's better to go specifically to a BMW dealer and not an indie or tire place. IMHO.

Negative Camber was designed as a rollover preventer, if you dial it out any further than I did, you give up performance for tire life.

deutschepartsusa rear right upper control arm failed after 3k miles. Bushing completely wiggled its way out of the arm. Had to buy 2 new ones from AutoHauz left and right side. Just replaced the left one for PM.