Ever hear of "strut bending" ?

[Fuddy]

here's the issue...

I recently got new tires, 225/50/15's all around...the right front is rubbing against the strut on the inside... no other tire is rubbing if you look at the car from the front it looks like this :

/(o)(o)[][](o)(o)|

the first / being the right front tire... not that bad though... but it's bad..

I took it to this well know alignment place and the owner told me I'd need a strut bending to achieve correct toe in etc....

he said older bmw's didn't have a toe adjustment at all and since my car is dropped I will need it...

I've never heard of this but he assured me it's fine or he wouldn't do it. The guy has 30+ years in the business ...

[Jordan]

30+ years experience and he doesnt know how to adjust toe on the front of a e30? Thread the fucking tierod in and out. What a dipshit!

Get a used strut housing on the cheap. They aren't worth much.

[cramer]

Re: Ever hear of "strut bending" ?

he said older bmw's didn't have a toe adjustment at all and since my car is dropped I will need it...

I've never heard of this but he assured me it's fine or he wouldn't do it. The guy has 30+ years in the business ...

you sure he didn't say camber? Tow in/out is easily adjustable as Jordan mentioned. To adjust camber, you need to run crash correction plates or adjustable upper strut bearings. Camber is what you bring the top of the wheel in or out.

[coupeowner]

Must be camber, because that would affect the strut to tire clearance as opposed to toe. Anyway, yes, I have heard of bending the strut (Ireland Engineering does it), and it sounds like you would need it to increase the clearance, or just use really thin spacers. If the strut is already bent to the point that there is a lot of difference between the clearance of the left and right strut, then I would get it bent back into place - or get a new one. If the difference is really minimal, and its just the new tires that are causing the problem, maybe you could get away w/ thin wheel spacers.

[Fuddy]

Must be camber, because that would affect the strut to tire clearance as opposed to toe. Anyway, yes, I have heard of bending the strut (Ireland Engineering does it), and it sounds like you would need it to increase the clearance, or just use really thin spacers. If the strut is already bent to the point that there is a lot of difference between the clearance of the left and right strut, then I would get it bent back into place - or get a new one. If the difference is really minimal, and its just the new tires that are causing the problem, maybe you could get away w/ thin wheel spacers.

yes, it's the camber... my mistake

thanks ;)

[Bill 84 318i]

Re: Ever hear of "strut bending" ?

he said older bmw's didn't have a toe adjustment at all and since my car is dropped I will need it...

I've never heard of this but he assured me it's fine or he wouldn't do it. The guy has 30+ years in the business ...

you sure he didn't say camber? Tow in/out is easily adjustable as Jordan mentioned. To adjust camber, you need to run crash correction plates or adjustable upper strut bearings. Camber is what you bring the top of the wheel in or out.

Yeah, but adjusting the camber with crash mounts wouldn't do anything to affect tire -> strut clearance.

I'd just get a new used strut. Gimme a holler if you need one, there's a couple e30's in the local yard.

[Fuddy]

thanks bill, i'll keep it in mind...

from ireland engineering...

We can increase the camber on struts up to 1.5 degrees. We have a jig which allows us to measure and bend struts. This is normally standard procedure on race cars where even adjustable camber plates do not provide enough negative camber. This can be usefull to correct alignment on damaged cars and to improve handling on street cars. Price is per strut.

[AdamF 88iS]

If the strut is bent, what good is changing the top bearing going to do? That will move the strut and the wheel together and not change the clearance between them.

[cramer]

Re: Ever hear of "strut bending" ?

he said older bmw's didn't have a toe adjustment at all and since my car is dropped I will need it...

I've never heard of this but he assured me it's fine or he wouldn't do it. The guy has 30+ years in the business ...

you sure he didn't say camber? Tow in/out is easily adjustable as Jordan mentioned. To adjust camber, you need to run crash correction plates or adjustable upper strut bearings. Camber is what you bring the top of the wheel in or out.

Yeah, but adjusting the camber with crash mounts wouldn't do anything to affect tire -> strut clearance.

I'd just get a new used strut. Gimme a holler if you need one, there's a couple e30's in the local yard.

you're exactly right, i'm too use to VW camber adjustments ;)