Rear Camber after Lowering Question

[ExtremeVert]

When the weather warms up I've got Bilstein Sports shocks/struts and Vogtland springs that are going on my 1990 325i vert. I'm worried about having excessive camber in the rear after the installation. What should I expect? I believe that the car is going to drop 1.6+ inches in the rear. Do I need to get the weld in camber kit for the rear? I assume a normal alignment will take care of the front after the installation. I appreciate the help.

Ron

[taiden]

An alignment is better than no alignment.

Camber doesn't help your tires but
Toe is the real killer

My best advice is to toss only the rear springs in, and check your camber and toe with basic driveway alignment techniques. If the amount of camber and toe is unacceptable, order the alignment parts and throw your current springs back in until they can be installed.

IE offers the typical eccentric bolt version, and a newer grooved plate version. The grooved plate version won't walk over time, but may have other negative implications I'm unaware of.

But if you want spoon fed answers as to whether your exact combo will work, I can't really say. But if you take the time to learn a new skill, you will be able to answer this question for yourself a million times over with any car and any spring and any strut.

[Cliche Guevara]

I got an alignment after throwing on my Eibach Pro Kit springs and it's sitting at -2.2/-2.3 right now. I would consider that a good deal of negative camber, but not necessarily excessive. I'm anxious to see what it does to my tire life.

[MR 325]

While you should get the car aligned after changing out the springs it will not help your issues. The only thing adjustable on the car is front toe. You will have negative camber front and rear after a drop. To correct it you'll want to weld-in rear adjusters and front camber plates.

[Galactodactyl]

You will have excessive camber, you will need adjusters.

[Jaxx_]

As long as you rotate your tires well, I don't see how you could get any serious camber wear issues. With H&R race my tires were fine in the rear even after plenty of autocrosses(but it could be argued that this helped wear)

My fronts were worn much more than my front, as they have an aggressive amount of toe.

[nando]

or get shorter rear subframe bushings..

[coreyw]

I got an alignment after throwing on my Eibach Pro Kit springs and it's sitting at -2.2/-2.3 right now. I would consider that a good deal of negative camber, but not necessarily excessive. I'm anxious to see what it does to my tire life.

I just got my car aligned, and according to the spec, rear camber should be between -2.5 and -1.5. The guy who aligned it said bmw's have more rear camber than a lot of cars, as most cars call for -1 or even 0 degrees of camber.

[jlevie]

BMW's in stock configuration do have more rear camber than most other cars (~1.5deg), to provide better handling. That usually means the outside of the front tires and the inside or the rear tires will wear faster. That suggests that front to rear rotations will even out the wear and extend the life of the tires.

When you lower the car you gain camber front and rear. Couple that with excessive toe (front or rear) and you have a case for fast tire wear. The plus side of that is that handling in the twisties will improve, provided toe is not off too much.

In the stock configuration only front toe is adjustable. Setting zero toe in the face of the camber gain will reduce front tire wear. But that means that you have to drive the car all of the time (no fiddling with the radio, no drinking, etc) as directional stability has been reduced. The alternative to that is installation of adjustable camber plates. Adjusting the rear toe (which could be way off from worn RTAB's or bent trailing arms), or camber, requires eccentric bushings or weld-in camber toe adjusters.

[Cliche Guevara]

I just got my car aligned, and according to the spec, rear camber should be between -2.5 and -1.5. The guy who aligned it said bmw's have more rear camber than a lot of cars, as most cars call for -1 or even 0 degrees of camber.

That's true. In working at a tire shop I have the joy of informing customers that own BMWs they need new tires even though the outside looks fine. The best part is when I tell them there's nothing they can do about it!

One way to fight camber wear is to ask your tire shop to flip the tires going to the rear when you have them rotated (not needed on first rotation). That way the part of the tire that was on the inside will end up on the outside and you'll see a notable increase in tire life. Obviously this won't work with asymmetrical tires.

[lonestar22]

my e90 has -2.0 rear camber and that is within spec from the factory, that was BEFORE i lowered it. i get alot of X5 owners that complain and want their tires put at 0.0 in the rear