Alignment?

[wagonizzle]

I just got finished installing new control arms, tie rods, solid rubber M3 CAB's, and new dogbones. The car feels tight up front, with none of the popping and clunking I had before. I just finished yesterday afternoon, and I know that an alignment is in order, so I will save my final judgement for that. A question though... the steering wheel now has poor return to center after making a turn, and the steering doesn't feel as quick as it used to. The front also feels to sway a bit more than before.

I tightened the sway bar mounts while the car was still raised. It later occurred to me that I may have some sort of preload on the bar, making it less effective and making the front end feel swimmy. I have searched and people recommend tightening in the air, while some swear by letting the car down first. I also noticed that one of my old tie rods was visibly bent. So while I know I need an alignment to complete the job, are any of these things a result of the M3 bushings, or will poor alignment do all of these things? I measured the old tie rods to be 17" from end to end, and set the new ones accordingly. Just want to know your experiences, and thanks to all who helped me through this. Dish soap FTW!

[PiercedE30]

get an alignment

[wagonizzle]

Yeah, I know. I guess I'll follow up after the alignment then!

[wagonizzle]

Yes. An alignment for the win. That is all.

[asubimmer]

how much did it cost ya?

[PiercedE30]

probably one billion dollars

[asubimmer]

probably one billion dollars

crap I only have half that :(

[wagonizzle]

It was actually $1.5 billion, but they let me make a down payment of $72. The guy let me hang in the bay while he was checking it all out. It was cool - as he was moving stuff around, it was showing measurements on the screen from the sensors mounted to the wheels. I gave him $10 for letting me sniff around; it was worth it to see how they do it. I got a printout at the end, with before and after specs, as well as the allowable range. And the car handles and tracks great now.

[thectrlguy]

Did they use the KDS technique? It's supposed to be far superior, can't say I have every had it done..

[Jand3rson]

The problems you are having are EXCATLY what I was having after I installed all the same stuff you just did about 2 weeks ago. After an alignment, it will all go back to perfectly normal. Just drive about 1000 times better. :D

[tjts1]

I uses this method of alignment on 4 cars thus far.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...ome_toe_in.htm
For toe and camber its dead on. 1/8" toe in and ur good to go.

[Dibo718]

Now besides needing an alignment could anything else possibly be wrong with the car? I have brand new control arms with M3 bushings but my sway bars look like there going, could this also make my steering feel shakey?

Sways are not completely worn yet but look like there time is almost up.

[PiercedE30]

an out of balance wheel will make the steering wheel shake if the said wheel is up front. try swapping the front wheels to the back and the back ones to the front and see if that makes a difference.

[Dibo718]

Ive moved my wheels all around but no luck, i def need an alignment so i shall proceed to get that done, but before that is done i need new not so bald tires, fucking money pit. thanks for the input :)

[wagonizzle]

I'm not sure what the machine was called. He did say it was about $40k for everything though. He hung a device off of each wheel and then the computer screen takes you through steps and you have to move the wheel back and forth until it is all calibrated. From those measurements, it tells you where to set the toe. I am still grasping how to process suspension geometry, but was happy to find that the only place I am out of factory spec range is on front camber, and that is fine. I can give more specific numbers, but the important one is that the factory spec for total toe is (according to their program/my printout) 0.22deg - 0.38deg. My before was -1.31, and I ended up at 0.36. Right back to normal but better.

As far as the shakey wheel goes, I used to have shake around 60mph, and also during braking from almost any speed. I did new rotors/pads, control arms, CAB's, dogbones, and tie rods. Supposedly just about any of these things can cause shakes and clunks so I just replaced it all at once. And wouldn't you know, no more clunks or shakes. I highly doubt an alignment issue would cause your shake.