Bent rear subframe?

[lukasbmw]

Well son of a bitch.

A while ago, I noticed that the camber on my rear wheels was noticeably different. The driver side rim has significantly more negative camber then the passenger side rim. At this time I was running the stock 4 lug setup with 17x7 Mas rims. This only really created a problem when I swapped to 225/45/17 rear tires (free) as the tire rubbed on the passenger side rear but not on the driver side rear.

I thought the difference in camber was due to a misadjusted K-mac rear camber busing or a bent trailing arm.

Well, I now am running the 5 lug setup. The entire rear suspension has been replaced and I am no longer running K-mac bushings. However the same problem exists.

After talking it over with a few friends, we can come to only one conclusion. The rear sub frame must be bent.

First, can anyone think of any other possible explanation?

Second, how difficult and expensive would it be to have a shop bend the sub frame back into place.

There is no noticeable bend in the sub frame

This does not need to be done ASAP as the car rides like a million bucks. However I do need to get this taken care of so I can run 245/40/17 in the rear. I tried fitting an MVR with a 245.40.17 tire in the rear and it fit perfectly (no rubbing at all!) on the driver side, but rubbed like a cheap hand job on the passenger side.

I'm gonna need that extra beef back there shortly.

FWIW: I tried the 245/40/17 tires up front. No way in hell will it work. The tires don't rub the strut at all, but they do contact the fender, badly. Turning the wheel on level ground causes the tire to grab fender and pull.

[schnitzer teil-jäger]

steering limiter kit
w

[SlammedE30]

I don't know about bending the subframe back, but perhaps you could buy the subframe out of a junked E30 (perhaps a certain Red 318is that ran over a driveshaft ) I know when my car had a bent trailing arm I just bought one out of a parts car. HTH,
-Ted

[lukasbmw]

Yeah, I did a full subframe removal once and don't want to do it again if posible. I'd much rather have a shop bend it back if it is an option.

But I don't know if that is even the cause. I'll probably visit an alignment shop and see what they say...

[Smoove1]

My car has the some problem. My drivers side rear has more camber then the rear. I though it was just the bushings but considering I jumped my car up a curb a while back, this makes entirely more sense. I'm very interested to know if it can be bent back.

[Bryson]

mine's bent also, although on the other side... .8-1 degree more negative camber on the passenger side. fuckin waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles suspension pieces :P

[Stu]

Mine is also bent, as are probably most cars on this board if they've been 1) wrecked or 2) driven very hard. The subframe bends if you do something like hop a curb or have a hard collision. They bend under hard driving due to the way they are mounted in relation to the diff. The torque-load going to the diff will bend the subframe. You can bend them back to some extent. It is done using a Porter-power device. I had a friends shop do this to mine about 2 years ago, and it has since bent again.

The best option is to entirely replace the subframe, like Ted mentioned. Find a lower-mileage car in a junkyard, torch out the bushings, and install new bushings (could go urethane), and install it in your car. This is what I'm doing in a few weeks (after school is out), swapping my 235K mile bent subframe for a 10K mile M3 subframe. Can't wait to do it!

[Beej '86 325es]

If you're going to take out the subframe, you might as well have it modified with an adjustable camber kit like I did and get rid of your camber problem all together.

[EVOIIIM3]

1st Make sure you actually have a problem in there.

You have to drop the SF and check it out, it might not be bent. There may be a trailing arm problem or a problem with the SF to the car where the bushings are. If the studs move the rear will be off.

[decay]

i was actually thinking about this subject this morning...

anyone know if there are any factory rear suspension parts that could be used as an upgrade (a la e30m3 front control arms)- say, from an Mcoupe/roadster?

[Beej '86 325es]

There's not really anything you can do from other models that would necessarily be considered an upgrade. You could put in some M couple trailing arms, but there's really no gain from doing that unless you were going to do a 5 lug swap.