How hard can it be, really?

[kck7]

I have the identical issue on my 1600 mile, 2 month old X5. Already had it in once for alignment (that was more alignment than steering) and that visit resulted in this steering issue showing up.

I have an appt for Thursday, they tell me they'll take care of it. Any advice additional to what's here on this thread is appreciated.

OP: where in the country are you?

[boyce89976]

Originally Posted by kck7

I have the identical issue on my 1600 mile, 2 month old X5. Already had it in once for alignment (that was more alignment than steering) and that visit resulted in this steering issue showing up.

I have an appt for Thursday, they tell me they'll take care of it. Any advice additional to what's here on this thread is appreciated.

OP: where in the country are you?

Tennessee

[ard]

Originally Posted by rh71

What does this do to the stock negative camber that makes these vehicles drive the way they were engineered to?

Nothing. I recommend this setting, which is WITHIN the spec BMW allows.

Lazy shops just toss it on a machine and if it is within the huge spread BMW permits, they don't try and dial it down to minimum toe.

Camber is great... but it is the toe that, combined with camber, will absolutely tear off the tires very quickly. Too much toe and they will wear FOUR TIMES faster.

Going with the "way they were engineered" concept, any setting whatsoever that is within BMW specs should be perfectly fine, right? So use that and just minimize wear.

[Weasel]

What are the rear specs after alignment? They very well might have set the front correctly with the wheel centered, but if the rear is off it throws off the "thrust angle". In other words the off center steering wheel may be the result of the vehicle dog walking. If that is the case I'd ask for a tech that is more well versed in alignments to do the repeat alignment as the first one was obviously too novice to know what the numbers mean, and just making the screen "green" by getting it within the specs isn't good enough. They may not like doing this because they will need to back-flag the original tech to pay the one who re-does it, but what better way to make a tech care more about his work quality than to hit his wallet when he does sub-par work.

[autoque]

Are the values for toe and camber same for front and rear?

[boyce89976]

Originally Posted by Weasel

What are the rear specs after alignment? They very well might have set the front correctly with the wheel centered, but if the rear is off it throws off the "thrust angle". In other words the off center steering wheel may be the result of the vehicle dog walking. If that is the case I'd ask for a tech that is more well versed in alignments to do the repeat alignment as the first one was obviously too novice to know what the numbers mean, and just making the screen "green" by getting it within the specs isn't good enough. They may not like doing this because they will need to back-flag the original tech to pay the one who re-does it, but what better way to make a tech care more about his work quality than to hit his wallet when he does sub-par work.

Weasel, I was hoping you'd chime in here. The geometric driving angle was .00' before the alignment and is .01' after. I'll post full before and after specs when I get home.

[boyce89976]

Originally Posted by Weasel

What are the rear specs after alignment? They very well might have set the front correctly with the wheel centered, but if the rear is off it throws off the "thrust angle". In other words the off center steering wheel may be the result of the vehicle dog walking. If that is the case I'd ask for a tech that is more well versed in alignments to do the repeat alignment as the first one was obviously too novice to know what the numbers mean, and just making the screen "green" by getting it within the specs isn't good enough. They may not like doing this because they will need to back-flag the original tech to pay the one who re-does it, but what better way to make a tech care more about his work quality than to hit his wallet when he does sub-par work.

Weasel, Here's the main points of the alignment report. I would REALLY appreciate your input here... not just on the steering wheel being centered, but on some of the before and after data here also.

[Weasel]

Judging from the fact that the target data is different for left vs right I think they are using the new machine that automatically compensates for differences in ride height by comparing stick on sensors.... I'm not the biggest fan of that machine honestly. I prefer the older machine that simply gives you the specs and the tech doing the alignment is able to decipher what is needed accordingly. (I don't like the machine trying to think for me)

The after specs are within specs, nothing outstanding or anything... but they could have done a better job getting the numbers equal. And alignments require test drives before and after for a proper job, they really should have brought it back on the rack to adjust the toe again when the steering wheel wasn't centered.

[ard]

Weasel-

Any comments on 06 on the front toe? Cross toe of 12? (and the rears)

[boyce89976]

Originally Posted by Weasel

Judging from the fact that the target data is different for left vs right I think they are using the new machine that automatically compensates for differences in ride height by comparing stick on sensors.... I'm not the biggest fan of that machine honestly. I prefer the older machine that simply gives you the specs and the tech doing the alignment is able to decipher what is needed accordingly. (I don't like the machine trying to think for me)

The after specs are within specs, nothing outstanding or anything... but they could have done a better job getting the numbers equal. And alignments require test drives before and after for a proper job, they really should have brought it back on the rack to adjust the toe again when the steering wheel wasn't centered.

Thanks Weasel. I think I'll ask them to do it again with the old machine. Can they center the steering wheel without changing the toe?